That Bad Eartha

That Bad Eartha
Studio album by Eartha Kitt
Released	December 1953 (see release history)
Recorded	March 1953 at The Manhattan Center, New York and October 1953 at RCA Victor Studio No. 2
Genre	Vocal jazz Pop
Length	37:01
Label	RCA Victor His Master's Voice
Producer	Hugo Winterhalter Joe Carlton
Eartha Kitt chronology
That Bad Eartha (1953) Down to Eartha (1955)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

That Bad Eartha is a 1954 studio album by Eartha Kitt, her debut 12" vinyl album issued on the RCA Victor label. The album was recorded in four sessions between March and October 1953 with Henri Rene and His Orchestra. Long-playing records were newly introduced in the mid-1950s and the 10" album was briefly introduced as an album format. Within a few years the 12" album was the format offered to the record buying public, remaining so until the late-1980s when the Compact Disc became the favoured format. In May 1953 RCA had released a 10" vinyl album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt which reached No. 2 on the pop albums chart and featured 8 songs issued on this album. With the successful introduction of the 12" LP in the early 1950s RCA Victor expanded and re-issued the album with 12 tracks. That Bad Eartha spent 12 weeks on the pop albums chart, peaking at No. 5.^[2]

Several singles were issued from this album, "Under the Bridges of Paris" charted in the UK singles chart in 1955 at #7.^[3]

Many of the songs recorded for this album, such as "C'est si bon", "Uska Dara" and "I Want to Be Evil" became closely associated with Eartha Kitt and were performed live by her until one of her last concerts at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, shortly before her death in December 2008. The complete album was re-issued on CD in 1994 as part of the Bear Family Records five-CD boxset Eartha – Quake; this included "Santa Baby" and several other tracks from the same recording session not included in this album.^[4]

Track listings

RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt (1953)

This was the first incarnation of the album, originally released to 10" in late-1953. It was released a few months later in early 1954 as a 7" double extended play. In 2010 it was issued as a digital download in select European countries under public domain with alternate artwork by Smith & Co.^[5]

10" Long Play

Track list and notes adapted from liner notes of original release.^[6]Track lengths adapted from digital release.^[7]

7" Double Extended Play

Track list and notes adapted from liner notes of original release.^[8]Track lengths adapted from digital release.^[7]

That Bad Eartha (EP) (1954)

Meant to be a follow up to Kitt's first album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, That Bad Eartha (EP) was released in 1954, consisting entirely of previously unreleased music. It wasn't until the following year that a long play version of the record would be made available. The catalog number for the release was EPB3187.^[9]

10" Extended Play

10" Long Play (United Kingdom Version)

Released in 1955 around the same time as That Bad Eartha (LP) in the rest of the world, it wasn't until 1958 that the, now standard, 12" long play version of the album was released in the United Kingdom.^[10] As a result, this version, released by His Master's Voice, is still considered to be the standard track listing for the album in the UK; the 12" version being commonly referred to as the "American Version" within the country.^[11] The UK version of the album was released with alternative cover artwork,^[12] and was later released to a compact disk compilation.^[13]

Credits adapted from liner notes of original release.^[12]

7" Double Extended Play

Credits adapted from label notes of original release.^[14]

That Bad Eartha (LP) (1956)

As 12" records became more popular, RCA Victor re-issued RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt as a 12" record with four new songs from That Bad Eartha (EP), releasing it synonymously a year after the extend play's release. This is now considered to be the standard track listing of That Bad Eartha in all countries except the United Kingdom, where this version was not officially released until 1958,^[10] three years after a ten-track, long play version of That Bad Eartha (EP) was released in the country as a stand-alone album.^[12] During the early 1980s this version of the album was re-issued by RCA on 12" in the Netherlands entitled "The Classics" That Bad Eartha.^[15] In 1984, following her international commercial success with "Where Is My Man", RCA re-issued this version of the album once again on 12",^[16] this time also issuing the first cassette and compact disk versions of the album in Germany, Europe, and the UK.^[17] Over the course of the next two decades, RCA Victor would release at least four re-issues of the same compact disk version throughout Europe.^{[18][19][20][21]} By 1994 songs from the album began becoming available in CD compilations in America by numerous record companies.^[4][22] However, it wasn't until 2002 that a CD featuring the full album would become available in the country, released as a two-for-one with Down To Eartha in conjuncture with RCA/BMG, as with previous official releases of the album.^[23] In 2006 a version of the album featuring 12 bonus tracks would be released in Italy displaying a new cover designed from an alternate shot of Kitt from the same photo shoot that garnered her original album covers for Down to Eartha and Thursday's Child, two months later it was briefly released in the US.^[24][25] The album has since been issued in its entirety on compact disk by numerous record labels,^[26] often in multi-album compilations, throughout the world,^[11] and inevitably as a digital download.^[27][28][29] As of 2007 this album falls into public domain in Europe and is issued freely, without consent from RCA or its parent company Sony Music Entertainment.^[11][30]

12" Long Play

CD (1984)

That Bad Eartha (Japanese version)

7" Extended Play

This was a seven-inch extended play released in Japan of the same name consisting of three songs from different versions of the album and "Santa Baby". It was released with the same cover artwork as Down To Eartha, only changing the letters to "That Bad Eartha", with the same placement and font as the album. Released by Victor of Japan, catalogue number EP-1118.^[31]

Track list adapted from label notes of original release.^[31]

Personnel

Personnel adapted from Allmusic.^[32] Orchestra and chorus members adapted from the liner notes of the 2006 Universe Italy CD release.^[33]

Release history

References