Liza Minnelli's career as a recording artist essentially lapsed after the commercial failure of her 1977 album Tropical Nights, but recording was never one of her real priorities, taking a back seat to her work as a live performer and film star. After early records on which she was positioned as a middle-of-the-road pop singer in the '60s, she made some attempts to perform contemporary, rock-informed material, but her heart wasn't in that, and eventually she contented herself with occasionally updating her stage act on record, notably with 1987's Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall. Thus, Results, her first studio album in 12 years, seemed to come out of the blue. And for Minnelli's old-time fans, it was very different from what they might have expected. Simply put, the album was a Pet Shop Boys electronic dance disc with Minnelli serving as vocalist. Pet Shop Boys, the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, were all over the record, writing seven of the songs (including a cover of their hit "Rent"), producing, and contributing synthesizer programming, with Tennant even chiming in on vocals here and there. Although they did place Minnelli in front of an orchestra on "Tonight Is Forever" and give her a jazzy arrangement for "I Can't Say Goodnight" at the end of the disc, for the most part the singer was swamped by the electronically generated beats and sounds. Sometimes, as on "Love Pains," she was even forced to compete with other female voices more accustomed to making themselves heard through such arrangements. Among the more interesting, if odd, tracks was a version of Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind" from the musical Follies, which might have seemed a good song choice for a more conventional Minnelli collection, but that here was made to sound like Laura Branigan's 1982 hit "Gloria." That track, released in advance of the album, hit the Top Ten in the U.K. and made the dance charts in the U.S. The full LP made the U.S. charts, but its greatest success occurred in Great Britain, where it made the Top Ten and threw off three more chart singles. It was, however, a one-off. Pet Shop Boys went back to their career, and Minnelli went back to singing "Cabaret" in theaters around the world. Although she held her own against the arrangements, Results is more a Pet Shop Boys album than a Liza Minnelli disc. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Results is the 1989 Liza Minnellialbum produced by Pet Shop Boys and Julian Mendelsohn. The album was a huge success in the UK, where it reached #6 on the UK Albums Chart (promoted by the lead single "Losing My Mind," which reached #6 on the UK Singles Chart[1]). The album was less successful in the US, peaking only at #128 on the Billboard Top 200 albums. According to Minnelli, the album's title came to be when she was at a bar and she complimented a woman on her dress. The woman thanked Minnelli and explained that it was her "results" dress. "When I wear this dress, I get results."
'"Losing My Mind" is from the 1971 musicalFollies. "Twist in My Sobriety" was originally recorded by Tanita Tikaram, from the 1988 album Ancient Heart. '"Love Pains" was originally recorded by Yvonne Elliman, from the 1979 album Yvonne. "Rent" and "Tonight Is Forever" were both originally recorded by Pet Shop Boys from, respectively, the albums Actually (1987) and Please (1986).
The Pet Shop Boys demo version of "Losing My Mind" (which had Neil Tennant singing the vocal) was later 'tidied up' and released as a B-side on the Pet Shop Boys single "Jealousy".
The outro to "If There Was Love" features Liza reciting Sonnet 94 by William Shakespeare: "They that have power to hurt"
The Liza Minnelli Foursider·The Collection·A Touch Of Class·It Was a Good Time: The Best of Judy Garland & Liza Minnelli·16 Biggest Hits·Ultimate Collection·The Capitol Collection·Essential·The Best Of Liza Minnelli·When It Comes Down to It: 1968-1977·Liza Minnelli: All That Jazz·Say Liza·The Complete Capitol Collection·The Complete A&M Recordings·Cabaret... And All The Jazz: The Liza Minnelli Anthology·
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