Throughout the 1960s and early ’70s Cleo Laine made a series of albums for Fontana and its parent label, Philips, which featured her remarkable four-octave voice in material ranging from jazz re-imaginings of Shakespeare (Shakespeare and All that Jazz) and American songbook material to contemporary popular songs. On each she was accompanied by her husband, John Dankworth (1927-2010), and a band comprising the cream of British jazz talent.

The two albums compiled here are no exception. Dating from 1968, 'If We Lived on the Top of a Mountain' contains a multitude of evergreens put over in Cleo’s inimitable style. John Dankworth, David Lindup and Ed Harvey were on hand to provide the scintillating big band orchestrations, while the title track (the album’s only modern song) came from the pens of renowned songwriters Les Reed and Barry Mason.

And in the band on this occasion were such luminaries as Laurie Holloway (piano), Derek Watkins (trumpet), Tony Coe (tenor sax) and Dankworth himself on alto sax.


Track Listing:
If We Lived on the Top of a Mountain
1. EASY STREET (Banham; Keene; Evans; Lewis; Paice)
2. PERDIDO (Tizol; Drake; Lenk)
3. ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA (Loesser)
4. TEA FOR TWO (Youmans; Caesar)
5. CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO (Warren; Gordon)
6. IF WE LIVED ON THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN (Reed; Mason)
7. REMIND ME (Kern; Fields)
8. SURE AS YOU’RE BORN (YOU’RE IN KENTUCKY) (Little; Gillespie; Shay)
9. COME RAIN OR COME SHINE (Arlen; Mercer)
10. OH, LADY BE GOOD (G & I Gershwin)
11. THEY SAY IT’S WONDERFUL (Berlin)
12. WHO WALKS IN WHEN I WALK OUT? (Hoffman; Goodhart; Freed)
13. SONG WITHOUT WORDS (Dankworth)

Portrait
14. ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (Lane; Lerner)
15. BOSSA PALMA NOVA (Dankworth)
16. THAT CERTAIN FEELING (G & I Gershwin)
17. FEELING GOOD (Bricusse; Newley)
18. I COULD WRITE A BOOK (Rodgers; Hart)
19. MODEL CITIES PROGRAMME (Gibbs; Scott)
20. RIDIN HIGH (Porter)
21. THE LOOK OF LOVE (Bacharach; David)
22. NIGHT OWL (Taylor)
23. NEVER LET ME GO (Livingston; Evans)
24. IT WILL SOON BE SPRING (Sykes)
25. AQUARIUS (MacDermot; Ragni; Rado)