From MIKI SINGS BILLIE
Written by Jack Wolf, Joel Herron & Frank Sinatra
If you are among the many fans of Michael Bublè and all those David Foster grand productions, you should check out this fine record by Miki Howard, released in 1993, produced by Foster and LeMel Humes. Howard is a talented singer with a warm and seductive voice. She first started her career at the end of the seventies with the r&b/jazz group Side Effect. She then developed a solo career that brought her on the r&b charts with singles like “Come Share My Love,” “Baby Be Mine,” and even two #1s, “Ain’t Nuthin’ In The World” and “Ain’t Nobody Like You.” She first worked with Foster in 1992 when he produced a couple of solid tracks on her “Femme Fatale” cd. She also portrayed Billie Holiday in the Spike Lee movie “Malcolm X” that probably gave her the inspiration for the “Miki Sings Billie” project. The cd is filled with Holiday’s immortal melodies like “My Man,” “Solitude,” and “Don’t Explain.” All the songs are faithful to the atmosphere and feel of the originals and the production is lush and sophisticated. Howard, on the other hand, has been smart enough to keep her own singing style without trying to copy Holiday.
“I’m A Fool To Want You” is the most “fosterized” of the songs included in this collection. The track is wonderfully reworked without losing one bit of its magic and intensity. Foster is simply the best when he contemporizes a classic song. He is able to modernize it without losing the main elements of the original recording. Programmed drums, synths and keyboards are perfectly mixed with the soothing strings as a passionate Howard sings the bittersweet lyrics with class and style.
Listen
[audio:https://www.fozfan.com/archives/clips/i_m_a_fool_to_want_you.mp3|titles=I’m a fool to want you|artists=Miki Howard]
Lead Vocals: Miki Howard
Keyboards: David Foster
Produced & Arranged by David Foster
Lyrics
I’m a fool to want you
I’m a fool to want you
To want a love that can’t be true
A love that’s there for others too
I’m a fool to hold you
Such a fool to hold you
To seek a kiss not mine alone
To share a kiss the devil has known
Time and time again I said I’d leave you
Time and time again I went away
Then would come the time when I would need you
And once again these words I’d have to say
I’m a fool to want you
Pity me, I need you
I know it’s wrong
It must be wrong
But right or wrong
I can’t get along
Without you
Time and time again I said I’d leave you
Time and time again I went away
Then would come the time when I would need you
And once again these words I’d have to say
I’m a fool to want you
Pity me, I need you
I know it’s wrong
It must be wrong
But right or wrong
I can’t get along
Without you