That Bad Eartha is a twelve-song reconfiguration of material from American singer Eartha Kitt's first two eight-song, 10-inch albums issued by RCA Victor. It contains all eight songs from the 1953 album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt. It repurposes the cover image and title, and four of the songs from Eartha's 1954 second 10-inch album, That Bad Eartha (10-inch, 8-song album). In this way, it could be considered an expansion of the first short-length album, supplementing it with packaging and selected songs from the second.
In May 1953, RCA Victor released the 10-inch vinyl album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, which reached No. 2 on the pop albums chart and featured 8 songs. The album was recorded in four sessions between March and October 1953 with Henri Rene and His Orchestra [citation needed].
RCA released her second album, That Bad Eartha, in the 10″ popular format, in 1954. It was also released in a 45 RPM extended play version with two songs on each side of two disks. That Bad Eartha spent 12 weeks on the pop albums chart, peaking at No. 5.[2]
Long-playing records were introduced in 1948 by Columbia with 10-inch albums as the popular music format and the 12-inch album the format for classical music. RCA introduced the 45 RPM format shortly afterwards. By the mid-50s, 10″ LPs were phased out, replaced by 12″ ones for popular as well as classical music. At this point, in approximately 1956, RCA Victor reconfigured these two 8-song albums into a 12-track album, jettisoning 4 songs. This then became the standard version of the album.
Several singles were issued from various configurations of these albums. "Under the Bridges of Paris" charted in the UK Singles Chart in 1955 at #7.[3]
Many of the songs recorded for this album, such as "C'est si bon", "Uska Dara" and "I Want to Be Evil" became closely associated with Eartha Kitt, and were performed live by her until one of her last concerts at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, shortly before her death in December 2008.
The complete album was re-issued on CD in 1994 as part of the Bear Family Records five-CD boxset Eartha – Quake; this included "Santa Baby" and several other tracks from the same recording session not included in this album.[4]
This was the first incarnation of the album, originally released to 10-inch in late-1953. It was released a few months later in early 1954 as a 45 RPM 7-inchdouble extended play. In 2010 it was issued as a digital download in select European countries under public domain with alternate artwork by Smith & Co.[5]
10-inch Long Play
Track list and notes adapted from liner notes of original release.[6]Track lengths adapted from digital release.[7]
The follow-up to Kitt's first album, RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, That Bad Eartha (EP) was released in 1954, consisting entirely of previously unreleased music. It wasn't until 1956 that a 12-inch album with this title and packaging would be made available; and the later album would only contain four of these songs, with the other eight from her debut. The catalog numbers for the release were LPM-3187 (10-inch version) and EPB3187 (7-inch version).[9]
Credits adapted from label notes of original release.[10]
Side A
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Length
1.
"Under the Bridges of Paris"
Cochran
Rodor
Scotto
2:41
2.
"Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" (from the musical prod. In Paris)
Cole Porter
3:04
Total length:
5:45
Side B
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Length
1.
"The Blues"
Duke Ellington
3:34
2.
"My Heart Belongs to Daddy"
Cole Porter
3:01
Total length:
6:35
Side C
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Length
2.
"Sandy's Tune"
Jimmy Kennedy
Nat Simon
2:34
3.
"Señor"
Harold Adamson
Humberto Teixeira
2:58
Total length:
5:32
Side D
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Length
1.
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (from the musical prod. Roberta)
Otto Harbach
Jerome Kern
3:05
2.
"Salanga Dou"
Tom Scott
2:26
Total length:
5:31
10-inch Long Play (United Kingdom Version)
Released in 1955, it wasn't until 1958 that the now standard, 12-inch long play version of the album was released in the United Kingdom.[11] As a result, this version with catalogue number DLP 1067, released by His Master's Voice, is still considered to be the standard track listing for the album in the UK; the 12-inch version being commonly referred to as the "American Version" within the country.[12] The UK version of the album was released with alternative cover artwork,[13] and was later released to a compact disk compilation.[14]
Credits adapted from liner notes of original release.[13]
Side A
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Length
1.
"Under the Bridges of Paris"
Cochran
Scotto
Rodor
2:41
2.
"Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" (from the musical production In Paris)
As 12-inch records became more popular, RCA Victor re-issued RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt as a 12-inch record with four new songs from That Bad Eartha (EP), releasing it synonymously a year after the extended play's release. This is now considered to be the standard track listing of That Bad Eartha in all countries except the United Kingdom, where this version was not officially released until 1958,[11] three years after a ten-track, long play version of That Bad Eartha (EP) was released in the country as a stand-alone album.[13] During the early 1980s this version of the album was re-issued by RCA on 12-inch in the Netherlands entitled "The Classics" That Bad Eartha.[15] In 1984, following her international commercial success with "Where Is My Man", RCA re-issued this version of the album once again on 12-inch,[16] this time also issuing the first cassette and compact disc versions of the album in Germany, Europe, and the UK.[17] Over the course of the next two decades, RCA Victor would release at least four re-issues of the same CD version throughout Europe.[18][19][20][21] By 1994 songs from the album began becoming available in CD compilations in America by numerous record companies.[4][22] However, it wasn't until 2002 that a CD featuring the full album would become available, released as a two-for-one with Down To Eartha. In 2006, a version of the album featuring 12 bonus tracks would be released in Italy displaying a new cover designed from an alternate shot of Kitt from the same photo shoot for her original album covers for Down to Eartha and Thursday's Child, two months later it was briefly released in the US.[23][24] The album has since been issued in its entirety on CD by numerous record labels,[25] often in multi-album compilations, throughout the world,[12] and inevitably as a digital download.[26][27][28] As of 2007 this album falls into public domain in Europe and is issued freely, without consent from RCA or its parent company Sony Music Entertainment.[12][29]
This was a seven-inch extended play released in Japan of the same name consisting of three songs from different versions of the album and "Santa Baby". It was released with the same cover artwork as Down To Eartha, only changing the letters to "That Bad Eartha", with the same placement and font as the album. Released by Victor of Japan, catalogue number EP-1118.[30]
Track list adapted from label notes of original release.[30]
12-inch LP (re-issue),[44] cassette (standard version), CD (standard version)[17] (re-issued 1988–1989,[18] 1992–1993, 1998,[19] 2003[20][21] all under the original catalog #ND-89439)
[1]