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Clooney, Rosemary - Many a Wonderful Moment
(Bear Family BCD-15.927-HK Ger-00 900:-)
Bear Family's Many a Wonderful Moment gathers eight discs of Rosemary Clooney's music. Beginning with her switch to Columbia in 1958 and including her complete recordings for MGM, Coral, RCA, Reprise, and Capitol, the set covers ten years' worth of work with Bing Crosby, Nelson Riddle, and other stars of the time.
Excursions into country, Latin, and inspirational music round out this impressive, substantial set, which also includes a hardcover book with a biography and discography. At 210 tracks long, this 8-CD Box Set is primarily for hardcore Rosemary Clooney fans, but it offers them many of her best moments. | ![]() | Clooney, Rosemary - Memories of You
(Bear Family BCD-15914-GK Ger-98 900:-)
This seven-CD covers the early years of Rosemary Clooney's career. She had one of the great voices of 1950s pop and jazz music, and when she's doing jazz -- as with Duke Ellington here, on the material off of the Blue Rose album -- or the sophisticated pop that makes up most of her set on the live album from the London Palladium, she's beyond compare: playful, seductive, and totally beguiling musically. | ![]() | Como, Perry - Como Swings
(BMG BVCJ-37258 Jap-02 175:-)
In the late 50's, Frank Sinatra had been enjoying a series of hits with his up-tempo albums Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956), A Swingin' Affair! (1957), Come Fly with Me (1958), and Come Dance with Me! (1959), and Como Swings was Perry Como's attempt at the same sort of thing. He hedged his bet with the punning album cover, which depicted him on the golf course, but, inside, his regular arrangers Joe Lipman and Jack Andrews turned in charts full of blaring horns and Latin percussion rhythms. The crooner himself sounded typically unruffled, frequently singing at half the tempo of the accompaniment, but he handled the material well, especially the change-of-pace reading of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo." Como Swings may not have been enough to reverse the singer's career downturn, but it signaled that he was trying to adjust to the more aggressive post-rock & roll popular music of the late 1950s. 24bit K2 Mastering; Vinyl Replica Paper Sleeve. | ![]() | Day, Doris - It's Magic: 1947-1950
(Bear Family BCD-15.609-FK Ger-93 700:-)
In the beginning, there was Doris Day the singer - a terrific singer. This set states the case for Doris Day as a classic vocalist. The songs are great, the arrangements are great, but the singing is something else again!
This set covers Doris's earliest Columbia recordings from 1947-1950, including hits like 'Love Somebody', 'It's Magic', 'Again', 'Let's Take An Old Fashioned Walk', and 'Bewitched'. There are movie songs, as well as some duets with Buddy Clark, Dinah Shore, Frankie Yankovic, and that other Frankie! And there's Doris's jazz soundtrack recordings with Harry James for 'Young Man With A Horn.' As a final bonus, there's a 92-page full-color hardcover book. | ![]() | Day, Doris - Secret Love : 1951-1955
(Bear Family BCD-15.746-EK Ger-95 600:-)
'Secret Love'...picks up where 'It's Magic' left off. This deluxe edition includes all of Doris's Columbia recordings from 1951 until 1955.
Once again, the emphasis is on the classic voice and the terrific songs, which include 'A Guy Is A Guy', 'The Deadwood Stage', 'Sugarbush' (with Frankie Laine), 'Candy Lips' (with Johnnie Ray), 'When I Fall In Love', and, of course, 'Secret Love'. Doris's other duet partners include Danny Thomas, Guy Mitchell, Donald O'Connor, and Howard Keel. She's singing with small groups, large groups...she's singing pop songs, movie songs...and much more.
