Maureen McGovern - The Music Never Ends (2024)

The Music Never Ends is a pleasant collection of sophisticated pop music. Many of the songs are soundtrack or show tunes, and as with other Great American Songbook collections it's a bit of a hodgepodge. But everything is elevated by Maureen McGovern's mature yet sensual voice. I've never heard her sound better - her performance on "How Do You Keep the Music Playing" in particular is astonishing. I will mention that McGovern sings only the first two lines of "The Way We Were", to acknowledge the most famous Alan and Marilyn Bergman song, with the tacit understanding that it belongs to Barbra Streisand and no one else. Finally my favorite song on the album is "I'll Never Say Goodbye". It is exquisite, wonderfully romantic, and sung beautifully by McGovern.