Back in Your Arms

Back in Your Arms
Greatest hits album by Amanda Lear
Released May 20, 1998
Recorded 1998 at Black Cat Studio
Genre Euro dance, euro disco, italo disco
Length 58:48
Label Dig It Int'l
Producer Anthony Monn, Michael Gordon, Walter Bassani
Amanda Lear chronology
Alter Ego
(1995)		 Back in Your Arms
(1998)		 Heart
(2001)
Singles from Back in Your Arms
  1. "Follow Me (1998 Re-Recording)"
    Released: 1998
  2. "Queen Of Chinatown (Paramour Radio Vox)"
    Released: 1999
Singles from Follow Me Back in My Arms
  1. "Blood And Honey '98"
    Released: August 1998
  2. "I'll Miss You (Love Version)"
    Released: 1999
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Allmusic [2]

Back In Your Arms is the third compilation album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in May 1998 by Dig It Int'l. The release follows her two previous greatest hits albums, Ieri, Oggi (1982) released in Italy, and Poet Amanda Lear (1990) released in the former U.S.S.R.. The compilation combines re-recordings of nine of her hits from her career in the 70's with selected remixed tracks from her 1995 euro disco album Alter Ego and contains also the previously unreleased cover version of Louis Prima's swing classic "Just A Gigolo".

Back In Your Arms, which was unsuccessful on its original release, was later re-launched on the German market by BMG-Ariola as Amanda '98 - Follow Me Back in My Arms with a revised tracklisting. Since the company held the rights to the original recordings, they replaced some of the re-interpretations with these as well as adding tracks not included on its Italian predecessor.

Contents

Album information

In 1998 Lear decided to re-record nine of her best known songs from the disco era for the album Back in Your Arms, "Blood and Honey", "Queen of Chinatown", "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' " and "Tomorrow", all originally from 1977 debut album I Am a Photograph, "Follow Me" and "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" from 1978 Sweet Revenge, "Fashion Pack" and "The Sphinx" from 1979 Never Trust a Pretty Face, and "Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)" from 1980 Diamonds for Breakfast.

Back in Your Arms was co-produced by Michael Gordon, who also work with Lear for her latest studio album Alter Ego. The compilation was issued by minor label Dig It Int'l and released only for the Italian market. The compilation was set to released out Europe in September under the name "Number 10", but later that same year, on October 5, German BMG-Ariola re-released the compilation under the title Follow Me Back in My Arms but then chose to replace most of these re-recordings with the original Ariola versions recorded in the seventies and the eighties. Throughout October and beginning of November 1998 Follow Me Back in My Arms was released in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, and in all the Nordic and Eastern Europe countries.

'False' compilations issued

The publishing rights of the nine Dig It Int'l recordings were later acquired by German company Siebenpunkt Verlags GmbH[3], a subsidiary of ZYX Music/Mint Records. The manufacturing rights have then in turn been licensed to a large number of mid-price European labels over the past years, such as Arcade Records, Brioche Edizioni Musicali, Falcon Neuen Medien, Laser Light Digital, Jaba Music, Edel Music/NAR International and many others. The rights to these recordings have only in two occasions been bought by subsidiaries of the so-called "Big Four record labels": Carosello (a sublabel of Universal Music, Italy) for I'm a Mystery - The Whole Story and Puzzle Productions (Sony BMG, France) for Follow Me (1999).

Consequently, these ten tracks were re-packaged and re-released on the European market, usually coupled with recordings dating from the eighties and the nineties, as being 'Lear's Greatest Hits'. The CD titles include Made of Blood & Honey, Follow Me, Divinamanda, Living Legend and others. In Europe these single disc compilations are usually in the price range under €10, from €4.99 to €7.99 (approximately $8 – $10) and double CD compilations €10.99 - €14.99 (approximately $15 – $20) but they are often sold as "imports" at considerably higher prices via online music stores throughout the world. The 1990s versions are also regularly featured on various artists compilations again usually released by minor European record labels.

While these nine songs are some of Lear's greatest hits, the versions contained on these compilations aren't the recordings made in Munich in the seventies and early eighties with producer Anthony Monn but most obviously those from Back in Your Arms, recorded some twenty years later, a fact that these companies usually fail to mention in their sleeve notes. The original Ariola versions are only available on albums and compilation issued or licensed by Sony BMG Germany.

Controversy

Lear has in several interviews made it clear that she has no control of all these compilations being issued:[4][5]

“ It's very annoying because that record company owns all those titles and they don't ask me for my advice. They just decide to release 'the best of' compilations and they put out a lot of very bad quality music. There are a couple of good titles but the rest are just tracks to fill out the album. And I see these compilations everywhere in the shops. A new one just came out last week in Italy, it's a double album, it's got thirty-six titles, (I'm a Mystery - The Whole Story) which is much too much, and I said to myself, "Why are they doing it? I don't need the money that badly." But I have no say in it. And they know very well that they can't rely on me promoting them because I won't promote such records. Compilations, to me, are embarrassing. To bring out a compilation, to me, is to say, "Look. I've got no new material so please buy this. I need money to pay the rent." I think it's very embarrassing. ”

The only career retrospectives to have been both approved of and promoted by Lear are Forever Glam!, released when she was celebrating her thirtieth anniversary in music business, and Sony-BMG Germany's three disc set of Ariola recordings, The Sphinx - Das beste aus den Jahren 1976-1983. Those compilations also contain tracks from hard to find albums such as Secret Passion and Uomini Più Uomini plus the occasional rarity.

