The second
release in RPM Records’ acclaimed reissue series
In
1966, a year after her breakthrough hit What
the World Needs Now Is Love, Jackie released Are You Ready For This. With bits of Bacharach and homages to
Motown, it signalled a change in
Jackie's style to a softer pop sound that would last until
Right from the gate, the queen of folk-rock announces she is the new pop
princess by turning Chip Taylor’s folk nugget I Can Make It With You into a power ballad. And she does it very
effectively as well. The first single from the album, her version became
another chart hit for Jackie.
Less
successful is Music and Memories, a
sentimental ballad that sounds like a maturation of the early
Next
up is the Goffin/King classic Will You
Love Me Tomorrow. Jackie sings this like a young girl in puppy love for the
first time. Giddy and infectious.
Are You Ready For This is the first
original DeShannon composition to appear on the album. With its Motown sound
and soulful backing vocals, this song could have been a hit for the Supremes.
It should have also been a hit for Jackie, and proves she can hold her own as a
songwriter with Bacharach/David and Goffin/King.
Another original composition, To Be
Myself, is also successful. A welcome change in arrangement, featuring a
twangy guitar and muted horns along with the strings and that persistent
drumbeat. Jackie recorded a demo version of this as an intimate acoustic
ballad. Joe and Eddie covered it in a folk-rock style. That all three versions
work beautifully is a true testament to the quality of the songwriting.
Yet
another DeShannon original, Love Is
Leading Me is another Supremes tribute. With its peppy arrangement, it is
the epitome of the swinging sound of 1966.
The
first of three Bacharach/David tunes, Windows
and Doors sounds like a bit of a throwaway. Jackie gives it her best, but
she can't completely save the maudlin lyric and generic arrangement.
Things pick up again with Jackie's impassioned version of the Italian pop
standard You Don't Have To Say You
Two
more Bacharach/David songs follow. So
Long Johnny, while still not one of their classics, is at least more
original than their previous track. To
Wait For Love is the strongest of the trilogy, with Jackie capturing the
ever-shifting moods with class and style.
Tony
Hatch's Call Me is full of energy,
but smacks of filler.
The
album ends with another Jackie original, Find
Me Love. Not quite as strong as her previous offerings, it is still one of
the stronger cuts on the album, and brings the collection to nice close.
As
usual, RPM includes neat packaging, liner notes, and bonus tracks. No
unreleased recordings on this one, but the rest of Jackie's Bacharach/David
recordings are collected here. What the
World Needs Now, Lifetime of
Loneliness and Come And Get Me
are all classics. An early recording, Be
Good Baby, featuring Jimmy Page on guitar, was a precursor to the soft
sound of this album. Three singles from the 1967 Lp New Image follow. Come On
Down is an awkward folk-lounge hybrid, and a strange choice for a single. The Wishing Doll, from the film