Another edition in our occasional series of Six Sensational Songs and this time it’s the turn of Audrey Buchan, Yet again, the strength of Alfie’s repertoire is shown as Audrey has chosen three songs that have not been chosen before. I have to say that Audrey was a little naughty with her choices – she actually chose seven but one is not available as a video so it was easy to miss out!
If I can Dream, from Storyteller – love this video, as it shows Alfie in his element with such talented musicians.
Shine a Light, also from Storyteller.
Forever Young, from Trust. A magical evening and the one and only time we have heard Alfie sing practically the whole Trust album. Alfie was “knackered” at this point as he had previously been dancing, and had half the audience up there with him!
A Living Prayer, Onward – one of our most popular choices in this series. Beautiful.
Santa Lucia, La Pasione. To be added to the very long list of songs I would love to hear live.
Addio Sogni Di Gloria,Serenata – another glorious evening at the Royal Albert Hall.
Thank you Audrey for sharing your Six Sensational Songs with us – I really enjoy researching this series!
If you would like to share your Six Sensational Songs with us, please fill in the form:
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After the nominations and the voting, now we find out which Alfie Boe live song the fans have chosen as their favourite – or rather, we find out in ten weeks! Coincidentally, by the time we have counted down in reverse order, Alfie’s Fleetwood Homecoming concert will almost be upon us. Looking forward to it everyone? I know I’m not the only one with a habit of wishing away their lives in anticipation of the next Alfie concert! If you’ve not got a ticket yet, click here.
The song in at number ten this year is a song that returns to the top ten after a year long gap, having previously been voted in at numbers three (2014) and seven (2016). From Serenata, here is Buona Sera:
Written by Peter de Rose and Carl Sigman (Sigman also wrote the lyrics to the English version of Arrivederci Roma), most people will be familiar with the Dean Martin version:
However, the song was first recorded by Louis Prima. Prima was a big band, swing singer of the mid twentieth century and Buona Sera was one of a long line of hits. Incidentally, Prima is the voice of King Louis in Disney’s The Jungle Book.
Serenata is available here:
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Thank you for sending in your nominations for Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song 2018 – we have several new songs to add to the voting list! They are:
Wagon Wheel, nominated by Lesley Loftus, Sarah Buttifant, Lee Kelly, Lynda Dawe, Pip Pallett, Pat Davies, Linda Wellington, Pat Watterson, Wendy Lowe, Janet Hudson, Brenda Licence and Clare Shorter
You’re The Voice – Gill Jansingh
Tiny Dancer – Maureen Nolepa
He Lives In You – Debbie Hickmott
Keep Me In Your Heart – Lilian Evans and Alison Roseweir
The Prayer – Catherine Cheung and Kathryn Richards
A Thousand Years – Claire Shorter
Wham Medley – Pauline Young and Akiko Yonezawa
It’s now time to cast your vote – hurry, voting only lasts a couple of days this time!
Here are all the nominated songs to help you decide!
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Alfie Boe fans around the world are counting down to the summer concerts in the UK and something that’s become an annual event before a string of concerts is a poll to find out which of Alfie Boe’s live songs is the fan favourite. Will any of the new songs we saw from Alfie on the Together Again tour make it into the top ten or will the out and out favourite of the last two years, Run, come out on top again? Whatever happens, it’s up to you to nominate and vote, so let’s do it!
These are the songs already nominated from previous years:
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Earlier this year, we looked at the pleasures of meeting Alfie Boe and it was so much fun to see so many photos of Alfie’s lovely fans. On the back of that, I asked you to send in your photos and experiences of meeting Alfie and you didn’t disappoint!
Starting us off are two ladies who shared photos with Alfie at a stage door and the Trust album signing in London. Kate Griffin first ran into Alfie at the Les Mis stage door and this is what she says:
My very first meet with Alfie was quite by chance at the stage door when he appeared in Les Mis. My husband and I travelled to London to see the show and happened to be passing the back of the theatre prior to the show. As we walked by we spotted Alfie on the other side of the street as he dived in to a bar! We thought that was it and he was gone but he must have been looking for someone as he immediately came back out again and crossed the street toward us. I was so excited as I think you can see in my face! He was quite happy to spend a minute or two chatting and posing! I’ve been so lucky to since have had two official meet and greets and another stage door greet at Carousel as well as the HMV signing last year. So I am truly blessed and lucky to be able to say I’ve met him a few times and had that arm around my waist for photos and seen close in to those gorgeous brown eyes!
