RECOMMENDED ALBUM: Shirley Bassey - The Performance

Available now in the UK, although sadly only via import elsewhere, Shirley Bassey's 'The Performance' was without a doubt one of 2009's most breathtaking albums (despite only dropping in November). If you have so much as a passing interest in the Dame, I can't recommend this release enough.

The 11-track album is Dame Shirley Bassey’s first full studio album in over 20 years. David Arnold, the Grammy Award-winning producer best known for scoring five James Bond films has produced the album.

‘The Performance’ features songs written specifically for Dame Shirley Bassey, by a stellar cast of contemporary artists, including, Take That’s, Gary Barlow, the Kaiser Chiefs, the Manic Street Preachers, Pet Shop Boys, KT Tunstall and Rufus Wainwright. The album also features a brand new composition from John Barry and Don Black; the first new song written by them for Dame Shirley since ‘Diamonds Are Forever.’

Speaking about producing the new album, The Performance, David Arnold said:

“All these songs were just songs, until Dame Shirley Bassey sang them. Now they’re Shirley Bassey songs – hopefully classic and contemporary, like that voice. There’s something about a Bassey performance that can knock the wind out of your sails, make you laugh, make you cry, let you in on the joke or be led to a more exotic place. I tried to make a record that made the most of that voice and one that could sit alongside her other classic recordings. There isn’t a ‘next Shirley Bassey’, there never really was and I doubt if there ever will be. She’s as unique and wonderful today as she has ever been and I hope this record will reach an audience who may never have heard her before, so they can say ’she’s got it’, and for her fans from the past who can say ‘she’s still got it’.”

During a career that has included 135 million record sales, Dame Shirley Bassey has had many incredible highlights, including being the only artist to record three James Bond movie theme songs. Dame Shirley has received numerous awards including a DBE [Dame of the British Empire] in 1999.

In 2007, Dame Shirley appeared at the Glastonbury festival, where at the same event Arctic Monkeys covered ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. Kanye West also sampled the same track on his 2005 Grammy-winning song ‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone’.

The full tracklisting for ‘The Performance’ is as follows:

1. Almost There [Tom Baxter]
2. Apartment [Rufus Wainwright]
3. This Time [Gary Barlow]
4. I Love You Now [Nick Hodgeson]
5. Our Time Is Now [John Barry/Don Black]
6. As God Is My Witness [David Arnold/David McAlmont]
7. No Good About Goodbye [David Arnold/Don Black]
8. The Girl From Tiger Bay [Manic Street Preachers]
9. Nice Men [KT Tunstall]
10. After The Rain [Richard Hawley]
11. The Performance Of My Life [Pet Shop Boys]