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On this day, 16 September 1974, Welsh music legend Shirley Bassey played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.
Bassey was experiencing a resurgence 1970 leading to one of the most successful periods of her career. Starting the year with a BBC Television 'Special' The Young Generation Meet Shirley Bassey, recorded in Sweden and shown on BBC1 on 18 March.
She returned to the UK with a record-breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Also that year, her album Something was released, and showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements (the eponymous single was more successful in the UK charts than the original recording by The Beatles) – although Bassey would never completely abandon what that had been her forte: standards, show tunes, and torch songs.
Nobody Does It Like Me is a 1974 album by Shirley Bassey. Bassey's recordings had been selling well since 1970, scoring three top ten singles and three ten top albums. Nobody Does It Like Me was recorded with a new producer, George Butler, and brought a partial return to the traditional pop sound of Bassey's pre-1970s career. Here, the title track "Nobody Does It Like Me" and "When You Smile" harken back to the big band era. Bassey's soaring vocals on Paul Anka's "I'm Not Anyone" and the slightly funky "Morning in Your Eyes" contrast with a delicately rendered "Davy". The duet "Davy", recorded with the song's composer Benard Ighner, is one of the rare occasions that Bassey would share the credits with another vocalist; it was also issued as a single and hit #44 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The album closes with Bassey's reading of Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". This album failed to chart in the UK, and peaked at #142 in the US. Her next two studio albums would be top 15 albums in the UK.
