Review: Michael Buble

Subject: RE: Review: Michael Buble has no talent
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Oct 18 - 06:21 PM

Well, I added to this thread,
just in time to discover

"This is my last interview. I'm retiring"

Subject: RE: Review: Michael Buble
From: Acorn4
Date: 13 Oct 18 - 03:53 AM

This Christmas wandered I unsure
Into that CD megastore
Among the shelves I the did slope
To that small section labelled "folk".
With Steeleye Span I made my way
Unto the ckeckout for to pay.
I handed my CD at which
A 'cool' young man began his pitch:
Would I like from this display
Christmas songs by Michael Buble
All for two pounds ninety nine-
Special offer for Christmas time.
I'm sure these songs so old and cheesy
Will make your Christmas listening easy.
A strange look came into this young man's eye
When I gave him my reply.
"Would this Blooblay bloke blee my desire
When I'm clutching Maddy Plyor?
One could hardly miss them after all
With a pile of the bloody things nearly three feet tall
Rather than buy this disc compact
The norovirus I'd contract
Such clooners are just not my thing
Neither clave I Criff nor Bing.
So may your Christmas bring you cheer
And hasten in a good New Year
And keep us all from toil and trouble
Torment us not with Michael Blubble;
And keep us free from very ague
Especially from Blublonic plague!

Subject: RE: Review: Michael Buble
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 13 Oct 18 - 02:10 AM

I like Michael and he has really studied his craft.
The Youtube clip below gives an insight into how he has analysed the vocal mannerisms of the singers that he admires.

Youtube Clip

Subject: RE: Review: Michael Buble
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Oct 18 - 11:07 PM

Big Como fan since I was in diapers. He doesn't seem to have been as much played in the modern era as his contemporaries Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and Andy Williams. Most often I hear him when the movie "Odessa File" gets aired. Perry is singing the Christmas song on Jon Voight's car radio. Good song. Good singer. Even Jon is smiling.

No comment on Michael Buble. I have not really been exposed to him. Starbucks' playlists don't have him, although they have many songs that I really don't like, or are overplayed. But that's for another thread.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: gillymor
Date: 12 Oct 18 - 03:14 PM

It's become a tradition around here to
watch his Xmas specials. I kind of like his laid-back, unpretentious style. He makes it seem effortless.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 12 Oct 18 - 03:08 PM

All these years later, Michael Bublé is still selling records.

Dining out in my area often takes me to Bertucci's, an Italian-cuisine franchise.
The overhead music speakers are always playing singers
with a certain repertoire, the American Songbook standards
that are easy on the ear
and far more difficult to execute than they sound.

That means that Michael Bublé's voice is regularly heard
along with Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra,
Ella Fitzgerald with or without Louis Armstrong
(I think their duets are simply grand),
Rosemary Clooney ... a few voices I don't recognize,
but always recognizable repertoire.

So unless I switch restaurants -- and I really love
a Bertucci's baby arugula salad with grilled chicken --
I have to listen to Michael Bublé whether I want to or not.

It is interesting for me to make a specific comparison:
Michael Bublé and Perry Como.   
Both have voices and repertoire that go down well
with a large group of consumers;
the repertoire is largely if not entirely the same;
both have been wildly successful in the material sense;
and both have got people who sneer at them.

It sets my teeth on edge when people sneer at Perry Como.
You have heard the taunts: he sounds like he is singing in his sleep.
That's the one that drives me nuts.
Actually Perry Como combines two different approaches.

One approach concerns diction, and delivery of a lyric.
This approach absolutely requires a sense of closeness and intimacy,
because the diction is very quiet and subtle.
It is not the declamatory diction of a Wagnerian heldentenor.
Rather, it is one of the hallmarks of the "crooner" genre:
as they used to say of Frank Sinatra,
"he knows how to get in bed with a popular song".
So the consonants are not projected as in the theater, with considerable force;
the consonants are carefully amplified by a microphone
as if the singer were murmuring endearments right into the audience's ear.
Bing Crosby was highly practiced at doing this, although
it took him a while to get it right;
Crosby ultimately did it so well that Perry Como made a role model of him.

