In between helming an incredible nine Reprise albums for Nancy Sinatra (1966-69), Hazlewood’s dazzlingly brief MGM career fetched up three solo efforts. The Very Special World Of… and Lee Hazlewood-ism: Its Cause And Cure are both indelibly stamped with the man’s chocolate-deep tenor and arranger Billy Strange’s grandiose orchestral vistas.
The real treat is Something Special, shelved at the time to ease the return to Reprise and here making its digital debut. Pared down to acoustic guitar and piano, this is Hazlewood at once ruminative, playful and self-lacerating, not least on “Stone Cold Blues”: “Why do they call the steak Sinatral And the hamburger Hazlewood?” Essential cuisine nonetheless.
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