“Patricia Welch has a gorgeous voice. I have heard her sing several times in person, and she always thrills the audience.” – Andy Williams

Speaking of testimonials, another great singer who intimately knows my work is Wayne Newton, Mr. Las Vegas, with whom I toured for two years, also performing in his show.  He gave me this for his testimonial.

“Patricia Welch has perfect pitch, no gimmicks, dedicated and disciplined and sings with great heart. She truly has an angelic voice and onstage she is an automatic standing ovation.”- Wayne Newton

Unchained Melody

Now, many people think of the word, “unchained” in “unchained melody” as referring to the powerful range of sound and emotion in the song, but the reality is that the song originated as the key score in a movie called, “Unchained” by the singer, Todd Duncan.

It didn’t really gain its popularity until the Righteous Brothers recorded it again in 1965. Of course it gained even more steam after its appearance in the Hollywood hit, “Ghost.”

I actually performed this song at La Quinta Country Club for a private party some years ago. It so happened that Andy Williams was attending that party and when I began the song, “Unchained Melody,” Andy nudged his companion and said, “She’ll never get to the end of this song in this high key.”

I had started at G and he would have been right except, fortunately, I have a four-octave range. Andy Williams was gracious enough to say this about this CD set before he passed on in 2012.

Fly Me To The Moon

One of my favorite songs is called, “Fly Me To the Moon,” which has an amazing longevity and a very powerful history of being re-recorded as a cover song from its first initiation by Kay Ballard in 1954. It got a tremendous boost from Peggy Lee when she sang it on the Ed Sullivan Show, comparable in a way to our American Idol in so far as it introduced new songs and singers over many years. Back in those days, it was called “In Other Words” from the famous lyric, “In other words, hold my hand.” A few years later, Peggy Lee, asked Bart Howard, the writer, to change it to “Fly Me to the Moon.”

It went through about 100 cover songs until Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1964. By the time Wall Street, the movie came around, the song, which began the maga-hit film had reached about 300 covers. Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulder of giants.” Well, so if Sir Isaac wasn’t intimidated by standing on the shoulders of others, why should I be?

Also Ella Fitzgerald, Bobbie Gentrie, Emmylou Harris, Lizza Minelli and Johnny Mathis. Why not? Oh, yea, Elvis Presley. Here’s a small piece of Dionne Warwick’s performance: Here’s my version of “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”

I’ll Never Fall In Love Again

Another song that I loved working on was “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” It is a wonderful tribute to the eternal ambiguity of many love relationships. Not mine, thank God- but I still enjoy taking different roles in my songs- and this one came straight out of a musical, “Promises, Promises.”

It contains one of the world’s strangest lyrical rhymes.

“What do you get when you kiss a guy?
You get enough germs to catch pneumonia
After you do, he’ll never phone ya-“

“Pneumonia-“ “Phone ya-“????????  This is a stretch, but such a clever, funny line, developed by lyricist Hal David while his composer/partner, famed composer Burt Bacharach, was in the hospital. David supposedly denied any connection, but who knows. Did I enjoy competing with the song performed by Dionne Warwick, which became an international best seller and won Dionne a 1971 Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Female Performance. You bet’ya…

Eden Ahbez Version of  “Nature Boy”

Nature Boy

Perhaps one of the most unusual songs in my collection is “Nature Boy” by Eden Ahbez, an American singer/songwriter with an unusual lifestyle, focused on living in Nature and eating raw nuts, fruits and vegetables. Here’s  picture of his album, which was produced somewhat after his hit song became famous.

The result was that the song was recorded in 1947 and eventually sold a million copies, allowing Cole to become appreciated by the white audience and its market and earning Ahbez royalties. Here is Nat King Cole’s beautiful version.

“Music for Great Entertaining”
Forty-Six Songs CD Project (Hit Songs From the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s & 90’s)