Don’t Just Stand There/Patty

Patty Duke

Real Gone Music, 2013

http://www.officialpattyduke.com

REVIEW BY: David Bowling

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 07/29/2013

Patty Duke is remembered by an aging generation of fans as a mid-1960s teen idol for her starring roles on The Patty Duke Show, in which she played the dual look-a-like characters of Patty Lane and her cousin Cathy Lane. Movie fans will remember her for winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the role of Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker at the age of 16. After the series ended, she played the very adult role of Neely O’Hara in the movie Valley Of The Dolls.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Like many actors and actresses, before and since, she decided to try her hand at singing. On the strength of her television show she released two commercially success albums; Don’t Just Stand There (1965) and Patty (1968), which spawned two hit singles, “Say Something Funny” and “Don’t Just Stand There.”  Real Gone Music has released re-issued those two albums as a two-for-one CD.

Duke has what could be termed an acceptable voice. It was probably better than Hayley Mills and Shelley Fabares and about equal in quality to Annette Funicello. She basically sang lightweight pop and her vocals could carry the songs, although they seem very dated today and in many ways would have fit better in the pre-Beatles era.

The accompanying booklet is well done as it gives a nice history of her and the music, plus contains a number of classic pictures from the era.

Don’t Just Stand There and Patty were very typical of many pop albums of the day. Take a couple of singles and surround them with a number of cover songs. Let’s face it, songs such as “Yesterday,” “Downtown,” “A World Without Love,” “What The World Needs Now Is Love,” “Save Your Heart For Me,” and “All I Have To Do Is Dream” were all covered dozens of times and usually much better, without even taking the originals into consideration. Duke’s two hits are by far the best tracks here,  catchy pieces of pop. All in all, this collection is deeply rooted in the 1960s, though with a positive memories for a lot of people , and the young woman on the CD cover is still appealing.

In the last analysis, this is a release that will probably only appeal to Patty Duke fans or collectors of the era. If you fall into either of those categories then this new release of these long-out-of-print albums is for you.

Rating: C

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


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