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HEART AND SOUL: NEW SONGS FROM ALLY McBEAL is the second collection of music performed by singer-songwriter (and regular cast member) Vonda Shepard from the Fox TV series, which won an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series and Golden Globe Awards for two years in a row. The album is released November 9, 1999 on 550 Music/Sony Music Soundtrax.
The first collection of Songs From Ally McBeal (released May 1998) has been certified US double platinum for sales of over two million copies, and has sold an additional 2.2 million internationally for a worldwide total of more than four million albums. Nearly 18 months after its release, Songs From Ally McBeal continues to sell more than 3,000 copies each week in the US.
As on the previous album, Heart And Soul features adroit updates of '60s rock and soul classics mixed with plaintive Vonda Shepard originals. The songs are heard during Vonda's weekly McBeal appearance as the singer in the downstairs bar frequented by Ally and her law firm co-workers. Shepard's powerful voice is an integral part of the hit show, with the lyrics of her carefully-chosen songs usually relating to the troubled world of the title character played by Calista Flockheart.
Vonda gets top-notch help on Heart And Soul. Her special guest vocalists are soul legend Al Green, who made his own memorable cameo last season on Ally McBeal; and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls. Shepard's robust core band includes Val McCallum (guitar), who has toured with Natalie Merchant, Peter Gabriel and Seal, and recorded with Sheryl Crow; ex-Cracker bassist Davey Faragher, who's also toured with John Hiatt; and on keyboards, Jeff Young, a longtime member of Jackson Browne's band who has also worked Shawn Colvin and Bonnie Raitt. On drums is none other than Pete Thomas, of Elvis Costello & the Attractions.
Heart And Soul is produced by Vonda Shepard and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Mitchell Froom co-produced 'This is Crazy Now,' 'Baby Don't You Break My Heart Slow,' 'Confetti,' '100 Tears Away' and 'Read Your Mind,' and is credited with '11th hour arrangements' on the latter two tracks.
Vonda Shepard first graced the pop charts back in 1987, with the Top 5 hit 'Can't We Try,' a duet with singer Dan Hill. A New York native who's lived most of her life in Los Angeles, she received a thrill early in her career when she was asked to play keyboards and sing backup in Rickie Lee Jones' touring band. Vonda also sang and played keyboards with Al Jarreau, and sang with Jackson Browne on several major tours. She went on to release six albums as a solo artist, but her work for Ally McBeal (for which she also wrote and sings the theme song) has received the widest exposure.
Shepard returned to New York for a year, when she wrote many of the songs on Heart And Soul.
'It was exciting and lonely and productive...it was everything,' Vonda recalls of the time, during which the first soundtrack album took off. 'I went from a tiny little club to playing for about 10,000 people. My first gig on tour was a festival in Atlanta on the day the Ally McBeal soundtrack was released. I walked out onstage, and my jaw dropped to the floor because I thought they were screaming for somebody else!'
The Shepard-penned 'Baby Don't You Break My Heart Slow' is the new album's first single, on which Vonda Shepard duets with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls. The song first appeared on Shepard's debut solo album; it was re-recorded for her By 7:30 collection as a duet with Saliers.
'I went to see [the Indigos] in concert,' Shepard recalls, 'and Emily told me how much she loved the song. I opened some of their shows and we did it as a duet. It was received so well, we decided to record it for the album.' Other Shepard-penned highlights include the soulfully hooky 'Read Your Mind,' co-written with Mitchell Froom; and 'This Is Crazy Now,' which was featured in the last episode of the series' second season.
Heart And Soul also includes warm renditions of some much-beloved pop and soul classics, none more enchanting than Vonda's duet with Al Green on 'To Sir With Love.' Hearing Green wrap his silky, sexy voice around the old Lulu hit is like meeting up with a long-lost friend.
Other favorite tunes on hand include 'This Old Heart of Mine' (originally recorded by the Isley Brothers), 'Someday We'll Be Together' (Diana Ross & the Supremes), 'Vincent (Starry Starry Night)' (Don McLean), 'Sweet Inspiration' (The Sweet Inspirations, written by the recently resurfaced Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham), and 'World Without Love' (Lennon and McCartney's 1964 songwriting gift to Peter and Gordon).
Vonda Shepard will be performing these great songs old and new through the rest of the year, on concert stages in the United States and Europe--and in that tiny, unnamed bar downstairs, before the eyes of millions.
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