In may 1999, two years after the previous work, the album Swing comes out labeled BMG Arista: in reality this is the soundtrack of the same named film directed by Nick Mead and interpreted by Lisa as a female protagonist at her debut as an actress. The record is composed by eight classical Jazz and Swing covers all sang by Lisa and two of them by Georgie Fame, more over three small instrumental tracks written and played by Devaney. The album opens with the first track Ain’t what you do, a Jazz song written in 1939 by Sy Oliver and James Young, listening to it is easily understood as Lisa’s versatile voice is extraordinaly adapted to this genre too, meanwhile trumpets and double-bass bring the listener in a pure 40’s atmosphere. The second song Ain’t nobody here but us chickens is another Jazz cover dated 1946 of the american singer Louis Jordan. Number 3 is a revised version of a very famous Soul song by Four Tops (A group from the Motown Era and reinterpreted by the Jackson Five in the past) or yet Baby I need your lovin re-arranged in Jazz key notes.
The 4th track (the first written by the trio) is Gotta get on this train, singing as a swing by Georgie Fame, followed by Martin’s theme, a short instrumental track, written and played by Ian Devaney, that use it also in track 12. The 6th song Why do we call It, a new trio’s track with Lisa as a main voice and chorister. The next track is a George and Ira Gershwin’s famous work (Our love is here to stay) a Jazz cover dated 1938 sung during the years by famous artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross and Rod Stewart; this is, with track 11 The best is yet to come (a famous Frank Sinatra’s song dated 1964 from It might as well be swing album) the moment in which Stansfield demonstrates to be at the same level as her famous collegues mentioned earlier. Another Devaney’s instrumental track is Love theme, a good arrangement of keyboards and piano, unfortunately a bit too brief. Followed by I tought that’s what you liked about me, mediocre track sung by Georgie Fame. Watch the birdie is a swing cover dated originally 1941, written by Gene de Paul and Don Raye and it was part of the famous movie Hellzapoppin’s soundtrack that was the Monty Python’s inspiration; in this film, the song was interpreted by the actress and singer Martha Raye but Lisa, with her voice, made it surely more elegant.
Number 13 is Blitzkrieg baby, another swing track dated originally 1940, song by Una Mae Carlisle and that seems really adaptable to Lisa’s voice; in the end we can find Two years too blue that is definitely the best part of Stansfield-Devaney-Darbyshire trio’s work (this time also collaborates Mead the movie director). It is a good work, the album is pleasant to listening even if not exactly Lisa’s style; however her voice is perfect for this type of songs and it is warm and rich of shades, demonstrating versatile and of course powerful. Regarding the charts, this album reached the 6th position in the USA Jazz charts, but it wouldn’t reach any positions in Europe and not even in the UK.
Swing is the only Lisa Stansfield's album, published by BMG Arista, which was not included in the 2003 The complete collection case. Never the less in the same year this album was produced in a re-masterized version with a different cover.
Tracklist