A Record a Week: The King's Singers - By Request

SIDE 1.
GEORGIA ON MY MIND (Ray Charles)
THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND (Dusty Springfield/others)
BECAUSE (Beatles)
CAN'T BUY ME LOVE (Beatles)
THREE TIMES A LADY (Lionel Richie)
THE RHYTHM OF LIFE (From Sweet Charity)
YOUR FEET'S TO BIG (Ink Spots)

SIDE 2.
SHORT PEOPLE (Randy Newman)
LAZYBONES/(UP A) LAZY RIVER (Tin Pan Alley)
NINA (Noel Coward)
HUSH LITTLE BABY (John Blackwood Arrangement)
I LOVE YOU SAMANTHA (From High Society)
WHAT'S IN A TUNE (David Overton Arrangement)

Well, two questions: 1. Who is it that was requesting this? 2. How long can you listen to a (mostly) acapella album?

I can't answer the first one, but I will take a stab at the second. I listened to the whole thing, as I have promised myself I would during this review process. However, I would say I hit my a capella limit somewhere around Three Times a Lady. Despite the wonderful tones of all of the voices on this record, hearing nothing but that loses its novelty fairly quickly. A little digging tells me that this group has made MANY records, so perhaps I am in the minority as far as desire goes. I will say that I did enjoy the songs I recognized far more than those that I did not, so maybe one of their christmas albums or their all-Beatles album would be more appealing.

This is not to take away from their wonderful voices, I just can't do nearly 44 minutes of just that. Really, 44 minutes of any one thing would be too much. Isolating the guitar tracks on any given album and listening to that would not be a listening experience, it would be called engineering or producing.