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The mature Jones

The Gershwin Album
The Gershwin Album
By Jack Jones

Columbia: 1992

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This review first appeared in the February 1, 1993 issue of the North County Blade-Citizen (now North County Times).

Wwidely – and perhaps rightly so – for singing the schmaltzy theme to the schmaltzy TV show "The Love Boat" in the late '70s, Jack Jones was generally dismissed by the younger crowd as a sort of silver-maned Wayne Newton.

And while he's still no Sinatra, Jones shows no his latest release that he's far more than a well-dressed lounge lizard. In fact, if there's a complaint with "The Gershwin Album," it's that arrangements are too lush, intruding on Jones' warmly interpretive vocals.

His readings of classic Gershwin tunes such as "Embraceable You," "I've Got a Crush on You" and "But Not for Me" are, well, hip. These are songs that convey the hope and tragedy of human existence, and it takes a skilled singer – a Sinatra, a Tony Bennett – to breathe life into them. This Jones does, showing an artistic maturity, an artistry that places him among the first rank of vocalists.