by Greg Adams
Even ardent consumers of Brenda Lee's prolific album output can be forgiven for feeling as though her '60s albums all began to sound the same. That impression only deepened as the decade wore on, but in 1963 Lee's bottomless fund of pop ballads could still seem fresh. Let Me Sing begins predictably enough with a Cole Porter song ("Night and Day") but also includes "Break It to Me Gently" -- one of Lee's greatest '60s hits -- and "Losing You." Bobby Darin's "You're the Reason I'm Living" is the kind of cover material preferable to the traditional pop songs that tended to dominate Lee's ballad albums, but Let Me Sing manages to sound vital where very similar albums failed later in her career. Not surprisingly, Let Me Sing was also Lee's second-to-last Top 40 album.

Brenda Lee's career began at the tender age of just 5 singing her heart out in church with the Master Worker's Quartet in Georgia. One of the biggest pop stars of the early '60s and while she made few recordings of note after the mid-60's, the best of her first decade is fine indeed, encompassing not just the pop ballads that were her biggest hits, but straight country and some surprisingly fierce rockability. Nearly 50 years later and over 100 million albums sold, Brenda's work is distinctively recognized all over the world.