Eddie Fisher and Dot Records parted ways after four albums with diminishing sales in 1966, and he appeared to have run out of options as a recording artist. Instead, he got one more chance. Patching things up with RCA Victor, the label with which he had shared his glory days,
Fisher cut an Anglicized German tune, "Games that Lovers Play" (aka "Eine Ganze Nacht"), backed by arranger/conductor
Nelson Riddle, and enjoyed his first pop singles chart entry in five years, almost making the Top 40. (On the easy listening charts, he almost hit number one.) The song echoed
Frank Sinatra's recent success, "Strangers in the Night," and
Fisher even kidded
Sinatra at the end of the track. RCA quickly signed him to a term contract, and he went in to the studio to cut a
Games That Lovers Play LP. Although it was made quickly, this was no rushed effort.
Riddle was on hand again, providing rich and appropriate charts to match
Fisher's deepened, more expressive voice, and the song selection, with a little of this and a little of that, displayed a broad range of the singer's interpretive abilities. He was equally at home with an
Antonio Carlos Jobim samba ("How Insensitive [Insensatez]," "Once I Loved"), a Rodgers & Hart standard ("Where's That Rainbow," "It Never Entered My Mind"), or a contemporary ballad (
the Beatles' "Yesterday"), but gave special attention to songs like "Carnival (Manha de Carnaval)" and "Lara's Theme (Somewhere My Love)" that had sweeping melodies and a touch of melancholy. He was, in fact, singing better, and with greater feeling for lyrics at 38 than he had in his early twenties. The album charted moderately (
Fisher describes it in his autobiography as his biggest seller ever), and suddenly his recording career seemed to be back on track. ~ William Ruhlmann