I Write The Songs / Send In The Clowns

by Ray Conniff

I Write The Songs is a fine collection. Released during the DISCO Revolution, this collection features Van McCoy's THE HUSTLE which Ray so CLEVERLY groups together (similarly like he did back in the SO MUCH IN LOVE LPs...)Interesting arrangement with great creativity with the singers. FASINATING take on "Somewhere My Love - Lara's Theme" which RAY OWNS as his most famous arrangement...Here is gives us a 70's modern feel to it..The EAGLES' Lying Eyes is re-vamped with the Conniff Singers' Sound and of course, La Paloma Blanca which Ray performed till the very end in all his international concerts...SEND IN THE CLOWNS was given to me by my DAD for CHRISTMAS and it was also released during the early disco days.....Now I thought, what can Ray Conniff possibly do to improve Barry White and The Love Unlimited Orchestra's LOVE'S THEME which realistically was PERFECT, but here comes Ray Conniff and adds his TALENT and represents it with such honesty and integrity and GRACEFULLY gives us a DROP DEAD GORGEOUS version of Love's Theme. Jackie Moore tackles a new version of MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS which is Ray's second arrangement of this song...This time, Ray sticks to the original arrangement of Memories Are Made Of This (remember Dean Martin's hit..) and uses Jackie Ward to TAKE CHARGE of the vocals...Jackie Ward has such a mysteriously delicious VOICE.... The JUST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN and HEART-FELT song VERA's THEM is "what can I say.." a LOVE-FEST by Ray for his gorgeous wife, VERA (that once again graces the RAY CONNIFF LP Cover....What a BEAUTIFUL picture of Vera for this Send IN The Clowns LP....The gorgeous arrangment of Diana Ross's Mahogany brings depicts Ray's instrumental POWER as an arranger....The SINGERS are OUTSTANDING in these LPs and finally we have them in our CD collections.........CDs don't have that AESTETIC value of LPs and the LOOK and FEEL of LPS are just in a league of themselves, but we have that clarity and that dependability of CDS that really bring out the RAY CONNIFF SOUND when listening to all the COLLECTIBLES' RCONNIFF CDs....I buy two of every Ray Conniff CD.......I guess we Conniff fans have been waiting so LONG for these LPs to be released that Two is BETTER than ONE and 3 is better than 2...Interestingly enough, all CONNIFF fans follow and track the oldies.com sight and lobby regularly for the releases of these LPs onto CD and COLLECTIBLES' is such an A1 (top of the heap) company that they LISTEN to the FANS and release and release...THANK YOU FOR listening to the RAY CONNIFF FANS all over the World.....We are blessed with Ray Conniff's music forever owning these TERRRRRRRRRIFFFFFICCCCC CDs!

It is most difficult to add anything meaningful to the words already enunciated by my good friend and avid Conniff fan, Ray. But once again, Collectables has responded to the wishes of the numerous Conniff fans around the world by producing a Two-Fer that can only be entitled, "Understated Excellence." These former LPs are among Ray's richest works, and are representative of the overall quality that pervades all of his works. Many thanks, Collectables!!

These 2 albums by Ray Conniff, released in the mid-seventies, were some of his most under-rated work. On these 2 albums Ray used a full orchestra of strings and brass, seventies percussion, that great group of seventies singers, and very contemporary arrangements. Each album contains great instumental covers like "Begin The Beguine", "Lara's Theme (From "Doctor Zhivago") ,"Theme From S.W.A.T" ,"Loves Theme" and the self written "Vera's Theme" which he wrote for his wife. Also many great vocal songs like "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" and "The Hustle / I Only Have Eyes For You". In my opinion these 2 albums help show every thing that was so great about Ray's music and is a "must have" for any Conniff collection. Collectables has done the music world a great favor by making them available again and for the first time on cd!