MERCURY - Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?

[Dave McKee]

Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano? (1972)

Who´s Gonna Play This Old Piano ? / She´s Reaching For My Mind / Too Many Rivers / We Both Know Which One Of Us Was Wrong / Wall Around Heaven / No More Hanging On / Think About It, Darlin´ / Bottom Dollar / No Traffic Out Of Abilene / Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow (instrumental) / The Mercy Of A Letter

Again we were getting more & more modern heavily-produced country-pop ballads, but this album features something new: a dixieland horn section! These are only featured on two songs (the title track & Bottom Dollar) but they help liven which is in truth a very mediocre album with relatively few other real highlights apart from the brilliant No Traffic Out Of Abilene (some may also include Too Many Rivers but to my ears Jerry over-does the ad-libbing & spoils an other-wise very good performance). 3 out of 5

Outtakes: Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow (vocal version)

The so-called instrumental version of Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow (which actually features backing vocals) always sounded more like it was meant to have a lead vocal, & this was confirmed when the vocal version was finally issued in the mid '80's.

This is from an excellent blog by Peter Checksfield. See the whole blog at http://themargatemusicman.blogspot.com/ ... years.html

[yorkshire88]

Whilst I agree that this is a fairly mediocre album, I'd have to argue for a third highlight - one of my favourite JLL songs of all time is "No More Hanging On." Think I cried listening to the song in the mid-90s after a particularly sad break-up! The album also holds fond memories as I've got a 'still-sealed' copy, picked up in Nashville in '92 for ten bucks from The Great Escape record store.

[Henry]

Bgo is realesing this in February 2015
TrackList
1.She’s Reachin’ For My Mind
2.Too Many Rivers
3.We Both Know Which One Of Us Was Wrong
4.Wall Around Heaven
5.No More Hanging On
6.Think About It Darlin’
7.Bottom Dollar
8.No Traffic Out Of Abilene
9.Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
10.The Mercy Of A Letter
lets hope they have made a misstake and don,t have left the title song out.
http://www.bgo-records.com/albums/bgocd ... n-t-enough

[PeterC]

Interesting. I always thought that 'Sometimes A Memory Ain't Enough' was his first really weak country album (there's some good tracks but they're over-produced). Really like 'Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano' though (includes his first two ever recorded dixieland performances!).

[tchr]

No Traffic Out Of Abilene is one of mine all time favorites.

[PeterC]

No Traffic Out Of Abilene is one of mine all time favorites.

Mine too, absolutely love that song! Interestingly this was an outtake from the January 14th 1972 session that also produced the Chantilly Lace / No Traffic Out Of Abilene single. The rest of the album was all recorded on a single day on 19th July 1972 (though most of the songs later received vocal overdubs).

[Henry]

At last i got my copy of this Cd today.It spinns for the third time now and i must say i,m realy satisfyed with it.Included is a 14 pages booklet written by Andrew McRae:
'Whos Gonna Play This Old Piano' was ofcourse,tailor-made for Lewis as a self laudatory piece,to remind the world of his prowess.Over the coming years numerous helth crises would occasion fans to consider the question put in the song title time and again, although it now seems ironic that he first sang these lyrics at the tender age of thirty-six! In view of Lewis's lifestyle , it seems guite remarkable that the question would, happily, remain unanswerd for more than another four decades.

[PeterC]

'Whos Gonna Play This Old Piano' was of course,tailor-made for Lewis as a self laudatory piece,to remind the world of his prowess.Over the coming years numerous health crises would occasion fans to consider the question put in the song title time and again, although it now seems ironic that he first sang these lyrics at the tender age of thirty-six!

Yes, he was still a young man at the time. Even stranger (in retrospect) is him recording 'I Wish I Was 18 Again' when he was 43... perhaps he did wish he was a teenager at that age (though I certainly didn't), but somehow the song suits him much more today. Same with 'I'd Do It All Again'.

[Rocky]

True story about "I Wish I Was Eighteen Again". Unknown Sonny Throckmorten wrote this song back in the mid 60s and brought it to Charlie Rich at a Smash session July 5, 1966. Charlie loved the song but both he and producer Jerry Kennedy said he was too young to record it. Twelve years later Sonny got it to Jerry Lee.

[PeterC]

ALBUM COVER RATING: 3/5

I'm going through Jerry's albums on here and giving marks out of five for the album covers (regardless of the actual content)...

Not sure about this one... although it suits the album contents, it looks to me as if Jerry wasn't available for a photoshoot so they've quickly contrived something (that horrible backdrop looks terrible).