Duets - Friends & Legends

1	Danny's Song / Martina McBride 4:00
2	I Just Fall in Love Again / Dusty Springfield 3:14
3	Another Pot O' Tea 3:34
4	Daydream Believer / Nelly Furtado 2:51
5	Somebody's Always Saying Goodbye / Jann Arden 4:21
6	Song for the Mira / Celtic Woman 3:52
7	Time Don't Run Out on Me / Carole King 3:30
8	Cotton Jenny / Olivia Newton-John 3:23
9	A Love Song / k.d. lang 3:07
10	You Needed Me / Shania Twain 3:42
11	Nobody Loves Me Like You Do / Dawn Langstreth 4:04
12	You Won't See Me 4:17
13	Could I Have This Dance / Amy Grant 3:18
14	A Little Good News / Indigo Girls 3:58
15	Snowbird / Sarah Brightman 2:15
16	When I Fall in Love / Celine Dion Live 3:50
17	Si Jamais Je Te Revois (If I Ever See You Again) / Isabelle Boulay 4:37

Barnes & Noble

Not resting on her laurels -- 50 million records sold since her 1967 debut with "Snowbird" -- Anne Murray has teamed with legendary producer Phil Ramone on what is certainly one of the early surprises of 2008 and, moreover, one of the best recordings of her distinguished career. Many of the songs here have been mega-hits, but for this special event the Canadian thrush (whose mature voice shows an appealing rough edge these days) teamed up with a cast of all-star female vocalists and revisited some of the grand moments in her recording history. With Shelby Lynne releasing a contemporaneous tribute album to Dusty Springfield, Murray offers her own tribute to the pop-soul diva in the form of a lush, soulful duet of "I Just Fall In Love Again," with Dusty's ethereal vocal imported from her original 1979 recording, and the two voices meshing seamlessly in the aching closing verse and chorus. Lynne herself joins the proceedings on a stomping cover of Lennon-McCartney's "You Won't See Me," a real barnburner of a track made doubly incendiary by the thundering drums, soaring, Beatles-like horns, and chanting female background chorus. A beautiful orchestral arrangement and a more introspective vocal add an earthier feel to Murray's new treatment of Kenny Loggins's "Danny's Song," to which Martina McBride lends an affecting blues-tinged reading. The disc's most seductive moment is an orchestra-and-small combo waltz rendering of Murray's 1980 Grammy winner, "Could I Have This Dance," featuring a silky vocal contribution from Amy Grant. Emmylou Harris, Celtic Woman, Shania Twain, k. d. lang, and Sarah Brightman (on a feisty rendition of "Snowbird") make the most of their moments as well, and Murray knocks everything out of the park, without any performance enhancers save her own impeccable vocal artistry. David McGee

All Music Guide

For her 34th studio album, Anne Murray recorded a set of duets with many of her favorite female singers, from Nelly Furtado to Sarah Brightman. There are a number of country duet partners here, such as Shania Twain, Emmylou Harris, and Martina McBride, but there are even more pop-oriented women singing with Murray, encompassing the likes of Celtic Woman and Celine Dion. This makes perfect sense, as Murray's always straddled the pop-country fence effortlessly. Her singing on Duets: Friends and Legends is just as effortless. Now in her fifth decade as an active recording artist, her voice hasn't lost a beat, sounding just as pure and clear as it did on 1970s "Snowbird" (done here with a surprisingly relaxed, easy vocal from Brightman, sounding for all the world like a young Olivia Newton-John). The majority of these songs are ones which have been sizeable hits for Murray in the past, most of which work nicely recast as duets, or at least showcases for harmony singing. There are exceptions, of course: sadly, the late Dusty Springfield's voice doesn't fit "I Just Fall in Love Again" at all, and Nelly Furtado sounds mightily out of place on "Daydream Believer." But for each of those there's an Emmylou Harris on "Another Pot o' Tea," k.d. lang matching Murray perfectly on "A Love Song," and most of all, Shania Twain showing up with what might be the best vocal of her career on the classic "You Needed Me." Murray clearly inspired most of her duet partners to bring their "A" games, and since she's pretty much always on hers (and Phil Ramone, of all people, provides sterling production which knows when to stay out of the way), what results is often magical. ~ Thomas Inskeep, All Music Guide