| Little Girl Blue/Little Girl New | |
| Type: | album |
| Artist: | Keely Smith |
| Cover: | Little Girl Blue.Little Girl New.jpg |
| Released: | 1963 |
| Recorded: | 1963 |
| Genre: | Traditional pop, jazz |
| Length: | 40:35 |
| Label: | Reprise R 6086 |
| Chronology: | Keely Smith |
| Prev Title: | Cherokeely Swings |
| Prev Year: | 1962 |
| Next Title: | The Intimate Keely Smith |
| Next Year: | 1963 |
Little Girl Blue/Little Girl New is a 1963 album by Keely Smith, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle. The album was Smith's first for Reprise Records, which was founded by Smith's friend and mentor, Frank Sinatra.[1]
The initial Billboard magazine review from June 29, 1963 awarded the album their 'Pop Special Merit Pick' for that week and commented that "She generates lots of excitement whether it's an up-tempo ditty like "A Lot of Livin' to Do" or a more relaxed "Gone with the Wind"...Nelson Riddle contributes highly effective support".[2]
The album was reviewed by Matt Collar for Allmusic who wrote that "tour de force of an album that presented Smith as the solo star she deserved to be" and described Smith as "an urbanely sophisticated hipster and a clarion diva in the mold of such similarly inclined contemporaries as June Christy, Anita O'Day, and Kay Starr". Collar praised her "...yearning take on "Here's That Rainy Day" and her languorously sensual reading of "I'll Never Be the Same Again"" and concluded that "Ultimately, listening to Smith and her pointed yet dusky, golden-toned voice pouring out of Riddle's shimmering, sky-blue arrangements, one can easily see why Sinatra jumped at the chance to work with her".