This excellent collection of songs from the "War Years" includes The Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, the Dorsey Brothers, and Harry James, among others. It's great for the novice. ~ Kenneth M. Cassidy, All Music Guide
This CD is part of RCA Victor's extensive but erratic introduction to jazz series. Glenn Miller had so many hits that it would be impossible to fit them on just one CD. Strangely enough, three of the 15 numbers included on this release ("When You Wish Upon a Star," "Moon Love," and "King Porter Stomp") were not big sellers, making the title a bit ...
Though there are only 12 tracks on this collection, the selections are impeccable: two standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington each, plus individual tracks by Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn. ~ Keith Farley, All Music Guide
While the title alone would seem to invite criticism, it's a justified tag, as this 20-track collection rounds up some pretty serious contenders. Kicking off with Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo Choo," Benny Goodman's "Stompin' at the Savoy," and Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train," the set includes signature tunes from Woody Herman, Artie Shaw ...
In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of reissues covering much of the history of 20th century jazz. The central release of this program is the five-CD box set Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music, its 94 selections covering the history ...
The Now series is known for crossing the boundaries of record labels in its attempt to provide definitive collections of hits -- usually from contemporary hits, but also of different eras and styles from the past (at least in its U.K. incarnation). Thankfully, the double-disc, 36-track collection Now That's What I Call Christmas! lives up to the ...
Tread cautiously when the title of an album starts off with the phrase "the best of." It's not that the music on the album will be lacking, but that the introductory phrase is so subjective, it should make a prospective of the album, at the minimum, a bit wary; it would be somewhat more honest to title such compilations "Some of the Best of..." In ...
GRP's Greatest Hits is not designed for collectors or serious fans, as it will likely frustrate them. Casual fans, however, and the curious will be well served by this 19-track collection of highlights from Billie Holiday's Decca recordings, featuring such songs as "Easy Living," "Solitude," "God Bless the Child," "T'Ain't Nobody's Bizness if I Do ...
In 1949, guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli performed together for the first time since the outbreak of World War II put an end to the classic lineup of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, with the pair reuniting in an Italian recording studio and laying down a number of tunes with a solid local rhythm section. In 1961, ...
In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of reissues covering much of the history of 20th century jazz. The central release of this program was the five-CD box set Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music, which was augmented by no less than 22 ...
At its best, Swing Kids fills the listener with the relentless passion, sensuality, and joy that is swing music. Not tapping your feet or dancing to the material presented is nearly impossible. Unfortunately, composer James Horner also fills the album with moody orchestral music that takes away some of the momentum. Still, the best cuts are so ...
Disney's Greatest, Vol. 2 collects more classic songs from Disney's songbook, including "Mickey Mouse March" from the original Mickey Mouse Club TV show, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast, and "Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book. Pocahontas' "Colors of the Wind," The Lion King's "Hakuna Matata," Snow White ...
Any compilation that properly anthologizes the chart history of Miss Peggy Lee is forced to sprint through 24 years, including a pair of decades that were the most culturally tumultuous of the 20th century. Such is the peril of attempting to summarize Lee's career by way of her hits, though for introductory purposes this disc is an excellent one ...
This four-CD set is a first in Frank Sinatra's Columbia Records discography: a box set that encompasses his Columbia solo sides with his work for Tommy Dorsey and Harry James, plus live broadcast sides up through 1952. It may also perplex some potential purchasers, especially those who already have the 12-CD Sony/Legacy Columbia Years set -- which ...
Forget for a moment that The Best of Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday was tied into the release of the superb box set, Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, thereby offering a bit of advertisement to the full-fledged set. That doesn't matter -- even if there was never a box set, this would have been a welcome addition to Billie ...
Louis Prima had been leading orchestras for 25 years when, in 1954, he finally got something that turned out to be the biggest break of his career: a late-night lounge act at the Sahara Hotel. It certainly wasn't a coveted gig, but it soon became the hottest ticket in town, with a dynamite stage show that featured Prima, the combination fireplug ...
The Benny Goodman library hasn't been well treated by RCA-BMG, especially in the area of mid-priced compilations -- there were too many reissues done in the late '80s and early '90s, before the advent of 20-bit and 24-bit mastering and other high-resolution digital formats, that really make a difference on those old analog masters. The result is a ...
World War II and big-band pop-era compilations are released almost as regularly as Christmas albums, and the glut has caused more harm than good; it seems any good ones are quickly swallowed up by the racks full of short, ill-advised, uninformative collections. Though any single label could never do justice to the war years, with a little clever ...
Although it has been written much too often that Lester Young declined rapidly from the mid-'40s on, the truth is that when he was healthy, Young played at his very best during the '50s, adding an emotional intensity to his sound that had not been present during the more carefree days of the '30s. This classic session, a reunion with pianist Teddy ...
There have been many compilations of Spike Jones' music, but few have been better than RCA's 1999 collection, Greatest Hits. Over the course of 20 tracks, all of Jones' best-known songs are presented in their best-known versions, including "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma," "My Old Flame," "Der Fuehrer's Face," "The Sheik of Araby, "William Tell ...
Verve's Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle and Shake is a wonderful collection of kid-friendly novelty tunes by some of the biggest names in jazz. Fun, funny, and breezy, the collection will have both kids and parents dancing as well as singing, clapping, wiggling, and shaking. Helping the party along are wild tracks by Ella Fitzgerald (the ...
There's something scandalous about the fact that this 13-song CD is, as of spring 2000, the only upgrade to date of Columbia Records' holdings on Billie Holiday. It's good as far as it goes, as part of Sony Music's 20-bit remastering of the highlights of its jazz catalog, but it makes one wonder how long listeners have to wait for the nine volumes ...
This double-CD set should not be confused with the similarly named mid-'90s, 47-song compilation from BMG, which was good in its time but is outclassed by this entry in Sony Music's (now Sony BMG's) Essential series. Wisely ignoring a by-release-date-order approach, producer Barry Feldman has instead opted for a track lineup that, plain and simple ...
Songs That Got Us Through WW2, Vol. 2 collects more early-'40s pop favorites like Dinah Shore's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," Roy Rogers' "San Fernando Valley," and Johnny Mercer's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." More overtly war-themed songs such as Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra's "When My Man Comes Home," Louis Jordan's "Ration ...
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