Hello, Dolly!

AMG Review of Hello, Dolly!

Greg Adams
All Music Guide

Louis Armstrong's commercial resurgence with the song "Hello, Dolly!" -- a number one hit that unseated the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" from the top spot -- came as such a surprise that Kapp Records hastened to produce an album to go along with it. The resulting long-player, appropriately titled Hello, Dolly!, also went to number one and produced a second hit, the inferior "I Still Get Jealous." As you might predict, almost all of the songs are drawn from Broadway shows, and a couple (a re-recording of "Blueberry Hill"; "A Lot of Livin' to Do" from Bye Bye Birdie) lend a veneer of hipness to give the album a "1964 touch" without foisting completely inappropriate material on the 60-something Satchmo. Armstrong had one of the most recognizable and personality-laden voices of the 20th century, and although he was past his prime at the time, Hello, Dolly! shows him at his '60s best.