Eddie Fisher came back from the dead as a recording artist with his 1966 single "Games that Lovers Play" and its accompanying album. The follow-up single, "People Like You," was nearly as successful on the easy listening charts in the winter of 1967, but barely registered on the pop charts, and his next single, "Now I Know" (not included here), got even less attention in the spring. Nevertheless, RCA Victor, his record label, next came with a
People Like You LP. That might have been a good idea if it had been as strong an effort as the
Games That Lovers Play album, a well-chosen collection of songs arranged and conducted by
Nelson Riddle. But
People Like You was handled mostly by Marty Manning, and it consisted largely of songs that had gotten some notice in 1966, mostly in the hands of other performers. "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and "Born Free" had been pop hits; "Watch What Happens" and "I Will Wait for You" came from the film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; and "If She Walked Into My Life" and "Mame" (retrieved from the B-side of "Games that Lovers Play") were from the Broadway musical Mame. These were songs that had been cut earlier by such competitors as
Jack Jones and
Tony Bennett, and without a superior arranger like
Nelson Riddle, these versions had little to add to what had been done already. "People Like You" sounded like something
Dean Martin should be doing, and
Fisher indulged his affection for
Al Jolson in the Mame cuts. There were some enjoyable performances, but the album as a whole was a disappointment after the standard set by Games that Lovers Play, and the its commercial failure (it only just made the charts), slowed the momentum of
Fisher's comeback. ~ William Ruhlmann