Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend)
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend)
| type = studio
| artist = Harold Arlen
| cover = Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend) album cover.jpg
| alt =
| released = 1966
| recorded = 1966
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = Traditional pop, jazz
| length =
| label = Columbia OL 2920{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Harold-Arlen-Harold-Sings-Arlen-With-Friend/release/5498191|title=Harold Arlen – Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend) (Vinyl, LP) |publisher=discogs.com|access-date=30 April 2021}}
| producer = Thomas Z. Shepard
}}
Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend) is a 1966 vocal album by the composer Harold Arlen with arrangements by Peter Matz. Arlen is accompanied on two songs by Barbra Streisand.{{AllMusic|class=album|id=harold-sings-arlen-with-friend-mw0000265882|label=Harold Sings Arlen (With Friend)}} This was Arlen's only album on which he performed as a singer.{{cite book|author=Edward Jablonski|title=Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsgCHeS69q8C|date=September 1998|publisher=University Press of New England|isbn=978-1-55553-366-3}}
Chris Colfer and Lea Michele performed Matz's arrangement of "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from the album in a 2011 episode of Glee.{{cite book|author1=Danielle Birkett|author2=Dominic McHugh|title=The Wizard of Oz: Musical Adaptations from Baum to MGM and Beyond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFByDwAAQBAJ|date=4 December 2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-066317-9|page=226}}
Reception
{{Album ratings
|rev1 = Allmusic
}}
The initial Billboard review from April 16, 1966 said that Arlen "...has a way with a vocal that's quite winning" and that "his manner is soft but persuasive". The album was one of Billboards 'Pop Special Merit Picks' for the week.{{cite magazine |magazine=Billboard |title=Special Merit Picks: Pop Special Merit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EykEAAAAMBAJ |date=16 April 1966 |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |page=42}}
William Ruhlmann reviewed the album for Allmusic and wrote that Arlen "proves he can carry a tune" on the album but "Arlen's modest singing voice doesn't quite justify the treatment" of a fully orchestrated album though he sings the lyrics with "feeling and understanding".
Streisand's vocal on "House of Flowers" has been particularly praised; Arlen's biographer Edward Jablonski described it as a "classic" and Billboard wrote that it was a "knockout".
Track listing
:All songs composed by Harold Arlen, with lyricists indicated
- "Blues in the Night" (Johnny Mercer) – 3:55
- "Little Biscuit" (E.Y. "Yip" Harburg) – 3:54
- "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" (Harburg) – 1:54
- "A Sleepin' Bee" (Truman Capote) – 3:39
- "In the Shade of the New Apple Tree" (Harburg) – 4:02
- "Hit the Road to Dreamland" (Mercer) – 2:35
- "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" (Mercer) – 2:37
- "My Shining Hour" (Mercer) – 3:21
- "Today I Love Everybody" (Dorothy Fields) – 2:08
- "House of Flowers" (Capote) – 2:43
- "For Every Man There's a Woman" (Leo Robin) – 2:25
- "That's a Fine Kind O' Freedom" (Martin Charnin) – 2:39
Personnel
- Harold Arlen – vocals
- Barbra Streisand – vocals on "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" and "House of Flowers"
- Peter Matz – arranger
- Thomas Z. Shepard – production