Please Don't Make Me Too Happy

Please Don't Make Me Too Happy

Please Don't Make Me Too Happy

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
On the up side, Christine Lavin's eighth album, Please Don't Make Me Too Happy, includes three hilarious stand-up monologues thinly disguised as folksongs. "Oh No" resembles a Lucille Ball routine where the comedienne can't find her glasses, her purse, or her phone book. "Waiting for the B Train" is a slice-of-life, absurdist narrative from the New York subway system, and the album's title track is a wonderfully exaggerated worry-fest about growing too contented to write meaningful folksongs. On the down side, the album's other nine songs are eye-glazingly earnest. On "Jane," she turns a reunion with a long-lost friend into a smug, humorless put-down of housewives everywhere. On "The Sixth Floor," a song about the Kennedy Museum in Dallas, Lavin manages to make the most controversial historical event of her lifetime deadly dull. Several numbers about the single life wallow in self-pity. And teaming up with musicians who have played with the Band, Nanci Griffith, Bryan Adams, the Max Weinberg Seven, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra doesn't flesh out Lavin's notoriously thin music so much as it exposes just how limited a singer she is. --Geoffrey Himes

Please Don't Make Me Too Happy,Christine Lavin,Shanachie,Folk,Folk & Traditional,Pop
Broadway: America's Music 1935-2005
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Broadway: America's Music 1935-2005

    Manufacturer: Decca Broadway
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

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    ASIN: B000B8I93Q
    Release Date: 2005-10-18

    Tracks:

    1. Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'
    2. Summertime
    3. I Could Write a Book
    4. It Never Entered My Mind
    5. I Can Cook Too
    6. Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please
    7. If I Loved You
    8. My Heart Belongs to Daddy
    9. Thou Swell
    10. I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen
    11. There's No Business Like Show Business
    12. South American Way

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    1. Shall We Dance
    2. Ohio
    3. Luck Be a Lady
    4. Mack the Knife
    5. There's a Small Hotel
    6. Once in Love with Amy
    7. Yodel Blues
    8. Lazy Afternoon
    9. There Must Be Somethin' Better Than Love
    10. You're Just in Love
    11. Now Is the Time

    Tracks:

    1. Impossible Dream
    2. Love Makes the World Go 'Round
    3. Try to Remember
    4. Put on a Happy Face
    5. I Say Hello
    6. Happiness
    7. She Loves Me
    8. What Kind of Fool Am I?
    9. Shy
    10. Consider Yourself
    11. Poor Little Person

    Tracks:

    1. Magic to Do
    2. They're Playing My Song
    3. I Don't Know How to Love Him
    4. I Won't Send Roses
    5. Good Morning Starshine
    6. Don't Cry for Me, Argentina
    7. Hard Candy Christmas
    8. Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
    9. Won't You Charleston with Me?
    10. Applause

    Tracks:

    1. Phantom of the Opera
    2. Memory
    3. On My Own
    4. Muddy Water
    5. How Could I Ever Know
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    7. I Know Him So Well
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    10. Suddenly Seymour

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    1. Mamma Mia!
    2. Popular
    3. Seasons of Love
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    5. Whatever Lola Wants
    6. Crazy
    7. How Deep Is Your Love
    8. Stars
    9. People Like Us
    10. I Go to Rio
    Please Don't Make Me Too Happy
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • I fear my rhyming days are through
    • Some Really Good Songs
    • Another gem
    • Jagged Hearts
    • Wonderful...sad and real
    		 Please Don't Make Me Too Happy
    Christine Lavin
    Manufacturer: Shanachie
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    GeneralGeneral | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
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    ASIN: B000000DU3
    Release Date: 1995-02-21

    Tracks:

    1. Oh No
    2. Constant State Of Want
    3. Psychic
    4. The Secrets At This Wedding
    5. The Sixth Floor
    6. Jane
    7. Jagged Hearts
    8. Scatter New Seeds
    9. Waiting For The B Train
    10. Something Is Wrong With This Picture
    11. *69
    12. Please Don't Make Me Too Happy
    13. Oh No

    Amazon.com

    On the up side, Christine Lavin's eighth album, Please Don't Make Me Too Happy, includes three hilarious stand-up monologues thinly disguised as folksongs. "Oh No" resembles a Lucille Ball routine where the comedienne can't find her glasses, her purse, or her phone book. "Waiting for the B Train" is a slice-of-life, absurdist narrative from the New York subway system, and the album's title track is a wonderfully exaggerated worry-fest about growing too contented to write meaningful folksongs. On the down side, the album's other nine songs are eye-glazingly earnest. On "Jane," she turns a reunion with a long-lost friend into a smug, humorless put-down of housewives everywhere. On "The Sixth Floor," a song about the Kennedy Museum in Dallas, Lavin manages to make the most controversial historical event of her lifetime deadly dull. Several numbers about the single life wallow in self-pity. And teaming up with musicians who have played with the Band, Nanci Griffith, Bryan Adams, the Max Weinberg Seven, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra doesn't flesh out Lavin's notoriously thin music so much as it exposes just how limited a singer she is. --Geoffrey Himes

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars I fear my rhyming days are through.......2005-01-07

    I got this album after hearing some of Christine's humorous songs. I was somewhat disappointed to find out that most of the songs on this album are serious. They are not bad songs, they are just not what I expected. And there are a few good funny songs. Christine is a clever songwriter, and fans of contemporary folk would probably enjoy her music.

    3 out of 5 stars Some Really Good Songs.......2003-07-16

    I bought this Cd for 'Constant State of Want' after it played on Public Radio. I am quite pleased with the album. Several of the songs are stellar - 'Jane', 'The Sixth Floor', 'Jagged Hearts', 'Scatter New Seeds', 'Something Wrong with This Picture' are all great songs. The others are not bad, just unusual - you have to keep in mind that Lavin is a humorist so songs like 'Waiting for the B Train' and '*69' tell humorous stories. 'Waiting for the B Train' is hilarious - about people standing at the subway when someone thinks they see a puppy on the track and trying to get someone to go get it.

    5 out of 5 stars Another gem.......1999-12-10

    Christine Lavin's albums always are full of astute observations on the challenges and absurdities life throws at us. This album is no exception. She mixes humor and angst with a deft touch and produces a great album!

    3 out of 5 stars Jagged Hearts.......1999-01-23

    The great thing about buying a Christine Lavin album (I guess I'm dating myself by using the word "album") is that even her worst efforts have at least one incredible song that so applies to you and the way that you feel (or once felt) that you just HAVE to own it, and then play that song over and over, until you've memorized the song, then you play another thousand times, just so you can sing along, and if you're lucky, you end up feeling a little better, even if you didn't realize that you even really felt all that bad in the first place! On this lp, that song is "Jagged Hearts". The others range from "ok" to "pretty good", and for you that one "great" song may be a totally different one, but Christine Lavin is one of those very rare artists that you can always count on to give you (at the very least) one song that you will never forget. How many others can you say that about?

    5 out of 5 stars Wonderful...sad and real.......1998-11-29

    Christine can sound sad, or happy, or bizarre, but she's always Christine. This is the album that turned me from a fan to a fanatic -- it's a poet's vision of modern life and the weird things it makes us do. I highly recommend it.

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