Patty Duke received an Oscar when she was still a
teenager. This led to her own television program, The Patty Duke Show, which led naturally to a recording career. Why
not? Now Real Gone Music has reissued her first two albums (Don’t Just Stand There and Patty) on a single CD. Surprisingly,
these have been unavailable on CD until now. There are also two bonus tracks
from Billie, positioned between the
two albums on this release, so that the songs are in chronological order.
Don’t Just Stand
There was released in 1965. Her vocals on the title track are strongly
reminiscent of Lesley Gore. This also has one of those dramatic spoken word
sections so popular for a time, and is actually a pretty cool song. “Don’t Just
Stand There” was also released as a single, and reached #8 in 1965.
Her vocals sound even sweeter on the second track, “Why
Don’t They Understand.” And on her cover of “Downtown,” her vocal approach has
something of the theatrical in it. She makes it feel it was written for a stage
production. I really like her approach, for it adds something
to this familiar song.
She also does a cover of “Danke Schoen,” a song I’ll
always associate with Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off. We’re all used to Wayne Newton’s version. Of course, Patty
changes the line to “how I tore my dress.”
In “Everything But Love,” she sings, “The girls all call me lucky because I have my own sports car/My house is very
fancy just like some movie star,” and then “I have everything most girls dream of/Everything, yes I have everything
but love.” Oh, the woes of a spoiled rich girl. You kind of want to smack
her around during this track.
She covers “A World Without Love,” a Lennon/McCartney
composition that was a hit for Peter And Gordon. Her version is okay,
but not great. Much better is “Too Young,” which opens with the lines, “They try to tell us we’re too young/Too
young to really be in love.” Ah, remember those teenage troubles? Patty
Duke totally sells it, and this is one of the stronger tracks. I really like
her vocal performance on this one. “Too Young” was written by Sylvia Dee and
Sidney Lippman.
Another highlight is her take on “Save Your Heart For
Me.” Her rendition comes across as heartfelt yet fun, and is delightful.
The last track of Don’t
Just Stand There is “The End Of The World.” I can’t help it – I’ve always
had a thing for this song, and Patty Duke does an excellent job with it.
Written by Sylvia Dee and Arthur Kent, it was a hit for Skeeter Davis. This is one
of my favorite tracks. She does one of those sort of whispered spoken word
sections (“I wake up in the morning, and
I wonder why everything’s the same as it was/I can’t understand, no I can’t
understand how way life goes on the way it does”). I would have loved to
hear a duet with her and Davy Jones.
The two bonus tracks are from the film Billie. The first, “Funny Little
Butterflies,” was released as the flipside to “Say Something Funny.” As for the
second song, with the title “Lonely Little In Between” and the line “I should have been a boy, but here I am a
girl,” I really want to see it covered by a drag queen. Who can fulfill
this wish for me? Please contact me.
The second album, Patty,
which was originally released in 1966, opens with an original tune (though not
written by Patty Duke), “The World Is Watching Us.” It’s an interesting and
kind of wonderful tune, and was
also released as a single. At the beginning of this one, Patty sings, “Seems like the whole wide world is watching
us/Watching us/Waiting for things to go wrong.” I think this is one of the
strongest tracks from the second album. (Interestingly, “Say Something Funny”
opens with the line “Everyone is watching
us.”)
“Yesterday” is one of the most covered songs in the
history of pop music, and Patty Duke gives us her rendition on her second
album, and it’s pretty good. She also covers “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” a hit
for The Everly Brothers.
CD Track List
- Don’t Just Stand There
- Why Don’t They Understand
- Downtown
- Danke Schoen
- Everything But Love
- A World Without Love
- Say Something Funny
- Too Young
- What The World Needs Now Is Love
- Save Your Heart For Me
- Ribbons & Roses
- The End Of The World
- Funny Little Butterflies
- Lonely Little In Between
- The World Is Watching Us
- Yesterday
- All Through The Day
- Whenever She Holds You
- Little Things Mean A Lot
- One Kiss Away
- I Love How You Love Me
- Sure Gonna Miss Him
- All I Have To Do Is Dream
- Nothing But You
Don’t Just Stand
There/Patty was released on June 18, 2013 through Real Gone Music.
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