October 19, 1998, Calgary Herald
Bassey popular everywhere, but in U.S. it's another story
To get an idea of just how popular Shirley Bassey is in her native Britain, consider a recent poll conducted by the British Market Research Bureau and the music magazine Mojo. The question was simple: Who is your favourite recording artist ever?
Sure, the leadoff one-two-three were easy to predict: The Beatles, Elvis, Sinatra. But at No. 15, just behind Michael Jackson, was the brassy Miss Bassey, the walloping voice of Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever, the Welsh diva with the classy (sassy and occasionally campy) style.
For the curious, some of the legends she beat out: the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Diamond, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Eagles, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Led Zeppelin, Simon & Garfunkel, Ella Fitzgerald and Placido Domingo.
Still, Bassey's acclaim in the United States is minimal, relegated mostly to the fringes of retro lounge movements and dusty record collections where a copy of her long-ago hit version of Climb Ev'ry Mountain might reside.
Her plight is similar to that of Nana Mouskouri: The rest of the world can't get enough of her (Bassey, for instance, recently played Egypt and is huge in the Far and Middle East, as well as Europe).
America, well, it just doesn't "get" her. Canada's a bit hipper, but not to the same degree as her overseas following.
It's something that has long baffled Bassey.
"I love coming to America to play, especially the West Coast or Carnegie Hall," she said recently by phone, "but people here don't believe that audiences want my style of singing. . . . I see it differently.
"I think people want entertainment. It's not enough anymore for someone to just have a hit record and come out and sing it. People want someone to talk with them and joke around with them . . . and wear fantastic gowns!"
It's ironic, then, that Bassey's career is taking an upward turn in North America not because of her showstopping performances but because of yet another soundtrack tune: History Repeating.
The duet between her and the Brit-techno outfit Propellerheads first caused a stir in the U.K. and the U.S. dance underground late last year.
History Repeating has since found a larger audience via its use in the gross-out romantic comedy There's Something About Mary.
The song, a devilish mix of James Bond-ish spy-noir ambience, snaky soul grooves and Stax-meets-Bacharach horns, is the high point of the Propellerheads' lively debut, Decksanddrumsandrockandroll.
But Bassey, 61, who resides mostly in Switzerland, says the success of the single stuns her, especially given her lack of experience with dance artists and her reticence to record the song in the first place.
Bassey may be basking in the glow of rediscovery, but she's not idling. Last September saw the release of The Birthday Concert, a live album celebrating her 60th, and she recently wrapped up production of a holiday special that will air on the BBC in December (likely coming to a specialty channel in Canada in the near future).
In a sense, it would seem that Bassey is doing everything in her power to keep her art form -- the pop chanteuse, the sassy diva, the lounge icon -- from dying.
"I don't really know if I'm a diva, though," she said. "I still associate divas with opera, you know? Callas is a diva. Joan Sutherland is a diva. Now, suddenly, I'm a diva."
What's important is her sound.
"Look at how many people are doing this," she remarked, "still travelling around the world and trying to entertain people. I've been doing this for 44 years and I keep updating it. I'm looking for new material all the time. Now, as History Repeating proves, I come to find I've got another following.
"That's the biggest reward."
By: BEN WEINER