Women & Songs: Beginnings
Encyclopedia
Women & Songs: Beginnings is the first of an eventual two releases in the Women & Songs
"Beginnings" series.
. The album chronicles 31 tracks from popular female artists which helped launch successful careers for those artists. This is also the first two-disc collection issued in the franchise.
Aretha Franklin
, who makes another appearance on the later Beginnings album, shows up here with her classic Respect. Bette Midler
also appears singing The Rose from the soundtrack for the movie of the same name. Also on the first disc is Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight & the Pips
. Patsy Cline
contributes Walkin' After Midnight while My Guy appears courtesy of Mary Wells
. Etta James
puts in an early appearance on the second disc with At Last, while two of the best tracks on the entire collection finish things off: first Dolly Parton
with the heartwarming I Will Always Love You followed by the classic Judy Garland
hit Over the Rainbow.
Women & Songs
Women & Songs is a series of annual Canadian compilation album releases that only contain tracks by female artists. The first album, simply titled Women & Songs, was released December 9, 1997 and the series has since been both a major seller and a chart-topper in the Canadian music scene.-Regular...
"Beginnings" series.
Overview
The album was released on November 30, 1999, the same day as Women & Songs 3Women & Songs 3
-Overview:The album was released on November 30, 1999 featuring 18 tracks from music's best women artists. The album peaked at #4 on the Top Canadian Album charts.The first of many upcoming bonus releases was also released the same day...
. The album chronicles 31 tracks from popular female artists which helped launch successful careers for those artists. This is also the first two-disc collection issued in the franchise.
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, who makes another appearance on the later Beginnings album, shows up here with her classic Respect. Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
also appears singing The Rose from the soundtrack for the movie of the same name. Also on the first disc is Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...
. Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
contributes Walkin' After Midnight while My Guy appears courtesy of Mary Wells
Mary Wells
Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...
. Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
puts in an early appearance on the second disc with At Last, while two of the best tracks on the entire collection finish things off: first Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
with the heartwarming I Will Always Love You followed by the classic Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
hit Over the Rainbow.
Disc 1
- God Bless the Child [4:00]
- (performed by Billie HolidayBillie HolidayBillie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
)
- (performed by Billie Holiday
- What a Diff'rence a Day Made [2:31]
- (performed by Dinah WashingtonDinah WashingtonDinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
)
- (performed by Dinah Washington
- Fever [3:22]
- (performed by Peggy LeePeggy LeePeggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
)
- (performed by Peggy Lee
- Son of a Preacher Man [2:27]
- (performed by Dusty SpringfieldDusty SpringfieldMary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
)
- (performed by Dusty Springfield
- Respect [2:26]
- (performed by Aretha FranklinAretha FranklinAretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
)
- (performed by Aretha Franklin
- Downtown [3:11]
- (performed by Petula ClarkPetula ClarkPetula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
)
- (performed by Petula Clark
- Walkin' After Midnight [2:01]
- (performed by Patsy ClinePatsy ClinePatsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
)
- (performed by Patsy Cline
- Ode to Billie Joe [4:16]
- (performed by Bobbie GentryBobbie GentryRoberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is a former American singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material...
)
- (performed by Bobbie Gentry
- Put a Little Love in Your Heart [2:35]
- (performed by Jackie DeShannonJackie DeShannonJackie DeShannon is an American singer-songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock 'n' roll period.- Life and early career :...
)
- (performed by Jackie DeShannon
- Midnight Train to Georgia [4:40]
- (performed by Gladys Knight & The PipsGladys KnightGladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...
)
- (performed by Gladys Knight & The Pips
- Let's Call the Whole Thing Off [4:30]
- (performed by Ella FitzgeraldElla FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
)
- (performed by Ella Fitzgerald
- My Guy [2:53]
- (performed by Mary WellsMary WellsMary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...
)
- (performed by Mary Wells
- You're So Vain [4:20]
- (performed by Carly SimonCarly SimonCarly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
)
- (performed by Carly Simon
- The Rose [3:33]
- (performed by Bette MidlerBette MidlerBette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
)
- (performed by Bette Midler
- Me and Bobby McGee [4:30]
- (performed by Janis JoplinJanis JoplinJanis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
)
- (performed by Janis Joplin
Disc 2
- I Feel the Earth Move [3:00]
- (performed by Carole KingCarole KingCarole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
)
- (performed by Carole King
- Lotta Love [3:09]
- (performed by Nicolette LarsonNicolette LarsonNicolette Larson was an American pop singer. She is perhaps best known for her work in the late 1970s with Neil Young, as well as her 1978 cover of Young's "Lotta Love". The song, her debut single, was a Number One Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks hit and #8 pop hit that year...
)
- (performed by Nicolette Larson
- At Last [3:02]
- (performed by Etta JamesEtta JamesEtta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
)
- (performed by Etta James
- Chuck E's in Love [3:31]
- (performed by Rickie Lee JonesRickie Lee JonesRickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
)
- (performed by Rickie Lee Jones
- Just One Look [2:32]
- (performed by Doris TroyDoris TroyDoris Troy was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".She was born as Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir...
)
- (performed by Doris Troy
- So Long [2:39]
- (performed by Ruth BrownRuth BrownRuth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
)
- (performed by Ruth Brown
- Baby I'm Yours [2:32]
- (performed by Barbara LewisBarbara LewisBarbara Lewis , is an American singer and songwriter whose smooth style influenced rhythm and blues.-Career:Lewis was born in Salem, near Ann Arbor, Michigan...
)
- (performed by Barbara Lewis
- I'll Never Fall in Love Again [3:03]
- (performed by Dionne WarwickDionne WarwickDionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
)
- (performed by Dionne Warwick
- Midnight at the Oasis [3:47]
- (performed by Maria MuldaurMaria MuldaurMaria Muldaur is a folk-blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s...
)
- (performed by Maria Muldaur
- Reflections [2:53]
- (performed by The SupremesThe SupremesThe Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
)
- (performed by The Supremes
- Misty [3:02]
- (performed by Sarah VaughanSarah VaughanSarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
)
- (performed by Sarah Vaughan
- Midnight Blue [3:55]
- (performed by Melissa ManchesterMelissa ManchesterMelissa Manchester is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s, she has recorded generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films, and on stage....
)
- (performed by Melissa Manchester
- Blue Bayou [3:55]
- (performed by Linda RonstadtLinda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
)
- (performed by Linda Ronstadt
- Both Sides Now [3:16]
- (performed by Judy CollinsJudy CollinsJudith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
)
- (performed by Judy Collins
- I Will Always Love You [3:07]
- (performed by Dolly PartonDolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
)
- (performed by Dolly Parton
- Over the Rainbow [3:30]
- (performed by Judy GarlandJudy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
)
- (performed by Judy Garland