Elaine Paige

One really strong point of this week's highlighted album, Chess, is the voice of Elaine Paige.

Elaine is one of the premier actors of the West End stage in Britain. She's she's released many albums, done radio and TV appearances, toured, and originated some of the best known roles in modern musical theatre (viz Eva Peron in Evita, Grizabella in Cats) etc. Yet she's not very well known on this side of the Atlantic.

I first heard her wonderful voice on the London cast recording of Cata. Then when I heard Chess, I really knew Elaine is a major vocal talent. The very first two CDs I bought, back in 1985, were her albums Stages and Cinema - months before I even bought a player. (I had a friend make cassettes of the tapes for me so that I could enjoy the songs until I bought a player.)

You can read more about her at Wikipedia, her official site or this fan site.