furniture quality control: Wild is the Wind

2012年3月28日

Wild is the Wind

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Wild is the Wind (m. Dimitri Tiomkin, w. Ned Washington) was written for the 1957 film of the same name. The soundtrack recording is by Johnny Mathis.
From Wikipedia:
Wild Is the Wind…tells the story of a rancher who marries his Italian sister-in-law after the passing of his wife, but she falls in love with his young ranch-hand. It stars Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn and Anthony Franciosa.
The screenplay was adapted by Arnold Schulman from the novel by Vittorio Nino Novarese. It was directed by George Cukor. The title song was performed by Johnny Mathis.

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Johnny Mathis – 1957
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A chronology of selected cover versions from Wikipedia (edited, bullets added):

Nina Simone on the album Nina Simone at Town Hall (1959) and also on the album Wild Is The Wind (1966).
David Bowie recorded a version of it in 1976 for his album Station to Station. Bowie was an admirer of Simone’s style, and after meeting her in Los Angeles was inspired to record the song for his album.
The Dutch band Clan of Xymox released a cover version of the song in 1994 on their album Headcloud.
George Michael covered it on his 1999 album Songs from the Last Century.
Chan Marshall (Cat Power) recorded a version on her 2000 album The Covers Record, as well as a live version for iTunes in 2006.
Scottish singer Billy Mackenzie also covered the song; a version appeared posthumously on the 2001 EP Wild Is the Wind and on the 2005 album Transmission Impossible.
In 2010, Bat for Lashes released a limited 7″ vinyl on Record Store Day in the UK that included [a] live version of the song on the B-side.
Esperanza Spalding recorded a version of the song for her 2010 album Chamber Music Society.

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Nina Simone – from the album Nina Simone at Town Hall, recorded live at Town Hall, NYC, 15 September 1959. Wikipedia says studio tracks were recorded the next month. Some reviewers have commented upon the fact that canned applause is added to some of the studio tracks on the album to make them sound live. One, at rateyourmusic.com, complains that such adulteration was done on “most of her so-called live albums.” I haven’t been able to verify this yet.
Oddly, The duration of the track is listed as variously between 3:22 and 3:34 at several sites I visited.
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From the album Wild is the Wind, 1966 — There are about 22 seconds of silence following completion of the track

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Patty Waters – 1965

From the biography by Richie Unterberger at AllMusic:
Largely overlooked during her brief recording career in the mid-’60s, Patty Waters has come to be appreciated as a vocal innovator in not just jazz, but contemporary music as a whole. Much of her repertoire was given over to hushed piano solo ballads, in which her voice could fade to a whisper that was barely audible. What really attracted attention were her avant-garde outings, in which she stretched and mutated her voice with contorted shrieks and wails that could be downright blood-curdling. Producing an unsettling effect that is definitely not for everybody, Waters has to be acknowledged as a vocalist who has tested the limits of what the human voice is capable of, in a similar manner as fellow pioneers Joan LaBarbara and Yoko Ono. [read more]

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David Bowie – from his 1976 album Station to Station
The official Bowie video, dated 1982 (beg. of first video), an abbreviated lipsync performance with a band. The track evidently wasn’t released as a single.
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full album track, w/slide show

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Clan of Xymox - from Headcloud, 1994

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Billy MacKenzie and Steve Aungle – live 1994

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George Michael – from Songs From the Last Century, 1999. Other standards from the classic American songbook era on the album include: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, You’ve Changed, My Baby Just Cares for Me, I Remember You, Secret Love, and Where or When.

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