The Original 1967 Recording of Bacharach's "One Less Bell to Answer" ...

[Teasing the Korean]

... was by Keely Smith!

 

[JSngry]

So Keeley got a single deal for Atlantic that didn't work out?

It does seem odd that there's not even a producer's credit on the label? 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

So Keeley got a single deal for Atlantic that didn't work out?

It does seem odd that there's not even a producer's credit on the label? 

 

That is odd.  I wonder if Bacharach produced the A-side, if that was the first release of the tune?  I also wonder if the Fifth Dimension heard this version, given the respective vocal deliveries. 

[JSngry]

From 1968!

Apparently an MOR hit...maybe this is the version that Bones Howe heard? 

[felser]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

So Keeley got a single deal for Atlantic that didn't work out?

It does seem odd that there's not even a producer's credit on the label? 

 

Two singles, it looks like, this one came out in 1966. Keely Smith could really sing when in her element, but seemed like a relic of a previous age by then, though she wasn't 40 yet.  Of that era, I've heard her Beatles album, and was not impressed, as she and the producer did not seem to have a feel for the material.  And I'm not impressed with her "One Less Bell", or with Rosemary Clooney's.  Give me the Dionne Warwick or Marilyn McCoo/Fifth Dimension versions.

[Teasing the Korean]

Rosemary sounds out of her element to my ears, but Keely's delivery does not strike me as being appreciably different from Marilyn's.  Marilyn McCoo often sounded to my ears like she was from the same era as Keely, Rosemary, et. al.

23 minutes ago, felser said:

Two singles, it looks like, this one came out in 1966. Keely Smith could really sing when in her element, but seemed like a relic of a previous age by then, though she wasn't 40 yet.  Of that era, I've heard her Beatles album, and was not impressed, as she and the producer did not seem to have a feel for the material.  And I'm not impressed with her "One Less Bell", or with Rosemary Clooney's.  Give me the Dionne Warwick or Marilyn McCoo/Fifth Dimension versions.

 

[JSngry]

At least the second single gives us some names in Jimmy Haskell and Mike Post. 

Here's a flip side to round things out...

Note Amos Productions: https://www.bsnpubs.com/la/amos/amos.html

And oh, Jimmy Bowen was briefly married to Keeley Smith, and produced her for Reprise: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Bowen