mancini

Okay, so, as I promised myself recently, I got my hands on some Henry Mancini. emusic.com actually does have a Henry Mancini album, but it’s a set of new recordings with guest spots and his daughter singing, which didn’t interest me as much. So I checked Tower, and they had various CDs at anywhere from $19 to $24. Thanks, but no thanks. So I made a quick trip to the Great Escape while Amanda had some booze with Becca, and I could only find one Mancini CD, so I bought it.

I got home, and I realized .. it’s the same CD that emusic has. So, basically, I am a moron.

However, the CD is actually quite good (yes, may be a bit of post-purchase rationalization). But no, really.They are really great recordings, and Monica Mancini’s voice is pretty excellent – she reminds me of KD Lang a bit. Joey Defrancesco (the only B3 player almost as good as my dad) is on two tracks – the Pink Panther theme and “Mr. Lucky”, and they are both, as my dad said, really “laid-back grooves”. Stevie Wonder contributes harmonica to Moon River.

All in all it’s pretty good stuff, but I still want to get some of the original film recordings that piqued my interest in the first place.