Perry Como's other role model was Enrico Caruso. Como used to say
that he listened to Crosby and Caruso and modelled his singing on theirs.
And there is the secret of Perry Como's own style and technique.
By Caruso's technique, I do not mean belting out La Donna è Mobile.
I mean that very physical, athletic approach to supporting the singing voice
with what the teachers like to call "a column of air."
I use the word athletic because, as with a physical sport,
a discipline is required, the sort of discipline and coordination
with which one is rarely born,
that has to be practiced, corrected, refined, and mastered over years of work.
Perry Como's singing combined those intimate, gentle diction manners
with an extremely robust core of vocal sound.
Never mind if his singing puts some people to sleep
because they don't hear him being as expressive as Sinatra.
To sing as Como sang --
listen to the conclusion of "Some Enchanted Evening" with its
rising notes and volume --
you have to work expletive-deleted hard for a long time
to make it sound that easy and available.

Michael Bublé does not have Como's vocal technique.
His technique is different, and what seems more paramount to Bublé
is that the core of his voice has a shiny, polished, clean quality
even under the scrutiny of microphones and amplification.

My background with classical-music singing
predisposes me in favor of Perry Como,
even though his repertoire included the god-awful lyrics and tunes
which were rejected by Sinatra and his rat pack.

I'm not happy with Michael Bublé's
smooth-and-blank-as-a-mirror soundscape of a voice,
but that is a matter of taste;
he too is making something challenging sound very easy
and it does not surprise me that others look up to him.

It is false to say that he has no talent.
His sound is annoying and irritating to me, though, that much is true.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 24 Dec 11 - 12:47 PM

Bobby Darin does indeed do Mack The Knife well but nobody can match this:
Satchmo

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Dec 11 - 10:36 AM

I don't care much for that particular style of music (swing)...never did...but Bobby Darin certainly does "Mack the Knife" extremely well in that video clip.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 24 Dec 11 - 03:10 AM

I like Buble and I love Bobby Darin

Here is a comparison of them both doing a live broadcast of Mack The Knife.

On this occasion, Bobby Darin wins hands down.

Bobby Darin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qrjtr_uFac

Michael Buble http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8pdlxlJFxg&feature=player_embedded

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Dec 11 - 12:04 AM

Big Al - Well, of course we North Americans smile more than you Brits do. After all, it's damned hard to smile while maintaining a "stiff upper lip", eh?

;-D

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 10:32 PM

Canuck

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: gnu
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 09:45 PM

Well... if ya watched that vid where he gets the kid up on stage... sorry to say this, but, he's definitely a Canuck. The language, the style, 100% just a nice guy.... yes, I know that's the way most people all around the world are, but it seems to me Canucks go out of their way to be "nice". Of course I would. I am a Canuck.

Of course, people are people wherever they come from or whatever they are... and there are exceptions, of course.

I think Buble is a cool dude. And, he can sing.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 09:23 PM

Also, in the event anyone wants to know, he's a Canuck.

His high voice range is way beyond normal. Accurate, a bit cutting bland, but he means it.

I want to thank Jack the Sailor for starting this thread--even with the unfortunate title--because I was able to find a performer with something new and good.

OK, if he's a crooner, I take back my remark from way earlier. I was wrong! (I didn't want to make an ass of myself twice in one thread, so I used a [!] instead of a [?]. A . was out of the question/statement/.......got it: averment. Now,

say goodnight, Gracie . . .

#####################################################

Mick, where are you and wherever you are, doing what? I understand music is very much in the mix, and I want to hear some, pardon me for being blunt.

If you no longer have my e-mail address, message me.

The Phantom

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 08:58 PM

Yup. Missed it.
Duh....

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Jeri
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 08:53 PM

Joe, please tell me you missed the poing for comedic effect!
EITHER Harry Connick Jr, OR dead OR at a very advanced age.

Still, the whole premise of this thread sounds like those two old geezers on the Muppet show or a caricature of a clueless parent. Maybe every one of us either had one of those parents or had a friend who did. Ridicule is what some people use when they have absolutely nothing else going for them.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 08:50 PM

I think maybe you Americans like people who smile a lot - more than we do in England. I remember Berkley had an an English annexe near our college when we were kids and we used to gaze in wonder at the Americans - particularly the girls - keeping up a fixed grin while they were dancing. It was a bit Stepford Wives.

I expect its a cultural thing. Buble is always doing chat shows over here, smirking away for for the Great American Smirk title like his life depended on it.