The second story is from Lesley Armstrong and her photo is from the Trust album signing:
Lesley Armstrong HMV 2013
Lesley says
I have had the opportunity to meet with Alfie on many occasions, and he never fails to bring me joy as it’s a reminder of how hard he has worked to get to where he is today in his profession. He is the best opera singer Britain has ever produced, and is so humble & wonderful to his fans. He puts you immediately at ease and the tongue tie you feel disappears and you break into a huge smile just being around him. I am feeling less tongue tied the more I meet him trying to relax and just take in those rare special moments with him that seem to pass so quickly so touchable to be prepared if you wan’t to ask that specific question or get that special photo of you both together. Alfie is the only man who could make me travel the world just to see him; even for just 5 minutes I would be there to support him. He’s our treasure and a wonderful entertainer.
Thank you Kate and Lesley – treasured memories indeed!
There are still meet and greet packages available for Alfie’s solo UK shows – click here for details.
If you would like to see your own photo and story here, then please fill in the form!
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Three months into my 2018 new year resolution to listen to more music and this time, I’m looking at an artist introduced to me by Alfie but suggested for this project by Gill Jansingh. The artist is Warren Zevon and he wrote the song that has become my all time favourite song by Alfie Boe, the wonderful Keep Me In Your Heart. Although the basics of the song are the same in both versions, it’s Alfie’s interpretation and voice that really shakes the buttons on my blouse – they’re perfectly safe with Zevon’s original!
Of Zevon’s albums, I concentrated on three for this post, the eponymous 1975 album, 1978’s Excitable Boy and The Wind, released just before his death in 2003 (Keep Me In Your Heart is from The Wind). Of the three, although liking elements from all, my favourites are Warren Zevon and The Wind. Encompassing musical genres such as country, rock, folk, pop and blues, Zevon’s own style is somewhat harder to describe; in this respect at least, he reminds me of Alfie’s eclectic musical career so far.
There are several outstanding songs on The Wind, namely Numb As A Statue, Prison Grove, El Amor De Mi Vida and Rest of the Night, that showcase Zevon’s talent as a lyricist. Please Stay and Rub Me Raw are also little gems, while Knockin on Heavens Door is one of the best versions of the Dylan classic that I’ve heard. Prison Grove sounds like an old chaingang style song, similar to the rhythms of Rosie, from Alfie’s Trust album, while Rest of the Night is a great dancing tune which exhorts us to just enjoy life while you can – “we’ve got the rest of the night”.
Zevon’s eponymous album of 1975 has some cracking tunes and eminently singable lyrics, even if the meaning of what you’re singing takes you by surprise on occasion. Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me, also a hit for Linda Ronstadt, is a song with great danceability and simple yet powerful lyrics that take a somewhat dark turn, as does Carmelita, which beguiles with a country sound whilst Zevon sings about addiction. Sleep When I’m Dead, surely an anthem for would be rockers, has a definite edge of punk.
Excitable Boy was the least successful of the three albums I concentrated on for this post and also seemed to contain the most pop / rock sound. Having said that, there aren’t that many albums that reference the Biafran war early on – Zevon was certainly an intelligent lyricist who knew how to tell a story as well as make the listener think.
One of the most enjoyable parts of listening to music recorded a while ago is working out the musical influences; I could hear Springsteen, Dylan, Johnny Cash and Eric Clapton amongst others and yet I know that many of you will hear different things again. What do I take from Warren Zevon? The joy of music written for the sheer joy of writing and recording and not with one eye on the sales market, and it seems that his music was a critical success right from the start with the sales being a little harder to come by. This is perhaps due to the intrinsic difficulty of categorising the music so this would be a good moment to remind ourselves of Alfie’s perception of music: it’s either good or bad. And Warren Zevon’s music is good, very good.
The Wind and other albums are available here:
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…The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore on the Alan Titchmarsh show:
This song wasn’t performed an awful lot outside of the Storyteller tour so it’s lovely to hear it here. Just last week it was chosen as one of Deanna Lintern’s Six Sensational Songs.
Written by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crowe (Four Seasons) and recorded by Franki Valli, this original version was released and pretty much sank without trace, being totally eclipsed by the Walker Brothers version which was a smash hit:
The song has been recorded by Keane and Cher over the years and has also been used many times for TV and film, although the one that stands out head and shoulders for me is Truly Madly Deeply with Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman (forgive the voiceover, it’s a trailer!):
Don’t forget to tune into ITV1 on Saturday 3rd at 7pm for Saturday Night Takeaway where Alfie and Michael will perform on the End of the Show show!
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