Singles

From Back in Your Arms were released two singles, both only for the Italian market. "Follow Me (1998 re-recording)", (TIX 071) was released in the end of 1998 and this on its B-sides including the re-recording version of "Tomorrow". The second 12" Maxi-single "Queen Of Chinatown (Paramour Radio Vox)", (M.A.G. 001) was released in the summer of 1999 by minor label Mag Music. This Maxi-single contains four mix of "Queen Of Chinatown" with remix by Italian producer Paramour.

Later BMG-Ariola to promove Follow Me Back in My Arms released two CD single only for the German market. The first was "Blood And Honey '98" (74321 59995 2), released in the end of August 1998 in Germany, Northern and Eastern Europe. This single contains two version of "Blood and Honey" and the track "Rien Ne Va Plus" from the album Alter Ego. The last single released was a Promo of "I'll Miss You (Love Version)" (74321 64070 2).

Promotion

To promote the Back in Your Arms compilation, Lear did several performances worldwide. She performs a medley of "Follow Me" and "Tomorrow ('98 Dance Version)" in the Greek TV show Bravo. Lear also promote the album in Italy were she performs in several TV Shows the remix of "Tomorrow".

Track listing

Back in Your Arms

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "These Boots Are Made for Walking" (from I Am a Photograph) Lee Hazlewood 4:31
2. "Follow Me" (from Sweet Revenge) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:09
3. "The Sphinx" (from Never Trust a Pretty Face) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:41
4. "Tomorrow" (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Rainer Pietsch 3:40
5. "I'll Miss You (Tornerò)" (from Alter Ego) Claudio Natili, Ignazio Polizzy, Marcello Ramoino, Amanda Lear, Helmuth Schmidt 3:17
6. "Enigma (Give A Bit Of Mmh To Me)" (from Sweet Revenge) Amanda Lear, Rainer Pietsch 4:24
7. "Queen of Chinatown" (from Sweet Revenge) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:15
8. "Fashion Pack (Studio 54)" (from Never Trust a Pretty Face) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 3:40
9. "Blood and Honey" (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:50
10. "Fabulous Lover, Love Me" (from Diamonds for Breakfast) Amanda Lear, Rainer Pietsch 4:17
11. "Muscle Man" (Piano Version) (from Alter Ego) Amanda Lear, Helmuth Schmidt, Michael Gordon 4:15
12. "This Man (Dali's Song)" (RMX) (from Alter Ego) Amanda Lear, Michael Gordon 4:16
13. "Just a Gigolo" (previously unreleased) Irving Caesar, Leonello Casucci 2:19
14. "Angel Love" (Club Mix) (from Alter Ego) Amanda Lear, Helmuth Schmidt, J. Jordan, Michael Gordon 3:48
15. "Tomorrow" ('98 Dance Version) (Bonus Track) (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Rainer Pietsch 6:14

Follow Me Back in My Arms

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Follow Me" (9T8 Remake) (from Sweet Revenge) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:09
2. "Blood & Honey" (New Remix Version) (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 3:59
3. "I'll Miss You" (Love Version) (from Alter Ego) Claudio Natili, Ignazio Polizzy, Marcello Ramoino, Amanda Lear, Helmuth Schmidt 3:17
4. "Never Trust a Pretty Face" (from Never Trust a Pretty Face) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:45
5. "Angel Love" (Radio Mix) (from Alter Ego) Amanda Lear, Helmuth Schmidt, J. Jordan, Michael Gordon 3:48
6. "Blue Tango" (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Leroy Anderson 2:43
7. "Queen of Chinatown" (Opium Dense Mix) (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 3:59
8. "Lili Marleen" (from Never Trust a Pretty Face) Norbert Schultze, Hans Leip, Tommy Connor 4:40
9. "These Boots Are Made For Walking" (Bang! Mix) (from I Am a Photograph) Lee Hazlewood 4:10
10. "Mother, Look What They've Done To Me" (from Sweet Revenge) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 4:32
11. "Muscle Man" (Heartbeat Version) (from Alter Ego) Amanda Lear, Helmuth Schmidt, Michael Gordon 3:39
12. "The Lady in Black" (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Anthony Monn 3:36
13. "Gold" (from Sweet Revenge) Amanda Lear, Charly Ricanek 3:45
14. "Tomorrow" ('98 Radio Version) (from I Am a Photograph) Amanda Lear, Rainer Pietsch 4:00

Additional notes

Personnel

Release history

"Back in Your Arms"

Region Date Format Label
Italy May 20, 1998 CD Dig It Int'l

"Follow Me Back in My Arms"

Region Date Format Label
Germany October 5, 1998 CD, Cassette Ariola International (Sony Music)
France October 27, 1998
South Africa 1998 CD BMG-Ariola
North America (import) January 19, 1999 BMG Int'l
Uninted Kingdm (import) January 6, 2003 BMG

References

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Allmusic review
  3. ^ "Siebenpunkt VerlagsGmbH, back catalogue, Amanda Lear". siebenpunkt.com. http://www.siebenpunkt.com/index.php?id=586&L=0. Retrieved 2009-08-26. 
  4. ^ Rubin, Robert Henry (2002). "Amanda Lear for Night". Night Magazine. http://amandalear_jukebox.tripod.com/indexnight_inteview.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
  5. ^ "Amanda Lear's Fan Magazine "Love Story" interview". eurodancehits.com. 1997. http://www.eurodancehits.com/learinterviews.html. Retrieved 2009-08-26.