George Martin: In My Life

Recent weeks bring the release of two albums that give the term "vanity project" a bad name. George Martin achieved fame as The Beatles' producer, overseeing nearly all of the band's albums. In the years that followed, Martin became something of an institution, a musical ambassador from rock's golden age who occasionally came forward to work with artists as varied as Cheap Trick and Elton John. Announced as his last work before retirement, In My Life is, one Martin-penned track aside, a collection of Beatles covers. That's appropriate enough, but Martin's syrupy arrangements and bizarre selection of performers indicate that he shouldn't so much be put out to pasture as hauled off for glue. The album opens with Robin Williams hamming his way through "Come Together" with support from highbrow sideshow performer Bobby McFerrin, and it only gets worse from there. Goldie Hawn's kittenish lounge take on "A Hard Day's Night," Jeff Beck's self-indulgent instrumental version of "A Day In The Life," and Celine Dion's performance of "Here There & Everywhere" are each excessive, and each terrible, in their own way. But Jim Carrey's burlesque of "I Am The Walrus" provides the album's nadir, allowing Sean Connery's sad spoken-word rendition of "In My Life" to sound like the carefully crafted pop stylings of Badfinger by comparison. Still, it's conceivable that someone would want to listen to Martin's valediction for reasons other than perverse fascination. The same can't be said of Joe Pesci's Vincent Laguardia Gambini Sings Just For You, an album recorded by Pesci in the voice of the character he played in the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny. The parental-advisory sticker is no joke; Pesci/Gambini has a foul mouth, and he's not afraid to use it on songs like "Take Your Love And Shove It" and an arrangement of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," a profanity-laced duet with Vinny co-star Marisa Tomei. Pesci is a competent enough lounge singer (this isn't his first excursion into the territory), but here the shtick is too thick. Diehard Vinny-heads will be delighted, of course, but it's doubtful that even those who lobby Fox for a My Cousin Vinny sequel, contribute to the My Cousin Vinny fan fiction websites, and gather for My Cousin Vinny conventions will enjoy the hip-hop-tinged "Wise Guy." A collection of mob clichés, the song uses Blondie's "Rapture" as its source, a choice that would probably even shame Puff Daddy. With any luck, the future doesn't hold concept albums revolving around the characters Pesci played in With Honors, The Public Eye, Jimmy Hollywood, Gone Fishin', 8 Heads In A Duffel Bag, and The Super.