Like many easy listening and adult pop musicians,
Ray Conniff turned toward modern pop and rock songwriters in the early '70s, in an effort to stay contemporary, which is not necessarily the same thing as getting hip -- although that may have been part of the plan, as well. In any case,
Conniff tackled such current hits as "Hurting Each Other," "A Horse With No Name," and "Without You," as well as such songwriters as
Sonny Bono, on his 1972 album
Love Theme from "The Godfather", treating them to arrangements that had grown familiar to any fan of
Conniff or easy listening in the '70s.
Conniff had backed away from the more interesting tricks and turns of his work a decade earlier, and had settled into sweet, syrupy, orchestral arrangements graced by airy, relentlessly sunny harmony vocals pulled from a
Mitch Miller album. For the most part, this results in music that is so middle-of-the-road it rarely registers outside of background music, and it glides by nicely at that level. Of course, a record like this is primarily of interest to latter-day listeners anxious to discover a new piece of kitsch, and while a quick scan of the songs suggests that this would be great kitsch, it's entirely too MOR to be worth a chuckle, outside of a take on "Theme from 'Shaft"' that is so ridiculous, it feels like
Conniff and crew were in on the joke -- after all, who could sing a line "who's the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the crazy chicks?" without realizing it was silly? That may bring a smile to your face, but the rest of the album is quite forgettable.