Jeri Southern - A Prelude To A Kiss The Story Of A Love Affair (1956/2020)

An ambitious concept album that assembles a clutch of familiar romantic ballads into a narrative arc charting the birth of romance, A Prelude to a Kiss: The Story of a Love Affair remains Jeri Southern's most fully realized and consistent effort, evoking Frank Sinatra's classic late-'50s Capitol albums in both scope and tenor. Paired with arranger Gus Levene, whose richly melancholy backings are essential to the album's unified mood, Southern brings a sense of cinéma vérité to songs like "Speak Low" and "The Touch of Your Lips," transforming the familiar lyrics into deeply personal expressions as intimate as diary entries.