Similar Albums:
- Artist: Eartha Kitt
- Rating:
- Release Date: June 29, 1999
- Total Time: 66:41
- Type: Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Vocal Music
Review
In 1996, taxi patrons in New York were greeted with a tape of Eartha Kitt's famous "R"-rolling cat growl: "Wrrrrrrrrow. Cats have nine lives, but you have only one. So buckle up." This was a reference to the source of her fame for the under-50 crowd: her stint as Catwoman on the '60s Batman TV series. But her abilities as a tantalizing, talented seductress stretch further back to her early '50s singing career, wearing tight-for-then voluptuous gowns instead of a catsuit. Both Kitt and her records predated rock & roll, but her 1953-1955 success was a hint that bad girl behavior would become prevalent. Never mind Phil Spector's later girl groups; Kitt could sully a polite orchestral backing with her sex kitten purring on hilariously libidinous numbers such as the number 22 hit "I Want to Be Evil," the number four hit "Santa Baby," "Mink Schmink," and her standard "C'est Si Bon," another Top Ten hit. Hearing her saucy tongue wrap around the words is amusing, but Kitt makes it sound so exotic, dangerous, and impetuous, you want to take her on. If this was torch singing, she was going to burn down the clubs she headlined. If she had been more R&B and more gimmicky, she could have been the female Screamin' Jay Hawkins. You can hear it in every syllable, the attitude and raucous delivery that made her a song stylist more than a pop singer, allowing her to survive the coming barrage of guitars and drums that would initially bury her career. She could always prosper in her other haunts of stage and screen, and in her nightclub act. But a collection of the best of her old LPs, RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt and The Bad Eartha is no "bad" idea. Tangle with her if you dare. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Just an Old Fashioned Girl | Eartha Kitt, |
(2:51) | |
| Je Cherche un Homme (I Want a Man) | Eartha Kitt | (2:49) | |
| I Want to Be Evil | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:29) | |
| Mink, Schmink | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:02) | |
| Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) [From in Paris] | Cole Porter | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:04) |
| C'Est Si Bon | Eartha Kitt, |
(2:57) | |
| Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore | Johnny Burke, Joe Young, |
Eartha Kitt | (2:50) |
| Monotonous [From Leonard Stillman's New Faces of 1952] | Eartha Kitt | (3:44) | |
| My Heart Belongs to Daddy | Cole Porter | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:00) |
| Under the Bridges of Paris | Eartha Kitt, |
(2:40) | |
| I Wantcha Around | Bob Merrill | Eartha Kitt, |
(2:29) |
| Lilac Wine | James Alan Shelton | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:42) |
| Somebody Bad Stole de Wedding Bell (Who's Got de Ding Dong?) | Bob Hilliard, |
Eartha Kitt | (2:45) |
| Thursday's Child | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:38) | |
| Angelitos Negros | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:25) | |
| Lovin' Spree | Eartha Kitt | (2:54) | |
| Toujour Gai [From Shinbone Alley] | Eartha Kitt | (2:08) | |
| Uska Dara (A Turkish Tale) | Traditional | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:06) |
| Proceed With Caution | Eartha Kitt, |
(2:27) | |
| The Blues | Duke Ellington | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:33) |
| The Heel | Léo Ferré, Willard Robison, |
Eartha Kitt, |
(2:45) |
| Santa Baby | Eartha Kitt, |
(3:23) |
