Consider Yourself! The Highs Of Lionel Bart
Various Artists
(Cherry Red)
Before Lionel Bart, few songwriters had combined success in film, theatre and the pop charts, but from the late 50s until the mid-60s Bart’s music would dominate all mediums. “Consider Yourself! The Highs Of Lionel Bart” is a 5 CD jam packed celebration of Bart’s musical successes taking in reissues of original stage soundtracks of Oliver!, Blitz!, Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be and a compilation of chart hits from Tommy Steele’s musicals Tommy The Toreador and The Duke Wore Jeans plus Cliff Richard’s film debut Serious Charge.
A cavalcade of stars including Ron Moody, Ian Carmichael, Sid James, Adam Faith and future Small Faces vocalist Steve Marriott lend their voices to the original stage musical soundtracks on Oliver! and Fings… while bonus chart hits from stars such as Shirley Bassey, Max Bygraves and Russ Conway are all included to produce the definitive Bart collection.
The real gem of the collection is Bart’s own concept release Bart For Bart’s Sake featuring the man himself performing several comedic renditions of his most popular songs.
Fans of classic pop, musical theatre and good music will welcome this neatly packaged release which comes with a booklet and original album artwork.