P J PROBY - SOME ENCHANTED EVENING - FROM SOUTH PACIFIC

[annrlean]

This was played for me on Sounds of the Sixties 3 years ago, A beautiful song, beautifully sung by the best singer of all time.

[wuncarlos1]

By the look of it Jim boy some people have given you some stick, but here's one here who believes in you, keep it going Jim.

[akindofblue3]

I don't think he was drunk, but, he was clearly having a good time with this recording. PJ has always been his own man and he may well have been poking fun at his English chums with the phrasing and voice intonations - Jack Good was very plummy. Also he was deliberately trying to be different at this stage with the ballads because he specifically did not want to do a Sinatra or a Mathis... and it had the required effect - it made people talk about him.... job done.

[brown601trail]

@akindofblue3

Your reverse snobbery is misplaced. That plummy Jack Good is the reason PJ Proby existed. You wouldn't be listening to this recording if Good hadn't backed him over and over again when Proby continually blew his chances on alcohol and extravagant living. This was one of many Proby self indulgences on one more expensive flop album. People might have talked but they didn't buy. Proby was his own man on somebody else's dime while he ignored reality.

[rontenn]

@brown601trail You talk a load of BLX!!...as usual!

[rontenn]

@akindofblue3 Exactly!

[ITSTHETRUTHOK]

pissed again pj,ha ha ha

[DenimAllowed]

Drunk or sober Proby was poking fun at this song and I expect he was putting us on. If he wasn't he should have done another take.

Yuh may see a stranguh across a crou--did room.

Someone may be laugh innnnnnnng *gasp*.

You can clearly hear him run out of air, and he meanders off-pitch at least once during some of those long notes he was somersaulting through. Proby had a reputation for histrionics but this one is extreme even for him.

[brown601trail]

@sherilyn1977 , this song was crafted in 1949 by Rodgers and Hammerstein not P J Proby. You have the lofty peak part right though. He sounds like he's high as a kite. The way he's vocalizing and modulating all over the place reminds me of a voice student trying to impress his teacher. He's supposed to be a Texan? Where did he get that hammy accent? For sure not from Texas!

[sherilyn1977]

P.J. Proby has successfully crafted this song into a very enchanting work of art. Just by adding his own special touches he's literally taken it off its original pedestal and lifted high above the rest, gently placing it on top the loftiest peak where no one else would have ever dared to take it..

[merrysnotproud]

The orchestral arrangement is beautiful and so is his voice but he butchered the lyrics (e.g., "YA may see a stranger", "wise men EVEN try"). And the hoity-toity accent is absolutely awful. Was he trying to sound like Noel Coward? I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was over his limit when he recorded this. I agree with other comments here, this track is definitely unique!

[rontenn]

P.J. has such a special way with these numbers from hit musicals,no other singer puts them across in such a unique way. In fact any type of song that he tackles becomes his own because of the vocals he gives us & no-one else comes close! Ron

[theBESTelvis]

PJ can't be touched with musical numbers, He is the outright master of them all, All other's versions are quickly forgotten once PJ as sang them.

FANTASTIC, WHAT A VOICE,,

[vegystew]

Thanks Jim, Love it!

Stu