Results

by Liza Minnelli

Overview

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

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/2017
Label:	Sony Music
UPC:	8718627225158

Tracks

1. I Want You to Know
2. Losing My Mind
3. If There Was Love
4. So Sorry, I Said
5. Don't Drop Bombs
6. Twist in My Sobriety
7. Rent
8. Love Pains
9. Tonight Is Forever
10. I Can't Say Goodnight

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Liza Minnelli   Primary Artist,Vocals
Pet Shop Boys   Guest Artist
Anne Dudley   Conductor
Tessa Niles   Vocals (Background)
Andy Richards   Fairlight,Keyboards
J.J. Belle   Guitar
Courtney Pine   Saxophone
Carol Kenyon   Vocals (Background)
Julian Mendelsohn   Vocals,Fairlight,Keyboards
Katie Kissoon   Vocals (Background)
Chris Lowe   Fairlight,Keyboards
Danny Cummings   Percussion
Neil Tennant   Vocals,Vocoder,Keyboards
C.J. Mackintosh   Scratching
Peter Vitesse   Piano,Keyboards
Gary Maughan   Fairlight
Donald Johnson   Rap
C.J. Macintosh   Scratching

Technical Credits

Tanita Tikaram   Composer
John Kander   Composer
Steve Barri   Composer
Angelo Badalamenti   Arranger,Orchestral Arrangements
Andy Richards   Programming
Fred Ebb   Composer
Pet Shop Boys   Mixing,Producer,Remixing
Julian Mendelsohn   Mixing,Engineer,Producer,Remixing,Programming,Drum Programming
Chris Lowe   Composer,Programming
Harvey Price   Composer
Anne Dudley   Orchestral Arrangements,Arranger
Dan Walsh   Composer
Stephen Sondheim   Composer
Neil Tennant   Composer
C.J. Mackintosh   Drum Programming
Les Massengale   Editing
Daniel Walsh   Composer
Christopher Austopchuk   Art Direction
Renny Hill   Engineer
Terry O'Neill   Photography
David LaChapelle   Photography
Gary Maughan   Programming
Mark Farrow   Sleeve Design
Paul West   Sleeve Design
Michael Price   Composer
C.J. Macintosh   Drum Programming
Bradley D. Hinkle   Editing
Danton Supple   Assistant Engineer