James Darren The Best Is Yet To Come Come Fly With Me I've Got The World On A String You'd Better Love Me Sophisticated Lady The Way You Look Tonight Here's To The Losers You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You Dancing In The Dark Satin Doll No Description Available No Track Information Available Media Type: CD Artist: DARREN,JAMES Title: THIS ONE'S FROM THE HEART Street Release Date: 08/24/1999
Release Date: 8/24/1999 Street Release Date: 08/24/1999 Similarly Requested CDs John F. Temmerman | 07/28/2003 (5 out of 5 stars) "This is a beautiful album of beautiful, familiar tunes, sung by a GREAT singer, James Darren and backed by GREAT musicians. There's more to this CD than the music itself. Darren joined the cast of Star Trek:Deep Space Nine (DS9) in the sixth season. He had a recurring role as Vic Fontaine, a circa-1960's Italian crooner, created by a computer program for the "Holodeck". The Holodeck, a feature in the television Star Trek spinoffs, was a place where a computer program created fantasy environments and characters for the Star Trek characters to interact with. There were some interesting story lines created around the Holodeck, but Vic's storyline was my favorite. Other people might have had more risque Holodeck fantasies, but mine was backing Vic with my tenor. Darren's character enjoyed some development over the two seasons of his involvement, and I took great enjoyment in his role AND his crooning. He did several standards, all of which were an enjoyable part of the show and all of which are on this CD. Darren was quoted in the liner notes as saying that the Vic Fontaine character "...inspired my return to singing". This CD is the result. This is a good collection of songs, big-band and small-band backgrounds, great arrangers (including Sammy Nestico), great supporting musicians, such as Pete Christlieb, a wonderful yet under-appreciated tenor player and Ron Eschete, a Concord records regular, on guitar. This project was recorded by Concord Records, a label with a reputation for putting great musicians together with great, familiar standards, recording them meticulously and putting it all together in a first-class product. Out of the box, I was greeted with a big-band chordal splash a few seconds into the CD and it was all enjoyable music from there. This one stands up to lots of listening. Approximately half the cuts have big-band backing. On the remainder, a small group, consisting of piano (Tom Ranier), bass (Chuck Berghoffer), guitar, trumpet (Warren Luening) and tenor sax backs, while the big band sections lay out. The also is a section of REAL strings, which is mostly heard on the big band pieces. The small group players also play with the big band, with the exception of John Pisano replacing Eschete on guitar. The music is uniformly great. Darren's voice is expressive and has a great range of dynamics and intensity. He applies and interprets with skill and taste. The supporting musicians are superb at that and are very tight. It sounds to me like they rehearsed thoroughly prior to recording. The solos by Ranier, Christlieb and Luening are especially tasty. Tempos range from ballad to swinging. Here is the track order: (B) means big band cut; * means the song was earlier performed on the DS9 show.