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Released 1965

Lena Horne's Feelin' Good was her album debut for United Artists Records, her fourth recording association in three years following a long stint with RCA Victor and shorter ones with Charter and 20th Century Fox, which had released her previous LP, Here's Lena Now!, in 1964. But despite the label hopping, her approach hadn't really changed very much. Feelin' Good was a typical effort as she and arranger/producer Ray Ellis surveyed the current state of pop and show music to find some new items for her repertoire. They focused in on the just-opened (on Broadway, that is) Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley musical The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd for the opening track "On a Wonderful Day Like Today," as well as the album's title track and the song from the show that had already become a standard (and a hit for Tony Bennett), "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)." The Great White Way also provided source material in the current Richard Rodgers show Do I Hear a Waltz? with "Take the Moment" (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) and the title song from Frank Loesser's Broadway-bound (but, as it turned out, never-arrived) musical Pleasures and Palaces. Horne and Ellis also turned to some recent hit parade material for covers, including "I Wanna Be Around" (Bennett again), "Willow Weep for Me" (a 1932 copyright just successfully revived by Chad & Jeremy), "The Girl from Ipanema" (Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto), "Softly as I Leave You" (Frank Sinatra), and "And I Love Him" (a/k/a "And I Love Her," the Beatles). To this material, Ellis applied neo-swing big-band arrangements, and Horne applied her characteristic vocal attitude and punch. It wasn't enough to make listeners forget the sometimes definitive recordings of these songs done earlier by others, but Horne was, as usual, a powerful enough musical personality to stake her claim to them stylishly and confidently. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

TRACKS

1. A Wonderful Day Like Today
2. Take the Moment
3. I Wanna Be Around
4. Feelin' Good
5. Who Can I Turn To
6. Less Than a Second
7. Willow Weep for Me
8. Girl from Ipanema
9. Softly as I Leave You
10. And I Love Him
11. Hello Young Lovers

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