If we had the 1500 metres Smirking as an event in the Olympics, that guy would win the gold medal. Probably the Marathon Smirk as well.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Mick
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 07:56 PM

Yeah, Gerry, I agree. Speaks volumes about One's motives in starting it, doesn't it? I am proud of the posters who have turned this from an exercise in "taking the piss" into a decent discussion.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 06:20 PM

Yet another thread where the original poster disappears after making a controversial statement

Gerry

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Mick
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 05:08 PM

Buble doesn't strike me as being a dynamic performer, but he certainly is a very good performer. I am sure that I would enjoy a show of his. He is a far better than average interpreter of this music in my opinion, and a very good entertainer. I wouldn't purchase his CD's, but mostly because his music isn't my cuppa. But I would receive one as a gift and I am sure I would enjoy having it around.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 04:46 PM

I just heard him on Youtube. He ain't at all bad, imo.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 01:51 AM

I have to say that I object to the first message referring to Harry Connick, Jr., as being "dead or at an advanced age." Despite what it says in The Onion about him dying in a piano fire, Harry Connick, Jr., is very much alive. Wikipedia, says he was born in 1967 nineteen years after I was born. Hey, JtS, I'm not all THAT old (and I hadn't realized that Connick was THAT young).

Michael Bublé was born in Canada in 1975. Hey, I've got kids his age. Maybe I'm older than I think. I listened to some of his recordings - "Mack the Knife" and "Cry Me a River," to be specific. They were good recordings, but he's no Bobby Darin or Julie London. I'd say he's on a secondary level, like Connick and perhaps not quite so good.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Genie
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 01:17 AM

Good question, John. Why bring up a pop/jazz singer on a folk/blues website to single him out for criticism?

But taking the original question/contention at face value, I would add that Michel Bublé's talent includes not only singing and at least some songwriting but instrumental skill as well. I know that he plays guitar - pretty decently at least. He may also play piano, but I'm not sure of that. He is also an actor. Even if he were only halfway decent at singing, songwriting, acting, and guitar playing, I'd say the total package amounts to a good deal of "talent."

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: JohnB
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 01:01 AM

I do not greatly like him, however, he has a distinctive sound edge to his voice, sings on key from what I have heard. Plus he is worth more than all of us here put together, so he can't be all bad.
Plus he is a Canuck. Why anyone would want to start this is beyond me, he is not even remotely Folky. The prior video shows some class to him too.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Raptor
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 12:02 AM

I have become a fan because of that video. For those who didn't see it youtube search "Buble gets heckled" and watch what happens.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 11:53 PM

Okay, I've now watched a couple of Michael Buble videos. I think he sings just fine. The one where he lets the lady's son come on stage and sing with him is really cool. Michael Buble is okay with me.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Genie
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:30 PM

Good one, Hawk!

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 03:36 PM

well personally i'm just passing on my years of experience as a performance artist, and suggesting I'm a Celebrity -Get me oUt of the Jungle - might be the career path to take when everyone hates him as much as I do.

No mailce involved.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 03:26 PM

Hate him???? I still don't even know who he is! Hell, if I bumped into him on the street, I wouldn't know it was him unless someone told me. But if they did, then I'd say to him, "Do you know that people are dissing you on Mudcat Cafe, man?"

And he'd probably say, "On what????"

;-D

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: fat B****rd
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 03:24 PM

Bruce, my man. That child has obviously been listening to her grandparent's Wild Man Fisher LPs.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: gnu
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 02:48 PM

Hehehee. Good one.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 02:13 PM

Why don't you all just switch him off and go and watch a nice video of The Bride Of Frankenstein? It's just too sad to watch you all, sitting there glued to your sets, obsessing over how much you hate him!

☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: gnu
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 02:10 PM

It's NOT a smirk. It's an uncontrollable slight grin when he thinks about how much he is getting paid. You'd have one too. I know I would. Probably from ear to ear.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:52 PM

is the smirk drug induced? Its not natural. It's set in, like rigor mortis.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: gnu
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:38 PM

The Velvet Fog... now we're talkin!

As for Buble, Jack has no requirement to at least recognize his talent on accounta Jack is not a Canuck anymore, eh. An if ya wanna slpit hairs, Jack is from tha Granite Planet, Tha Rock, T'Island (Newfoundland fer them what don't know). Right there, he has arguable cause.

