It's been inescapable--the last 36 hours we've been subject to endless TV and internet replay of the Obamas' first dance as First Couple, and that means the first sung lines of Beyoncé's cover of "At Last" is stuck in our collective pop culture brain like a skipped record. Beyoncé makes a fair attempt at recreating the iconic magic of Etta James (whom Beyoncé played recently in the movie Cadillac Records) but need I point out that Beyoncé is no Etta James?
Etta James' "At Last" (1961) is certainly well-known and rightly so; it's a gorgeous recording. Opening with a lovely sweep of strings and a pulsing piano driving the song forward, James' strong, ragged-around-the-edges vocal is the real pleasure.
The song is a great vocal showcase, dropping low and soaring high to deliver the expectant surprise of the lyric. I suppose that's what draws vocalists to "At Last" in the first place, but as I started to muse over other covers of the song, I was quickly reminded that all covers are not created equal!
One of my favorite recordings of "At Last" is the GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA (1942) with RAY EBERLE performing the vocal. As you would expect from a Miller tune, this is smooth stuff with a strong horn section backing Eberle's rich Crosby-like croon. It makes you want to slow dance with a tall, handsome somebody you met during the War. Recommended.
LOU RAWLS named an entire album after the song (1989) and recorded "At Last" as a duet with the deeply fabulous DIANNE REEVES. The arrangement is, unfortunately, very 1980s with a synth-driven beat (is that a drum machine?!) I'd think the song would be a great fit for Rawls, but his vocal is pedestrian at best, while Reeves has some moments where she threatens to steal the number and perform it to best effect. Ultimately, it's not her showcase. A Missed Opportunity.
Oh, JIMMY SCOTT. Gorgeous. His "At Last" (1992) is, in my opinion, the best of this lot. It may be heresy to opine that Scott's vocal is better than Etta James', but I find it more moving. Scott's musical arrangement, however, isn't nearly as appealing. Scott sings with unusual vocal cadences that force your ear to hear most everything he sings anew, even if (as is typical) he is covering songs you have heard several hundred times before. He seems to feel his songs very deeply, so the sense of revelation in Scott's "At Last"--the joy of finding that unexpected love--is very palpable. While this arrangement relies heavily on a string orchestra, it doesn't have the charm of the instrumentation that charges Etta's version. Nonetheless, Jimmy Scott's cover is a worthy successor. Highly Recommended.
A former co-worker from my Time Inc. days, MARIA POSTELL recorded a swinging cover of "At Last" on her album "At This Moment" (1998). Postell delivers the lyrics with flair and displays a vibrant chemistry with the small jazz combo backing her. It's a solid version that keeps you paying attention to the lyric. Enjoyable.
As her career was taking off in 2000, CHRISTINA AGUILERA's ABC-TV special (now a DVD) included "At Last" as a sort of insider's look at backstage hijinks, performing the song for friends and crew
VIDEO: Christina Aguilera's "At Last"
Aguilera had grown up loving the song, and she's not bad--she's a little girl with a big voice she hasn't yet grown into, and she's definitely showing off. Surprisingly, it mostly works. It's an interesting outtake, and you can see shades of the dirrty tranny clown she was to become later, but basically she pulls it off. An Interesting Novelty.While similar in orchestrated approach to Scott's version, JONI MITCHELL's cloying "At Last" (2000) is smothered by ghastly cinematic strings. This isn't surprising inasmuch as Mitchell has been given to fully orchestrated versions of her work in recent years. It's also not a surprising choice for Mitchell to record. In her own songwriting she has often paid tribute through lyric or musical reference to R&B tunes and jukebox hits from her youth. What is surprising is how awful this cover is: even with Mitchell in appealing voice, it's so forcibly "pretty" it's like pouring syrup into your eardrums and drowning as it drains into your sinuses. Saccharine.
In a bare-bones "At Last" (piano and very spare strings) CYNDI LAUPER (2003) seems to be deconstructing the song but it resolutely doesn't work. It's too bad, because Lauper--like so many of the folks in this post--has a strikingly powerful voice. This recording, however, adds up to nothing except some strikingly ugly notes held too long. It's also strange that Lauper sounds so unhappy while singing here; it's completely at odds with the lyric. Puzzling.
CELINE DION performed the song in her long-running Vegas show A New Day (2004). Badly. No diction, no emotion, no apparent understanding of the lyric; Dion seems to be performing it phonetically. This "At Last" opens with what sounds like a Kenny G electronic oboe over a karaoke bar orchestration. The usual grotesque melisma. Nothing to see here; move along. Worst of the lot.
Thank you, Lord, for those increasingly rare occasions when PHOEBE SNOW records: her live version (1991) is theatric camp but it must have been riveting for the lucky audience. Snow boldly uses "At Last" in a manner many of these other vocalists have just hinted at: she hijacks it as a showcase for her magnificent voice. There are not many voices as powerful as Snow's and here she squeals, shouts, wails, and wrestles the song into complete submission. It's an ecstatic delivery; triumphal and surprised and sexy. It culminates in a crazy bit of vocalizing that is pure Phoebe and concludes with one clarion note that must have brought them to their feet. Silly but Quite Wonderful.
ARETHA FRANKLIN (she of the Inaugural Bonnet!) recorded the song, but it was cut from her 1974 album "Let Me In Your Life". God knows why, because it's a great cover with all the wonder of Aretha's voice in her prime. An orchestrated slow-funk groove allows Aretha to swoop and sail soulfully around the proceedings. It's a classic and gorgeous "At Last"; ample evidence of why Aretha is regarded as highly as she is. Highly Recommended.