5-CD box (LP-size) with 106-page hardcover book, 135 tracks. | ![]() | Hugo & Luigi Chorus - Let's Fall in Love
(BMG BVCM-37847 Jap-07 200:-)
The signature sound of RCA production gurus Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore is best likened to fondue — rich, creamy and irrefutably cheesy. Let's Fall in Love, credited with poetry and panache to the "Cascading Voices of the Hugo & Luigi Chorus", updates the signature sound of Eisenhower-era pop chorus albums for Kennedy's New Frontier, adding energy and even a touch of soul to the lush, ludicrously romantic formula. It's fluff, of course, but undeniably well-crafted fluff, fully exploiting the cutting-edge of early-'60s studio technology to forge a multi-dimensional sound that's as big as it is bold. Vinyl Replica Paper Sleeve. | ![]() | Jobim, Antonio Carlos - The composer of Desafinado, plays
(UMG Records UCCU-9682 Jap-09 250:-)
In his first American album, Jobim presents a dozen of his songs, each one destined to become a standard -- an astounding batting average. Jobim, who claimed to have been out of practice at the time of the session, merely plays single notes on the piano with one hand, punctuated by chords now and then, sticking to his long, undulating melodies with a few passages of jazz improvisation now and then. Yet it is a lovely idea, not a gesture is wasted. Arranger Claus Ogerman unveils many of the trademarks that would define his Creed Taylor-produced albums with Jobim -- the soaring, dying solo flute and spare, brooding unison string lines widening into lush harmony; flutes doubling on top of Jobim's piano chords -- again with an exquisitely spare touch. SHM-CD Vinyl Replica Paper Sleeve | ![]() | London, Julie - Calendar Girl
(EMI Toshiba TOCJ-9323 Jap-02 250:-)
Jazz critic Will Friedwald has stated that Julie London's records were so popular in the 1950s mainly because she looked so drop-dead gorgeous on the album covers. The marketing hook behind Calendar Girl may just be the main example for those critical of London's musical career, since its sleeve has made it a prized collector's item. The famous wraparound cover depicts cheesecake shots of London posed for every month of the year, while original issues of the album included a more-than-suggestive insert photo of the singer stretched out in bed. While Friedwald's correct about London's physical beauty, he's wrong in suggesting that the vocalist didn't have the talent to go along with her looks. Vinyl Replica Paper Sleeve. | ![]() | Ray, Johnnie - Cry
(Bear Family BCD-16285-EK Ger-99 775:-)
Johnnie Ray was an immediately recognizable vocal stylist whose histrionic sobbing and exaggerated "blue" notes won as many detractors as fans. But the sheer outrageousness of his performance style, which exhibited a dynamic physicality not seen again in a white singer until Elvis Presley came along, makes Ray a clear forerunner of rock & roll and an exciting entertainer who always seemed to be on the verge of losing control. Cry is a five-disc box set that compiles Ray's complete Columbia recordings from 1951-1956, including the major hits "Cry," "The Little White Cloud That Cried," and "Just Walking in the Rain." | ![]() | Ray, Johnnie - Yes Tonight Josephine
(Bear Family BCD-16319-EK Ger-99 775:-)
Johnnie Ray was an immediately recognizable vocal stylist whose histrionic sobbing and exaggerated "blue" notes won as many detractors as fans. But the sheer outrageousness of his performance style, which exhibited a dynamic physicality not seen again in a white singer until Elvis Presley came along, makes Ray a clear forerunner of rock & roll and an exciting entertainer who always seemed to be on the verge of losing control. Yes Tonight Josephine is a five-disc box set that compiles Ray's last Columbia sessions, along with his recordings for Cadence, United Artists, Liberty, Decca, Groove, Reprise and Pye. | ![]() | Sinatra, Frank - Only the Lonely
(Mobile Fidelity UDCD-792 US-98 200:-)
Originally, Frank Sinatra had planned to record Only the Lonely with Gordon Jenkins, who had arranged his previous all-ballads album, Where Are You. Jenkins was unavailable at the time of the sessions, which led Sinatra back to his original arranger at Capitol, Nelson Riddle. The result is arguably his greatest ballads album. Only the Lonely follows the same formula as his previous down albums, but the tone is considerably bleaker and more desperate. UltraDisc II, 24K Gold Edition in Digipak. | ![]() | Sinatra, Frank - Vegas
(Warner/Reprise 8122-74075 EU-06 475:-)
Mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel may have laid the physical cornerstones of Las Vegas, but it was Francis Albert Sinatra who gave Sin City its swinging musical soul. Spanning a quarter century, this four-CD-plus-bonus-DVD collection of previously unreleased recordings captures spirited Sinatra shows at the Sands, Caesar's, and Golden Nugget--performances that initially underscore the salutary effect the desert playground had on the singer's muse, then warmly chronicle the autumn years of a triumphant career. A pair of '60s gigs at the Sands (of which Sinatra was part owner) capture an artist still building on his musical legacy in the midst of rock's rising fortunes. The 1961 show turns on the riches of his Capitol years, a musically straightforward set that balances the singer's interpretations of reflective material like "Moonlight in Vermont" and "In the Still of the Night" with upbeat, typically playful renditions of such Sinatra signatures as "Young at Heart," "The Lady Is a Tramp," and "Witchcraft." | ![]() | Vartan, Sylvie - Il ya Deux Fills en Moi
(BMG BVCM-37756 Jap-06 200:-)
Although actor/pop singer Sylvie Vartan is Bulgarian, she would eventually receive recognition from the French, usually singing entirely in the language of her adopted homeland. Born August 15, 1944, in Iskretz, Bulgaria, Vartan showed great talent for both acting and singing at an early age, resulting in an appearance in the Bulgarian film Under the Yoke in 1950. Two years later (while only ten years old), Vartan and her family relocated to France. 1961 would prove to be an important year for Vartan's career, as she entered a recording studio for the first time, picked up some TV work, and appeared at the famed Olympia Theater. The early '60s saw the release of a steady stream of singles, EPs, and albums (such as 1962's Sylvie), in addition to further appearances in European movies -- including A Moonlight in Maubeuge and Just for Fun. Vinyl Replica Paper Sleeve with 2 Bonus Tracks. | ![]() |
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