Passport

by Nana Mouskouri

Overview

The conceit of this double album-length set is that Nana Mouskouri is doing songs from different nations. However, even though Passport is a compilation recorded over a span of over a decade with a variety of accompanists ranging from Mouskouri's original backing group, the Athenians, to the easy listening specialists the Mike Sammes Singers, the albums sounds as if it could have been recorded during one lengthy session. Such is the strength of Mouskouri's jazzy, middle-of-the-road pop style that songs as varied as her biggest hit, "Never on Sunday" (here presented in its original Greek lyrics as "Ta Pedia Tou Pirea"), Paul Simon's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and the traditional "Amazing Grace" end up sounding pretty much the same. Passport's worth depends entirely on the listener's tolerance for this kind of Eurovision Song Contest style of pop, but few people working in this style in the '60s and '70s were better than Nana Mouskouri. (Only the great Petula Clark comes immediately to mind.) Although perhaps better known in the United States for her lovely olive-skinned looks and trademark glasses than for her singing, Mouskouri's a genuinely superb jazz-pop singer with a bewitching voice and an ear for material that rises above the occasionally gloppy easy listening arrangements she's often saddled with. Unfortunately, there's more than a few of those arrangements on Passport, but there's also a number of truly impressive songs. Two particular standouts come from rare sessions with producers other than Mouskouri's usual collaborator Andre Chapelle. The countryish "The Loving Song," produced by American hitmaker Snuff Garrett, is a surprisingly solid take on the genre, but 1972's "Four and Twenty Hours," written and produced by the early-'70s British hit factory Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, is one of Mouskouri's finest singles ever, a mature but remarkably catchy slice of AM radio fluff that predicts the sound that ABBA would take to the top of the charts later in the decade. ~ Stewart Mason

Product Details

Release Date:	07/07/1987
Label:	Mercury / Inactive
UPC:	0042283076426
Rank:	228407

Tracks

1. The White Rose of Athens (Weisse Rosen Aus Athen)
2. I Have a Dream (Toi Qui Me Ressembles)
3. Day Is Done (Mon Enfant)
4. Never on Sunday (Ta Pedia Tou Pirea)
5. My Friend the Sea (Au Bord de l'Eau)
6. Plasir d'Amour
7. The Loving Song
8. Try to Remember
9. Turn on the Sun
10. Odos Oniron
11. Milisse Mou
12. Enas Mythos
13. Bridge over Troubled Water
14. And I Love You So
15. If You Love Me (I Won't Care) (Hymne ¿¿ l'Amour)
16. Seasons in the Sun (Le Moribond)
17. The Last Rose of Summer
18. Over and Over (Roule S'enroule)
19. Four and Twenty Hours (Seven Days a Week I Love You) (Piu ...)
20. Cucurrucucu Paloma
21. Amazing Grace

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Nana Mouskouri   Primary Artist,Vocals
Peter Knight   Conductor
Jacques Denjean Et Son Orchestre   Orchestra
Christian Chevallier   Conductor
Alain Goraguer   Conductor
Alain Goraguer et Son Orchestre   Orchestra
Jacques Denjean   Conductor

Technical Credits

Tom Jones   Composer,Composer
J. P. Florian DeClaris   Composer
Jean Paul Egide Martini   Composer
Mitch Murray   Composer
Michel Jourdan   Composer
Harold Shaper   Composer
Francesco Reitano   Composer
Beniamino Reitano   Composer
Geoffrey Parsons   Composer
Paul Simon   Composer
Andre Chapelle   Producer
John Newton   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Jacques Brel   Composer
Benny Andersson   Composer
Eddy Marnay   Composer
Edith Piaf   Composer
Manos Hadjidakis   Composer
Don McLean   Composer
Vito Pallavicini   Composer
Lee Pockriss   Composer
Rod McKuen   Composer
Bjoern Ulvaeus   Composer
Roger Cook   Composer,Producer
Roger Greenaway   Composer
Peter Callander   Composer
Peter Yarrow   Composer
Norman Newell   Composer
Newton   Arranger
Mino Reitano   Composer
Marguerite Monnot   Composer
Tomas Mendez   Composer
Michel Fugain   Composer
Archie Bleyer   Composer
Hans Bradtke   Composer
Harvey Schmidt   Composer
Tommy "Snuff" Garrett   Producer
Nikos Gatsos   Composer
Elaine Laron   Composer
Billy Towne   Composer
Joan Sakel   Arranger
Hal Shaper   Composer
J Larue   Composer
Pierre Delanoe   Composer
Rae   Composer
George Petsilas   Composer
T. Moore   Composer
Parsons   Composer
Thomas Moore   Composer
Hans Brethouwer   Remastering,Digital Remastering
Chapman   Arranger