| I Enjoy Being a Girl | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1989 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Folk, folk rock | |||
| Length | 34:56 | |||
| Label | Island | |||
| Producer | Victor DeLorenzo | |||
| Phranc chronology | ||||
| ||||
I Enjoy Being a Girl is an album by the American musician Phranc, released in 1989. [1] [2] She supported the album with a North American tour. [3]
The album was produced by Victor DeLorenzo. [4] "I Enjoy Being a Girl" is a cover of the 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein composition from Flower Drum Song . [5] [6] "M-A-R-T-I-N-A" is about Martina Navratilova. [7] "Bloodbath" criticizes Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. [8] "Myriam and Esther" is dedicated to Phranc's grandmothers. [9] "Rodeo Parakeet" is about Phranc's bird that enjoys riding on dogs. [10] "Toy Time" is a tribute to Toys "R" Us. [11]
The album cover art was in part inspired by a photo of Alice Faye. [12] Orson Bean wrote the liner notes. [13]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [14] |
| Robert Christgau | B [15] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [16] |
| Houston Chronicle | [17] |
| Orlando Sentinel | [7] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 6/10 [18] |
The Calgary Herald determined that the "heavy-handed protest anthems are the album's weaker entries." [19] The Globe and Mail deemed the album "a delightful piece of work: funny, committed, romantic and charming." [20]
The Washington Post wrote that Phranc "has a warm but not particularly lovely voice, and her strumming is basic at best, but she's a folk singer in the true sense of the word—she seizes her inspiration of the moment and makes music about it." [21] The Houston Chronicle praised the "earnest, endearing quality not unlike Jonathan Richman." [17]
AllMusic wrote that "'Myriam and Esther', a traditional folk ballad with a distinctly female perspective, is the type of earnest song that only Phranc seems able to pull off in post-modern times." [14]
All tracks composed by Phranc; except where indicated
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Island | CD | 422–842 579-2 | |
| LP | 422–842 579-1 | |||
| Cassette | 422-842-579-4 | |||
| 1990 | PolyGram | CD | 842579 |
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
South Pacific is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The work premiered in 1949 on Broadway and was an immediate hit, running for 1,925 performances. The plot is based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific and combines elements of several of those stories. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, send a strong progressive message on racism.
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943.
Flower Drum Song was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the West End and on tour. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film.
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Phranc, is an American singer-songwriter whose career began playing in several bands in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk rock scene. Her musical style later shifted during the 1980s as a solo artist, into a self-proclaimed "All-American Jewish lesbian folksinger."
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Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer, songwriter and story teller.
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I Hear a Symphony is the eighth studio album released by American girl group the Supremes on the Motown label in 1966.
"I Enjoy Being a Girl" is a show tune from the 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song. It is the showpiece for the character of Linda Low, the lead showgirl. The musical is a comedic love story about growing up Chinese in America, the clash between the traditional values of the old country and the modern ways of America.
Flower Drum Song is a 1961 American musical film directed by Henry Koster, adapted from the 1958 Broadway musical Flower Drum Song, written by the composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, in turn based on the 1957 novel of the same name by the Chinese American author Chin Yang Lee. The film stars Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki, Jack Soo, Benson Fong and Juanita Hall. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
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"Someday Soon" is a song composed by Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Tyson who recorded the song with Sylvia Fricker as the duo Ian & Sylvia in 1963. Cited by Richie Unterberger of Allmusic as "clearly point[ing] toward [its writer's] future C&W/cowboy direction", "Someday Soon" would be brought to prominence via a 1968 recording by Judy Collins, and subsequently recorded by a number of artists primarily in the country and western field. In 2010 "Someday Soon" was honored by the Western Writers of America as one of the "Top 100 Western Songs" of all time.
On Broadway Volume 2 is the fourth album by Paul Motian to be released on the German JMT label. It was released in 1989 and features performances of Broadway show tunes by Motian with guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Charlie Haden and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano. The album was followed by three subsequent volumes, and it was rereleased on the Winter & Winter label in 2003.
William Currie Watson is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, banjo player, actor and founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show. His debut solo album Folk Singer, Vol. I, was released in May 2014; its follow-up Folksinger, Vol. 2 was released September 15, 2017 on Acony Records. He has appeared at the Newport Folk Festival and other major music festivals. He released a self-titled album of his first collection of self-penned songs on September 13, 2024. He currently resides in the Woodland Hills district of Los Angeles.
The Sound of Music is a 70-minute studio album of Richard Rodgers's and Oscar Hammerstein's 1959 musical, starring Frederica von Stade, Håkan Hagegård and Eileen Farrell, performed with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the direction of Erich Kunzel. It was released in 1988.
