Don't Go to Strangers

• Artist: Etta Jones
• Rating:
• Release Date: June 21, 1960
• Total Time: 40:55
• Genre: Vocal Music

Review

Don't Go to Strangers was Etta Jones' first album for the independent jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in 1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them, including the masterful "If I Had You" and a marvelous reading of "All the Way," a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, "Don't Go to Strangers" featured Jones' airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones' restructuring of the melody to the opening track, the old chestnut "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew. Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album's subsequent reissues, although that's hardly a problem, because as is, Don't Go to Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Yes Sir, That's My Baby (Lyrics)	Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn	Etta Jones	(4:23)
Don't Go to Strangers (Lyrics)	Redd Evans, Dave Mann, Arthur Kent	Etta Jones	(3:51)
I Love Paris (Lyrics)	Cole Porter	Etta Jones	(4:01)
Fine and Mellow	Billie Holiday	Etta Jones	(5:52)
Where or When (Lyrics)	Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart	Etta Jones	(3:41)
If I Had You (Lyrics)	Ted Shapiro, Reginald Connelly, Jimmy Campbell, Kevin Connelley	Etta Jones	(3:51)
On the Street Where You Live (Lyrics)	Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe	Etta Jones	(3:45)
Something to Remember You By (Lyrics)	Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz	Etta Jones	(3:45)
Bye Bye Blackbird (Lyrics)	Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon	Etta Jones	(3:16)
All the Way (Lyrics)	Sammy Cahn, James Van Heusen	Etta Jones	(4:39)

Credits

Rikka Arnold (Project Assistant), George Duvivier (Bass), Stuart Kremsky (Research), Frank Wess (Flute), Stuart Kremsky (Production Assistant), Rudy Van Gelder (Author), Skeeter Best (?), Esmond Edwards (Cover Art), George Duvivier (?), Nick Phillips (Reissue Producer), Etta Jones (Vocals), George Duvivier (Bass (Upright)), Skeeter Best (Guitar), Esmond Edwards (Supervisor), Roy Haynes (?), Frank Wess (Sax (Tenor)), Rudy Van Gelder (Audio Engineer), Esmond Edwards (Audio Production), Terri Hinte (Project Assistant), Phil DeLancie (Remastering), Rudy Van Gelder (Engineer), Richard Wyands (Piano), Richard Wyands (?), Frank Wess (?), LeRoi Jones (Liner Notes), LeRoi Jones (Original Liner Notes), Roy Haynes (Drums), Rudy Van Gelder (Remastering)

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