Sharleen cuenta en su página web la historia detrás de su nuevo álbum y cómo llegó a crear este disco de versiones de cine. Lo incluimos en inglés.
Sharleen tells in her website the story behind her new album and how se got to create this record full of movie cover versions. Enclosed below.
"So here's the pitch! There's this girl singer from Glasgow, name of Sharleen Spiteri. She's famous for fronting this million-selling UK pop rock band called Texas. Three multi-platinum albums, 13 top ten hits, you get the idea. So she makes one solo record but then she gets to thinking about another. Except this time she's thinking not just music but MOVIES! Picture it - a whole record of her favourite movie songs recorded - where else? - in Tinsel Town. And the best bit is the title. We call it Sharleen Spiteri - The Movie Songbook!..."
... At least that's how they'd tell it in Hollywood. Yet the real story behind Sharleen Spiteri's second solo album is just as grand a tale of chance, fate and musical wish fulfilment.
Following on from the 60s retro-pop pleasures of 2008's Melody, her UK top three solo debut, Sharleen assumed she'd resume her role as the esteemed voice of Texas. "When I did Melody," she explains, "I was in a certain place in my life writing particular songs so I knew the kind of record I wanted to make wasn't a Texas record. But it was never the plan to follow it with a covers album. The Movie Songbook is like a happy accident." While touring Melody, Sharleen found herself invited to perform various star cameos, be it covering Yvonne Elliman's If I Can't Have You at the BBC Electric Proms Saturday-Night Fever anniversary concert or duetting with Italian singer Mauro Gioia on a version of the love theme from The Godfather. "That's where it started," says Sharleen. "I realised that things were coming full circle. When we formed Texas, we took our name from a film - Paris, Texas. And here I was all these years later singing these film songs. Suddenly the idea of a whole album of songs from movies just seemed like a great and fun thing to do."
Just as the secret to any great movie is its cast and crew, so it was with The Movie Songbook. Armed with an impressively eclectic song/film wish-list - from Bowie to Berlin, from The Graduate to Good Will Hunting - Sharleen's next task was to find the right producer capable of making the "big, proper cinematic record" she desired. There was only ever one man for the job - 15 times Grammy award-winning producer Phil Ramone, whose CV is a Hollywood Boulevard Walk Of Fame unto itself: Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel et-staggering-cetera.
While Sharleen and Texas partner Johnny McElhone rehearsed and re-arranged the music in Glasgow, Ramone assembled his dream team in Los Angeles, beginning with right-hand man Al Schmitt, a record-breaking 17 times Grammy winner whose engineering credits include Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and latterly Diana Krall. Between them they roped in such prestigious session pros as guitarist Dean Parks (as heard on Michael Jackson's Beat It), brass section and fellow Sinatra veterans Dan Higgins, Rusty Higgins and Gary Grant, Ella Fitzgerald/Sinatra drummer Gregg Field and backing singers Monica (daughter of Henry) Mancini and ex-Luther Vandross sidekick Arnold McCuller.
As befits such top drawer talent, when it came to record in late summer 2009 Ramone booked the legendary Capitol Studios on Hollywood and Vine, the very Mecca where Ol' Blue Eyes himself cut his finest. "It was unreal," grins Sharleen. "From my spontaneous idea of doing a record of film songs to suddenly be stood in Sinatra's studio, with his musicians, Michael Jackson's guitarist and the guy who sang harmonies for Luther Vandross. And Phil and Al were just phenomenal. Working with them and the whole session was, literally, like being in a movie."
The recording process was, says Sharleen, "effortless", done and dusted in eight days flat. "Phil and Al work with these musicians all the time. There was no need for rehearsals or run-throughs. These guys are the real deal. It was, day one, what song shall we do? Tape rolling, off we go, take one straight away. A hell of a lot of work and preparation went into this album but when we finally came to recording it was possibly the most joyful I've ever made."
Such author satisfaction is more than evident in the final cut. As the ninth studio album Sharleen's made in a 21 year recording career, The Movie stands as her most dynamically diverse yet, a kaleidoscopic musical journey from pop to country via disco, bossa-nova, folk, rockabilly, jazz and breathtaking balladry. Be it the aching croon of God Bless The Child or the soul-searching tempest of The Sound Of Silence, its dozen tracks frame Sharleen's inimitable voice against bold new scenery. "Making The Movie Songbook has taught me that my true voice lies in this area and not to be scared of using it," she agrees. "In the past I've always tended to go into a soul area but this experience has been great in taking me places I'd never normally go. It's been a valuable lesson in other styles and new ways of working. I feel excited about taking that forward into Texas and wherever it is we go next. The Movie Songbook happened by accident but I'm very pleased, and very proud, it did."
