Track Listing 1. Let Me Entertain You - Ann-Margaret 2. Don't Touch My Tomatoes - Josephine Baker 3. Near You - Marlene Dietrich 4. Teach Me Tiger - April Stevens 5. Je Me Donne a Qui Me Plait - Brigitte Bardot 6. Do Your Duty - Billie Holiday 7. Since Me Man Has Done Gone and Went - Maya Angelou 8. Go, Go, Calypso - Mamie Van Doren 9. Let's Misbehave - Eartha Kitt 10. That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield 11. Jezebel - Edith Piaf 12. So Nice (Summer Samba) - Astrud Gilberto 13. Forbidden Fruit - Nina Simone 14. Heatwave - Marilyn Monroe 15. Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey 16. Mama Eu Quero - Carmen Miranda 17. La Molina - Yma Sumac 18. Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo - Sophia Loren 19. Feeling Good - Nina Simone (bonus track)
| Details | | Producer: | Cheryl Pawelsky (Compilation) | | Distributor: | EMI Music Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Mixed | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes Includes liner notes by Colin Escott. In the recent not-so-venerable tradition established by Rhino's celebrity sing-off GOLDEN THROATS, we now have the considerably more listenable DIVAS EXOTICA, in which can be heard Mamie Van Doren's spirited "Go, Go, Calypso" or Jayne Mansfield's "Chantilly Lace"-inspired "That Makes It." Or perhaps you have a distinctly post-modern yen for a Marlene Dietrich rock & roll treatment of George Jone's "Near You." (One would have thought a straight country version would have been high concept enough.) To be sure, there are some bona fide vocal performances to be heard here, including Billie Holiday's "Do Your Duty" and Edith Piaf's "Jezebel." Still, the emphasis is on '50s and early-'60s sex kitten femininity, of which April Steven's "Teach Me Tiger" is the paradigm. All in all, it's quite a cavalcade of stars on display here (e.g., Sophia Loren with "Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo), the sheer collective charm of which puts this particular show across.
| See an error? Submit a change request |