Promises, Promises based on Billy Wilder’s film, The Apartment, that starred the fabulous Shirley MacLaine and the wonderful Jack Lemmon ran for three years and 1,281 performances. The show won a Tony Award and this album several Grammies.

Burt Bacharach’s music is very much of its time – shades of the Bossa Nova and Tijuana Brass - frankly it sounds really old-fashioned now. The lead singers Jerry Orbach (in the Lemmon role) and Jill O’Hara (in the MacLaine) are enthusiastic and reprise the film actors’ characterisations well. The numbers are sunny and upbeat; giving an overall more breathlessly exuberant impression than the rather shadowy poignancy of the story needed, perhaps. The big hit ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ is sung in a suitably astringent manner by Orbach and O’Hara though. This great Bacharach song with its clever lyrics (like: "…what do you get when you fall in love? – enough germs to catch pneumonia …and he’ll never phone yer!) would go on to be a major hit, independent of the show, in more lush or brash arrangements depending on the artists who delivered it and the song collections in which it was packaged.

The other romantic sentimental songs are: ‘Whoever You Are’ and ‘Knowing When to Leave’ the latter song also achieved success independent of the show. The other, mostly patter songs are so-so and forgettable but the breathless, tongue-twisting snake-like rhythmic ‘She Likes Basketball’ is a plus; it tests Orbach’s stamina to the limit.

Reviewer

Ian Lace

Reviewer

Ian Lace