Hit Man: David Foster & Friends (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)

November 26, 2008 by Dennis Amith 

“A special live performance to honor super producer David Foster.  He is joined by his friends and talented artists such as Celine Dion, Kenny G.,  Michael Buble, Peter Cetera and many others for one special night and some of those performances featured on the album.  A fun, nostalgic and heartwarming album.”

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ARTIST: Various Artists

ALBUM: Hit Man: David Foster & Friends (Digital Version)

LABEL: 143/Reprise

DURATION: 41:12

RELEASE DATE: November 11, 2008

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

1. Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire – David Foster and Kenny G
2. Home – Michael Buble and Blake Shelton
3. I Have Nothing/I Will Always Love You – David Foster and Charice Pempengco
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water – Josh Groban, Brian McKnight
5. Because You Loved Me – Celine Dion
6. Wildflower – Blake Shelton
7. Somewhere – Katherine Mcphee
8. Hard to Say I’m Sorry/You’re the Inspiration/Glory of Love – Peter Cetera
9. The Prayer – Katherine McPhee and Andrea Bocceli
10. Amapola – Andrea Bocceli

David Foster, one of the world’s most popular songwriter’s and 15-time Grammy winner had worked with many artists which include Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Chicago, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Michael Buble, N’Sync, Earth, Wind and Fire, Gloria Estefan, Toni Braxton and many others.

And earlier this year, to celebrate his career, a few of the artists came to join David Foster in Las Vegas for a special performance and that special performance was released as an album and also on DVD this month.

There are so many David Foster songs that I grew up listening to, songs that were a big part of my life as a child, a teenager and as an adult and his songs have inspired many people and also music that people can just listen to and just feel the passion within the music itself.

With “Hit Man: David Foster and Friends”, the album starts off with one of the most beautiful movie themes and that is the theme song for “St. Elmo’s Fire”.  You really don’t hear too many instrumental themes debuting on top of the charts these days but in the 80′s, very few did and David Foster was able to score a hit with this beautiful song.  Joining him in this performance was musician Kenny G.  Beautiful song!

The second track featured “Home” by Michael Buble and Blake Shelton.  The interesting thing is that crooner Buble sung the song first and country singer Blake Shelton made a cover of the song.  So, to have both singing the song was definitely great to here.

The third track features the singer that capture many hearts and that is Charice (Pempengco) from the Philippines who has captured hearts from her performance on YouTube and since then has been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey shows and had the opportunity to perform on stage with her idol Celine Dion and the 15-year-old had the opportunity of the lifetime to join David Foster and perform two Whitney Houston hits  “I Have Nothing” and “I WIll Always Love You” in front of a live audience.  Charice’s powerful and beautiful vocals are just amazing!   And I can’t wait for her upcoming album and collaboration with David Foster.

The fourth track “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, the popular Simon & Garfunkel hit that has been covered by many artists but for this live performance, it brought together two awesome vocalists Josh Groban and Brian McKnight.  Another cool performance from these two artists.

The fifth track “Because You Loved Me” was sung by Celine Dion.  I am passionate for Celine Dion’s music and her performance of her hit song was great (I’ve heard her sing this song live much better) but she did a great job.

The sixth track “Wildflower” was sung by country singer Blake Shelton, followed by American Idol finalist Katharine McPhee singing Barbara Streisand’s “Somewhere”.  McPhee does an awesome job singing this song.  Beautiful vocals!

The seventh track is a medley with David Foster and Peter Cetera performing to Chicago hit “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” and “You’re the Inspiration” and Cetera’s solo “Karate Kid 2″ hit song “Glory of Love”.

The next song is one of my favorites, “The Prayer” by Katharine McPhee and tenor Andrea Bocelli.  I’m so passionate towards the Charlotte Church and Josh Groban version but I was impressed by both McPhee’s and Bocelli’s performance.  They did a great job!

The album ends with “Amapola” by Andrea Bocceli.  I’m a fan of Andrea Bocelli, so it was great to hear him perform this song.  Well-done!!!

I am a fan of David Foster’s music and to hear these performer’s all together to celebrate the success of Foster is truly awesome.  You get a good number of spectacular performances and overall, the album is solid.

But I do have one gripe and that’s knowing so many performances were featured on the DVD version, how come those songs were not featured on the album.  At 41 minutes in length, I can’t help but think how happy I would have been to find an album filled with a lot of the music performed that night.  Ten songs is rather short.

But overall, a whimsical and nostalgic walk through musical memory lane and hearing these classic hits sung by these talented artists from that special night.  And it was great to have many of those special live performances offered together on one album.

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