New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Legendary British artist and Roxy
Music frontman
Bryan Ferry today shares his reimagining of "
I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David, popularized by Dusty Springfield. The song is the latest from Ferry's new recordings of classic love songs, the Love Letters EP, out May 6th on BMG.
Recently, Ferry shared the title track "Love Letters," in his words "a beautiful haunting ballad with a simple country flavored piano," originally written by Victor Young and Edward Heyman, recorded by Dick Haymes in 1945 and later popularized by Ketty Lester in 1961.
Each new recording on Love Letters brings Ferry's uniquely wry and dramatic style to these beloved songs and adds to his tradition of interpreting works from across the musical spectrum. Of the new cover he notes: "I'd always wanted to do one of [Bacharach and David's] well-crafted songs, and this is one of their most famous."
Elsewhere on Love Letters, Ferry puts a fresh stamp on a collection of iconic love songs including "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" written by Elvin Bishop in the '70s as well as "The Very Thought Of You," previously recorded by dozens of artists including Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole.
Covers have long been a staple of Ferry's output. His debut solo album, These Foolish Things, spans decades and genres across 13 songs, with Ferry masterfully crooning '30s standards, '50's Presley, '60s Stones and more. Over the years Ferry has interpreted countless
Bob Dylan songs, joined an orchestra for a reimagining of Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," given the new wave treatment to Canned Heat's "Let's Stick Together," which soon came to be regarded as the definitive version, and more. His covers add a post-modern gloss to pop standards and this new four song collection of love songs is an equally engaging and glowing reimagining of each original, all rendered in Ferry's distinctly dramatic manner.
To date
Bryan Ferry has sold more than 30 million records worldwide and left an indelible mark on the worlds of music, fashion and art, merging the three with a singular and astonishing vision that brought immediate, global success. 2022 marks a monumental year of celebration for Roxy Music. Throughout the year, each of their eight studio albums, all heralded as modern classics, will be reissued as special anniversary editions with a new half-speed cut, revised artwork and a deluxe gloss laminated finish. The first 2 LPs, Roxy
Music and For Your Pleasure, were released on April 1, 2022, with the remaining albums arriving in paired drops throughout the year. Also out this May is Lyrics, a book of Ferry's evocative aspirations and romantic longings, introduced by the author, including an insightful essay by
James Truman and a previously unseen portrait of Ferry by Antony Price on the book's cover.
Bryan Ferry is a singer, songwriter and co-founder of the group Roxy Music, with whom he wrote and recorded eight acclaimed studio albums. He has released sixteen solo albums and is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and influential recording artists of all time. In 2011 Ferry was awarded a CBE and accepted the French national honor of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012. In 2014 he was made an Honorary Doctor of
Music by the University of Newcastle and in 2019 Roxy
Music was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.