For all his faults, Elvis Presley knew a great song when he heard it – or at least the producers and arrangers around him did. Susan Boyle and her team have the same knack.
They’ve pulled together a disparate and unconnected collection of songs into I Dreamed A Dream, a debut album that shouldn’t work but somehow does.
Still, upsetting expectations has been the 48-year-old Scot’s trademark from the start, so why change things now?
The album is already the biggest pre-order CD in the history of global online retailer Amazon, a record previously held by the Japanese rock band Mr Children. It will be released worldwide on Monday and looks like a sure-fire chart-topper.
Just in case there’s any doubt, Boyle gives it an extra promotional push tomorrow night on The X Factor results show. The programme regularly draws 15 million viewers, from a demographic already very familiar with the extraordinary journey of the woman they call SuBo.
After that, she hops on a plane for New York, where on Monday she’ll perform three tracks from the album at the Rockefeller Plaza.
A phenomenal first chapter in Susan Boyle’s life has closed. With I Dreamed A Dream, a second is about to open – and it could best what’s come before. An army of Amazon customers could be wrong, but they and their iPods at least have to be reckoned with.
The record they will flock to buy is produced by Steve Mac, who has already crafted number one albums for Ronan Keating, Westlife, Leona Lewis and current chart sensations JLS.
Those last two acts, of course, came from The X Factor, but it’s clear that Boyle is making a pitch for the sort of career longevity we’re not used to seeing in talent show stars. She’s in this for keeps.
Can she stay the course? There’s no reason why not. The other thing Elvis Presley knew was that no matter who chooses the songs, the singer has to sing them so well they own them. For that you need a very special sort of voice. Presley had one, and so does Boyle.
The album opens with Wild Horses, a track from the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers. Mick Jagger once described it as “a sad love song” and with Boyle the lachrymose factor is as high as with him. It was the first single to be released from I Dreamed A Dream – an inspired choice.
Next comes the title track. It’s the song Boyle sang on Britain’s Got Talent on April 11, a moment that has since gone down in television history and been viewed 300 million times on the internet.
In case you missed it, Boyle opened her mouth and an audience that had sniggered at her appearance became slack-jawed with wonder at the sound she made. If Susan Boyle has a signature tune, this is it.
Cry Me A River, though, is a song that is probably closer to her heart. She first recorded it in 1999 and also performed it on Britain’s Got Talent. Unfortunately, her heart is ruling her head here. Some songs are too American for non-Americans to touch and this is one of them. Julie London made a decent fist of it, but it was written for Ella Fitzgerald and it shows.
One US commentator has likened Boyle to the famous jazz singer but her voice doesn’t have the bluesy inflection needed to carry this off, though she deals well with the smoky lower notes that were London’s forte.
Still, the song’s air of bitter regret is well evoked by Boyle, even if the strings sound like they’ve been plucked from a Bond film.
If you think Daydream Believer is going to be the jaunty mid-album rocker, forget it. It’s about as far removed from the Monkees’ version as a banana is from a beetle. The arrangement is for piano only, which alters the mood and slows the tempo.
The only original song on the album is Who I Was Born To Be, written by American Audra Mae. Her great aunt was Judy Garland and, while there’s certainly something Over The Rainbow about Susan Boyle’s career trajectory, the song is weak. It feels like an Andrew Lloyd Webber cast-off, all crescendos and crashes and breathy entreaties about floating free and conquering fears. Even worse is the backing, which sounds like it comes from a souped up Bon Tempi organ.
There are a couple of other misses – How Great Thou Art is the most obvious contender – but the hits outnumber them. Like Wild Horses and the title track itself, the gospel-tinged Up To The Mountain is a delight and I can even forgive the inclusion of the blatantly commercial Silent Night – and its nasty swirling synthesisers – given the dignity Boyle brings to it.
More misty synths introduce Amazing Grace, though again Boyle sings it beautifully before a punchy choral entrance gives it the gospel feel familiar from Elvis Presley’s version.
Oh yes, him again. “Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine,” the King once said. On the evidence of I Dreamed A Dream, Susan Boyle has her key in the ignition and the motor is ready to fire.
Origins of the tracks
- Wild Horses
First appeared on the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers.
- I Dreamed A Dream
Made famous by the 1980 musical Les Miserables.
- Cry Me A River
Popularised by jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.
- How Great Thou Art
Once voted the UK’s favourite hymn on Songs of Praise.
- You’ll See
Penned jointly by Madonna and songwriter David Foster, You’ll See debuted in 1995.
- Daydream Believer
Forever associated with The Monkees, who took it to number one in the US.
- Up To The Mountain
A contemporary folk song by American singer Patty Griffin.
- Amazing Grace
Written in 1779 by the Reverend John Newton and fellow poet William Cowper.
- Who I Was Born To Be
Written for Boyle by Audra Mae, a grand-niece of Judy Garland.
- Proud
First sung by teenager Matthew Thomas in the musical hit Britannia High last year.
- The End Of The World
A number two hit in 1963 for easy listening star Skeeter Davis.
- Silent Night
Reportedly performed for the first time at a German Christmas service in 1818.
