tue 12/11/2024

Kiki Dee's soulful Sixties finally heard on CD | reviews, news & interviews

Kiki Dee's soulful Sixties finally heard on CD

Kiki Dee's soulful Sixties finally heard on CD

Kiki Dee's sixties reclaimed by bang-on sixties' comp

'I'm Kiki Dee - The Fontana Years 1963-1968': A treasure-filled essential album

The summer 1976 hit “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was Kiki Dee’s chart highlight. The duet with Elton John was inescapable, happy, upbeat, irresistible. A Number One, it peaked a chart run on his Rocket Records that began with her 1973 cover of Veronique Sansons’s “Amoureuse”. “I’ve Got the Music in Me” then hit the Top 20 in 1974. Kiki still plays live and records, but the treasure-filled and essential I’m Kiki Dee - The Fontana Years 1963-1968 – out this week – reveals her musical prehistory for the first time. There’s more to Kiki than the hits.

The summer 1976 hit “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was Kiki Dee’s chart highlight. The duet with Elton John was inescapable, happy, upbeat, irresistible. A Number One, it peaked a chart run on his Rocket Records that began with her 1973 cover of Veronique Sansons’s “Amoureuse”. “I’ve Got the Music in Me” then hit the Top 20 in 1974. Kiki still plays live and records, but the treasure-filled and essential I’m Kiki Dee - The Fontana Years 1963-1968 – out this week – reveals her musical prehistory for the first time. There’s more to Kiki than the hits.

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For the people who put down Kiki Dee, remember that having a hit is not making music. Kiki has always been more than the sum of her hits. This CD is an important piece of her history and shows why Tamla took such an interest in her. Whilst this looks like the end of her re-issues, many more tracks are still out there to be re-issued, including her foreign releases during the Fontana period and the material released afterwards but not on on her normal labels. Kiki is a musician's musician and not a top ten wonder, check out the the various endorsements by the likes of Scott Walker during the 60s and David Bowie during the 70s. Kiki does 'have the music in me'.

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