Big Al... man, you crack me up! >:-D

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:23 PM

Sing like you mean it.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Genie
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:06 PM

Calling Michael Buble a Mel Torme tribute act is supposed to be an insult?

Mel Torme was extremely talented, both as a musician and as a songwriter/composer.   Bublé isn't a "tribute act" in the sense of just doing covers of Torme songs, of course. And I'd say that even when he does "cover" the songs of crooners like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Carmichael, etc., he puts a more contemporary stamp on the arrangements.   (Compare Bublé's "Sway," for instance, to Dean Martin's.)
Plus, Mel Torme is no longer adding to his own list of compositions and Bublé is writing some of his own. So I'd say it's more a matter of Bublé carrying on the growth and evolution of the jazz/pop music of the '40s, '50s and '60s. Not quite the same thing as a purely "tribute artist."

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:06 PM

Thinking about it here...I've probably heard Michael Buble over the radio in some restaurant or something...but I wouldn't have known it was him, that's all.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:48 PM

Holy shit Michael Buble and Mel Torme.

Mel's musicality was so great that you never noticed what he looked like.

Mel and George Shearing were fabulous together.


Nil comparison. Mel Torme was a jazzer, used the servants entrance. Monsieur Bubble -n a couple of years, he'll be on tv eating witchety grubs, on I'm a celebrity, please let me get up your arse and into the living room via the tv screen.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:44 PM

I love Mel Torme.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:29 PM

BLEAUGH!!!!!! That'll teach you not to eat overage food, Herbie.

That's just disgusting, 999.

This may come as a shock to some folks, but I've never even heard Michael Buble. I guess I've really missed out on something, eh?

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,Herbie the Dachshund
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:24 PM

Well...I have to say it tasted better going down than it did coming back up.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:04 PM

Well, I want the whole world to know that I don't like this stuff.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: banksie
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 11:45 AM

I'm afraid I do tend to think of Michael Buble as a Mel Torme tribute act.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 11:15 AM

I find it interesting that JTS was watching SNL and expecting to see any talent on it at all."I saw him on SNL and I asked myself "Why?" "

That show has been devoid of entertainment since the mid Eighties.

I have found this thread amusing though, so if you take requests Could we get an entire thread of things JTS doesn't like?

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 10:54 AM

I guess I'm very fortunate Don, I love all kinds of music, as long as the performer is good at what he/she is singing/playing. I prefer certain genres to others, but I can enjoy any kind of music. Folk and Americana are my preferences, but I can listen to pretty much anything else.

And I personally enjoy Michael Buble as much as I enjoy any other crooner, and more than some (he can at least sing in tune, which is more than can be said for certain others - one or two of them having almost been elevated to the status of a deity).

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 10:31 AM

I don't get much enjoyment out of listening to Michael Buble, because it's not my kind of music.

However, unlike the OP I recognise that the fact that I don't like a genre doesn't affect the validity of that genre or the talent of it's proponents.

It is a statement about me, not Michael Buble.

It took me over ten years to teach my son that his dislike of a musical genre did not make it (as he was wont to say) Crap!

Don T.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 07:56 AM

He doesn't do anything for me it's not my kind of thing but it doesn't mean to say that he hasn't got talent. I've noticed that he has shown a little bit more versatility with 'I haven't met you yet' but as with other singers or stars who irritate I just wouldn't buy it.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: DrugCrazed
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 05:27 AM

Meh, Rick Guard is better.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 04:43 AM

He's very good at what he does. If anyone doen't like what he does.....fine, horses for courses! I like him, and Mrs. Fenswoman is turned into a quivering wreck by the sound of his voice.

Al, if you don't like the smirk, just do what I do when he's on the telly - read a book and just listen! :-) :-)

FWIW - if there's anything about MB's performance that gets on my wick, it's his speech-impediment, which I hear very, very clearly, although others don't seem to. But I can forgive him, because he's so good otherwise at what he does.

Subject: RE: Michael buble has no talent
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 03:19 AM

I don't have any opinion about his talents. he looks good, sings in key, and he knows the words.

Theres just something about the bloke that irritates me.

As George Harrison almost wrote:-

Something in the way he smirks
Annoys me like no other singer.....

Its that smirk.... it turns the subtext of every song into.....my god! I can't wait to get home and kiss myself all over....and I can really get down to it....

Seasons Greetings!