JOANNA

I'm glad to see Scott Walker here, he's definitely one of the best male voices in popular music ever. His perhaps eyebrow-raising addition in ProgArchives is based on his later era showing a great amount of challenging originality that undoubtedly puts off the easy listening oriented old fans. I'm however personally much more fond of the classic era from 1967 to the early 70's, when he as an artist was closer to the likes of Tony Bennett and Jacques Brel -- whose songs he recorded -- than to anything even remotely prog related. 'Joanna' is a good example of Scott Walker's passionate, larger-than-life art of singing at that time.

This was his second single which climbed even higher on the UK charts (No. 7) than the legendary Jacques Brel interpretation 'Jackie' did the previous year. His debut solo album titled Scott had already been released but 'Joanna' was a new song, written exclusively for Scott Walker by the married songwriting couple Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. Walker actually wrote a significant proportion of the lyric. The lush orchestral arrangement was done by Peter Knight, who was responsible for the orchestral parts in Days of Future Passed (1967) by The Moody Blues.

Walker's vocals are truly gorgeous here. The song is a shamelessly emotional entertainment vocal music piece, pretty similar to what Tony Bennett (whom I also appreciate) had recorded in the 50's and 60's. The big, deep voice and the beautiful orchestration work brilliantly together.

The B side track 'Always Coming Back to You' was taken from the Scott album and it was written by Scott Walker himself, credited on the label to S. Engel (Noel Scott Engel being his real name). If 'Joanna' showcases his incredible ability as a vocalist, this song is a good example of his impressive songwriting skills. Not as immediately charming as 'Joanna', but a fine and elegant song that gets better with repeated listenings. The orchestral arrangement is by Reg Guest.

P.S. My five stars totally ignore the rating guideline "Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music". On the contrary, I'm finding (guilty?) pleasure from reviewing great music that is not even remotely progressive rock.