This Month's Thrift Store Vinyl Sharity

Nancy Wilson, Just for Now (1967)

This album caught my eye mainly for its cover of "Winchester Cathedral," a song that I recently had heard playing somewhere, and I couldn't shake it loose from my mind. I'm, of course, talking about the invasive New Vaudeville Band version (do-do-duh-lee-oh): Nancy Wilson's version, while a little shrill, at least works against the song's inherent syncopation. (And, no, this isn't the CSN song or the Clinic album.)

At first glance, the record isn't really all that promising: covers of "Alfie" and "Born Free" (which I had never though of as a John Barry song, but I can see now--how obvious) don't really seem inviting. But "I'll Make a Man of the Man" is pretty strong, "That's Life" really grows on you, and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" suggests that Wilson has some real R&B chops that might have made a stronger impact in her work. A decent album, it is no longer in print like a lot of her Capitol LPs. Because Just for Now is more or less a pop album, not too many of these tracks (I don't think any) have even made it to any of the recent Jazz-focused Capitol anthologies of her work. But most of the album is Billy May arranged, so you might find something worthwhile.

This LP is in two .zip files at rapidshare.com: side one, and side two with album art.