YRMU - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!

[Albertan]

David,

I am now one very happy camper !!!

My two favorite musical groups are Celtic Woman (mostly vocals with some instrumentals) and Secret Garden (mostly instrumentals with some vocals), so I was delighted that the Secret Garden number "You Raise Me Up" has become Celtic Woman's concert signature piece.

However, my joy has been tempered by the fact that -- despite very lovely singing -- the CW arrangement was based on the butchered Josh Groban cover of this song, which completely omits the second stanza. To me as a SG fan, that is anathema.

But imagine my sheer delight when I received my CW "Greatest Journey" CD today and for the first time heard the delightful strains of CW singing BOTH stanzas of my favorite SG song. Life doesn't get much sweeter than this!!

This is such a fine arrangement that I hope it becomes the norm for all future performances of this song -- and may they indeed be many!!

Thank you, David, thank you! You cannot imagine how much this means to me!

(But now I guess I'll have to develop a new signature!!  )

Gordon

[Albertan]

Butchered Josh Groban version?!?!?!
I'm appauled [sic].
I love Josh's version.

He sings it nicely; but I feel that he tries to show off his voice too much by going over and over and over and over the chorus--each time with more vocal embellishment--while in the process emasculating the song itself by entirely forgetting about 50% of the stanzas. No excuse for that!

Prior to this CW release, my favorite cover was Sissel's. She gets it right!

Gordon

[Western_Rose]

I adore Sissel, funny when I heard her version that was the first time I ever heard the second verse and I was like "Huh? it had another verse?!" as for how she sang it I'd have to hear it again to judge. it seems like everybody sings YRMU, its become a must for Cross-over singers, so it can make some people (Critic-wise, all my friends adore it) be kind of "Iffy" about it. But it's a lovely song, I just don't listen to it much cause its not one of my all time favorites. As for CW adding the new verse I thought was a nice touch, I agree with Albertan repeating the chorus over and over can get a little (lack of words  ) - you know. Not to mention it gives Lynn a solo!

[Albertan]

Brett,

I think our discussions have been going two places at once. I have to take responsibility for that because I wasn't very precise in my first posting. To clarify, my objection to Josh Groban's YRMU, to CW's earlier versions, and regrettably to many other covers that have followed Josh's lead, is not with the PERFORMANCES as such (Josh's and CW's in particular have some very nice singing), but with the ARRANGEMENT. Leaving out the second stanza, IMHO, "butchers" (to use my original term) the integrity of the song by chopping out half the stanza lyrics. The Secret Garden fan part of me was not amused.

But by the same token, the latest CW rendition and Sissel's cover are true to the integrity of the arrangement of the Secret Garden original, which features Brian Kennedy (stanza 1) and Tracey Campbell-Nation (stanza 2), and are therefore preferable in my estimation. Whether or not one likes the singing of a particular performance is a whole 'nother issue -- and tastes will no doubt vary!

BTW, for the celtic-at-heart, the Secret Garden original also has a nice uillean pipe solo following the first chorus -- another plus!!

Gordon