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Lovin' is Livin'


"Marian Montgomery sings happy, upbeat, swingin' love songs that proclaim Lovin' is Livin' and Livin' is Lovin:" so begin the sleevenotes to this 1964 album, the singer's third and last for Capitol Records. How much say, if any, she would have had in selecting this repertoire I don't know, but she acquits herself well in it, even if there are other singers with a surer touch on simperingly salacious numbers like 'Teach Me Tonight' and 'Do It Again'. On songs like 'I Wanna Be Loved' and the closing track 'Love is an Old Maid's Dream' she seems surer-footed. Her voice is beautifully rich contralto with a husky timbre.

The arrangements are nicely varied - some are blues-flavoured and others latin-inflected, but the prevailing theme is of swinging big-band jazz. Here and there perhaps it wouldn't have hurt for the tempo to have been a little less brisk. It's not an outstanding album, but a very enjoyable one when in the right mood.

Montgomery moved to the UK in the mid-'60s, whereupon she became Marion with an 'o'. I very likely would have caught some of her numerous TV appearances in the '70s, but had no feeling as a child for this kind of music. I bought this LP four or five years ago at Kelly's Records, upstairs at the Central Market in Cardiff. The prices there tend to be on the higher side, and it was its being among the cheapest on offer - together with some faint recollection of her name - that prompted me to pick it up.

For a fine illustration of her talent: see this clip of her singing 'Close Your Eyes', ably accompanied by Dudley Moore & his trio.

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