To me this is certainly a pinnacle of pure late 60s sunshine pop. Composed by pop genius Roger Nichols the timeless, idealistic lyrics were written by Tony Asher (who wrote most of the lyrics with Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds) not by his regular partner Paul Williams. Sunshine pop hardly gets any sunnier than on this track: great production, strings galore, Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies, great bassline & trumpet and catchy as hell with it's uplifting chord progressions throughout. While the album version (recently included on the highly recommended "The Get Easy! Sunshine Pop Collection") is good already, the single version is just crisper, lusher, just perfect.

Isobel Campbell was, of course, a member of Belle & Sebastian as well as the lead singer in The Gentle Waves, a disguised solo project backed by members of Belle & Sebastian. Her first "real" solo record "Amorino" was finally released in 2003. This wonderful cover version was only released on her 2004 EP "Time Is Just The Same". And while it's already great to see a Morricone cover version these days, this one is really amazing too. It just suits Mrs. Campbells airy, fairy-like voice perfectly. Compared to the Astrud Gilberto from 1971 this version feels even lighter, calmer, more stripped down since it's not orchestrated with strings.

Alessandroni is probably best known for his characterstic whistling on Ennio Morricone's spaghetti soundtracks. Apart from that he was also one of the few sitar players at the time, guitar player, composer, arranger and the founder of the chorus group "I Cantori Moderni" that was featured on a lot of italian soundtracks of the 60s. In the early 70s he had the opportunity to record a "solo" album, not a score, with a big orchestra without any restrictions (which means it didn't had to fit the mood of a film). The result was "Prisma Sonoro" and it's very Morricone-esque stylewise and regarding the texture of the music with lush strings, horns, wordless vocals,harpsicords etc. Unfortunately it's scarcely available on vinyl, but the track "Punti di vista" was issued as "A spanish village" as a bonus track on the Hexacord release "Di Tresette Ce N'E' Uno Tutti Gli Altri Son Nessuno & Other Western Themes".

For "The Look Of Love" Diana Krall managed to bring the legendary Claus Ogerman out of his retirement as an arranger (in fact, at that point, he didn't arrange for other people for 15 years or so). That was due to the fact that Krall's longtime producer, Tommy LiPuma (who did some marvelous production work for A&M in the late 60s e.g. for Claudine Longet or The Sandpipers) used to work with Ogerman in the past and so Claus got on board. While Krall's jazz followers found the result all too schmaltzy i just love it. The track is a very laid back, gentle, cool sounding version with a subtle bossa rhythm. And the arrangement and production is as immaculate as you might expect with Mrs. Krall giving a fine vocal performance, reminding me a lot of Julie London.

This track is delicately built upon a sample from the first opening bars of "The End Of A Love Affair" by Julie London, a song i absolutely love (and was recommended by delicado somewhere else on this site). Further on Ollano add a gentle bossa nova rhythm to the track and light, breezy vocals (in french) by Helena Noguerra. Evokes a feeling of a mild, sunny day at a lovely seaside.