Fade to black. Roll end credits. Here's to the sequel...
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THE MOVIE SONGBOOK - SCENE BY SCENE
1. Xanadu
The Movie's Technicolor title sequence, Sharleen skates in on the roller-disco glam of this 1980 UK number hit for Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra, written for the romantic musical fantasy of the same name. "This song reminds me of being a kid in Balloch Park, playing hunts with my mates on bikes," reminisces Sharleen. "We all loved Olivia Newton-John back then because of Grease. I always wanted a pair of them wooden clogs she wore but my mum wouldn't let me - she called them Hooker Shoes! But the beauty of Xanadu is the song itself and Jeff Lynne's music. At that age I loved Blondie and The Jam but I also loved ELO. A fantastic song from a stupid but great movie. It's great because now I watch it with my daughter and we sit there singing Xanadu together."
2. If I Can't Have You
The Spiteri glitterball stays spinning for this Bee Gees-penned disco classic, first recorded by Yvonne Elliman for the soundtrack of Saturday-Night Fever. "The Bee Gees asked me to sing this as the Roundhouse in London for the Saturday-Night Fever 30th anniversary concert in 2008," explains Sharleen. "So this song was one of the catalysts for the whole album. Like Xanadu, when I sing this I feel like I'm in a car with my head stuck out of the window. The film was huge when I was a kid and I remember me and my friends putting on loads of make-up to look older so we could see it at the cinema because we were too young. The Bee Gees always remain one of my all time favourite songwriters."
3. God Bless The Child
Changing the pace, Sharleen sinks effortlessly into the immortal Billie Holiday via Diana Ross in the 1972 biopic Lady Sings The Blues. "I was always aware of Billie Holiday," says Sharleen. "It was music I'd always heard played at home so I grew up with her voice. Plus she was called Billie and I always loved girls with boys' names. When I first saw the Diana Ross film I was quite shocked at how scary and tragic Billie Holiday's story was. But you can hear that in the music. There's so much loss in her songs, the sound of that yearning and need that's not being fulfilled in her life. It's the only way to sing that song."
4. Between The Bars
The album's cinematography darkens with this haunted love ballad by doomed LA troubadour Elliot Smith, as included on the soundtrack of 1997's Good Will Hunting. "Like a lot of people I never knew who Elliot Smith was before that film," admits Sharleen. "When I was making the album I was staying with a friend who lived round the corner from the wall on West Sunset Boulevard he used on an album cover which has now become a shrine for fans after his death. So I went to visit the wall on the way to the studio the day we recorded Between The Bars, not to get inside his head but just to have some understanding and pay my respects."
5. The Sound Of Silence
Possibly The Movie's pivotal scene, Sharleen steps up to Simon & Garfunkel's folk-pop masterpiece as heard in 1967's The Graduate with an orchestrally-charged emotional gravitas worthy of the original. "I wanted to do one song that was the big anthemic bow to the song of the movie," says Sharleen. "That song sits so well in The Graduate and it's also such a classic folk song in its own right. This may sound weird but whenever I hear the opening - ‘Hello darkness, my old friend' - it makes me think of the first time I saw Bambi as a kid. The rain falling and all is gentle in the forest and then suddenly, Bang! The hunter kills Bambi's mother and then that swell of loneliness. To me, that song is all about waking up to reality. My producer, Phil Ramone, has worked on a lot of Paul Simon's records so that was another nice coincidental link between the original and our version."
6. What's New Pussycat
Lightening the mood, a frolicsome twist on Bacharach and David's carnivalesque theme to the 1965 Peter Sellers comedy, Sharleen erasing Tom Jones' manly roar with a seductive purr more Eartha Kitt. "I wanted to inject something of the fun element of film music," Sharleen confesses. "People think of this song as very camp because it sounds like the funfair but there's so much going on. Musically it's very precise and, for a singer, incredibly challenging because the octaves are jumping all over the place. That's the brilliance of Burt Bacharach. The words also have a sinister element which is why I slipped into Eartha Kitt. Enticing, but almost creepy."
