By Larry Nager
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In this much-anticipated CD, due in stores Tuesday, Cincinnati R&B icon Ronald Isley, 62, joins 2003's biggest craze: classic pop standards.

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Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach Here I Am: Ronald Isley Sings Burt Bacharach Dreamworks; $18.98 2 1/2 stars

Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Michael Bolton and Aaron Neville are among rock and pop stars turning to the golden age of popular song.

Lincoln Heights' favorite son, who came to fame in the late '50s with the Isley Brothers, looks to the later generation of pop standards written by Burt Bacharach. It's a departure for Isley, whose phenomenal R&B success of the past few years has come by playing the gangster/pimp Mr. Bigg with R. Kelly.

The set opens with "Alfie," which Isley sings straight in a distinctly female falsetto. The effect is a bit freakish, as Mr. Bigg morphs into Little Jimmy Scott. "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" is looser, more intimate and improvisational, sounding like an after-hours jam.

The biggest misstep here is "A House is Not a Home." Luther Vandross owns that song, and his version remains the standard. Isley's wispier edifice just can't stand up to Vandross' hurricane of heartbreak.

He hits his stride on "The Look of Love" and "This Guy's In Love With You," two of Bacharach's biggest hits of the '60s. Here, Isley melds perfectly with Bacharach's orchestra, imbuing the composer's original vision with his own signature, smoothly seductive R&B.

That Carpenters favorite "Close to You" gets a straightforward treatment, but even wrapped in Isley's silky tenor, the song's schmaltz seeps through.

Isley's tenor, still clear, high and powerful 44 years after "Shout" hit the charts, remains a miracle. But the marriage with Bacharach works in only about half the 13 tracks, the ones in which the former doo-wop singer's love of sweet pop meets Bacharach's bluesier side.

Had all of Here I Am been as good as "The Look of Love," the album could have set a new standard for standards.

E-mail lnager@enquirer.com