EDMONTON – Ever since her 1990 full-length recording debut, the record hit Girl Talk, singer Holly Cole has shown a special talent for plumbing the campy, dated or sexist sentiments of yesterday’s pop hits with a jazzy, satirical twist.
It’s all in the subtext, says the Toronto-based chanteuse, a two-time Juno jazz award winner. Check the fresh angle on The Flamingos’ 1959 hit I Only Have Eyes For You from Cole’s new CD Night, her 10th studio album.
“That song has great potential for subtext, which is kind of my best friend,” Cole allowed in a recent conversation.
“It’s fun to challenge pre-conceived ideas about well-known songs and to inject an element of mystery too. What is implied in the subtext is often more interesting than what’s said literally in the lyrics. If I’m doing my job right, the audience is intrigued enough by what the song means to me that they will figure out what it means to them.”