7. The Windmills Of Your Mind
Tipping her hat to the sensual Latin vibes of Dusty Springfield's version, Sharleen sashays through the theme to 1968's The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen, originally a one-hit wonder for Noel (son of Rex) Harrison. "One reason for doing this was because I've always had a bit of a Steve McQueen infatuation," Sharleen enthuses. "That naughty smile of his. And in The Thomas Crown Affair he looked so sharp - I even have the same pair of sunglasses he wore. As for the song, what drew me to it was the beauty of its diction, especially the way Dusty did it. She enunciated every phrase so clearly. Every word was crystal clear, the way she'd sing a simple word like ‘c-lock'. To me that was so sexy, hearing every click of the mouth. A song I've always loved."
8. Take Me With U
A familiar choice to those who remember Sharleen's previous version in concert with Texas, a personal favourite from the 1984 soundtrack of Prince's Purple Rain. "We always prided ourselves on great covers," says Sharleen. "Texas tackled everything from Human League to Scissor Sisters. Take Me With U was something we did around 1999 so it was nice revisiting it again. When Purple Rain came out Prince was in a completely different league from everybody else because he was a black man making white music. Everything he did was just mind-boggling. Purple Rain made me want to get a motorbike and stand by canals looking moody... that's how mad I was on Prince at the time!"
9. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
The plot thickens as Sharleen claws new rockabilly rhythms from David Bowie and Giorgio Moroder's theme to the 1982 erotic horror remake of Cat People starring Nastassja Kinski (heard again more recently on Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds). "Bowie was always a guy's thing when I was growing up," recalls Sharleen. "I always liked him but it was only when I was a bit older that I really understood why all the guys had been calling him a genius. When it came to Cat People we decided to do something different. The song had that swamp thing going on but we decided to take it further and make it sound like The Stray Cats, the full 1950s rockabilly swing. Suddenly it all clicked."
10. Many Rivers To Cross
A perfect vehicle for Sharleen's intrinsically soulful vocal, this 1969 Jamaican gospel by Jimmy Cliff was used to poignant effect on the soundtrack of 1972's contrastingly brutal The Harder They Come. "It's such a hard movie," agrees Sharleen. "The uplifting sound of that song and the hope in the lyrics offers a real juxtaposition. It's like, ‘Get me the fuck out of here!', which is really what the film's all about. Having said that a lot of people don't know the film but still love the song because it's one of Jimmy Cliff's best. There are a lot of crossovers in reggae and soul music and often one leads you to the other. This was just a joy to sing."
11. Oh, Pretty Woman
A knowingly mischievous spin of Roy Orbison's 1964 transatlantic number one as resurrected for the 1990 Richard Gere and Julia Roberts comedy. Here Sharleen infuses The Big O's plea with deliberate Sapphic eroticism, tongue firmly in cheek. "From the very beginning of Texas I've always played with androgyny," Sharleen says with a knowing smile. "That's just the way I am. There shouldn't be any rules about what a man or woman can or cannot sing and woe betide anyone who tries to stop me. It was great to revel in that, singing the words and feeling playful and naughty. But bloody difficult too! Orbison's timing is mad. And, yes, I love the film. It's a great Hollywood princess tale. One of those movies that nobody wants to admit they like. But deep down..."
12. This One's From The Heart
As The Movie nears its end we vanish into a nocturnal jazz haze from the pen of Tom Waits. Originally a duet with Crystal Gayle from Francis Ford Coppola's 1982 musical One From The Heart, Sharleen has soul enough to handle it alone. "Of all the songs on the album this is possibly the one people know least," ponders Sharleen, "but it's one which I had to do. Originally I was going to still do it as a duet and I had an idea of finding an actor who could sing and asking them to handle the Waits part. But we rehearsed it and it worked as a solo vocal. One of the great things about covering Tom Waits is that his voice is so inimitable you know you can never copy him so you're left to bring out the melody your own way. Even though it's from an 80s movie, to me it sounds like something from an old black and white Hollywood musical. That just shows what a classic songwriter Tom Waits is."
13. Take My Breath Away
And then the twist ending. Swapping fighter planes for country roads, Sharleen takes Berlin's world-conquering love theme from 1986's Top Gun and kicks it down the radically different dirt track of Midnight Cowboy. "How clever are we," laughs Sharleen, "two movies in one! We were playing this in various keys but no matter what we tried I ended up singing exactly the same as the Berlin version. Then I tried singing a harmony and suddenly the idea came of doing it in a lower octave and taking it into another place, bringing it down. That's when we added the guitar picking, a wee nod to Everybody's Talking from Midnight Cowboy. I don't know how it happened but it worked like magic. To me it has that thing of fade out, end credits. It seemed the only way to end the record."
Single "I don't like Mondays", The Boomtown Rats 
