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CD1
1. Blues In The Night
2. Darn That Dream
3. Imagination
4. The Breeze and I
5. Smoke Gets in your Eyes
6. The Nearness of You
7. My Man
8. Yes, My Darling Daughter!
9. Down Argentina Way
10. Mood Indigo
11. Dinah s Blues
12. Somebody Loves Me
13. I Hear a Rhapsody
14. Memphis Blues
15. Honeysuckle Rose
16. I'm Thru' With Love
17. Jim
18. Mocking Bird Lament
19. All Alone
20. Sophisticated Lady
21. Stardust
22. Chloë
23. Body and Soul
24. I Don t Walk To Walk Without You
25. One Dozen Roses
26. By The Sleepy Lagoon
27. I'll Walk Alone
 
CD2
1. Skylark
2. Mad about Him, Sad about Him, How Can I Be Mad about Him Blues
3. "Murder", He Says
4. Why Don't You Fall In Love With Me?
5. Dearly Beloved
6. You d Be So Nice To Come Home To
7. Candy
8. Shoo-Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy
9. The Gypsy
10. Laughing On The Outside, Crying On The Inside
11. All That Glitters Is Not Gold
12. Doin' What Comes Natur'lly
13. You Keep Coming Back like a Song
14. For Sentimental Reasons
15. Georgia On My Mind
16. They Didn t Believe Me
17. Anniversary Song
18. I Wish I Didn t Love You So
19. You Do
20. Golden Earrings
21. Buttons and Bows
22. Little White Lies
23. Far Away Places
24. Lavender Blue, Dilly, Dilly
25. So In Love
26. Dear Hearts and Gentle People
27. Baby, It s Cold Outside

 

I wasn't certain whether to put this review under "Jazz" or "Nostalgia", because Dinah Shore - like Jo Stafford - was a vocalist who recorded mostly popular songs but had a jazz awareness. She certainly wasn't an out-and-out jazz singer but she would occasionally take liberties with songs which might be described as jazzy. She flourished in the days when most singers were expected to deliver sentimental songs, accompanied by a full and often lush orchestra.

Yet the songs on this double CD include W. C. Handy's Memphis Blues plus Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo, and on Dinah's Blues she is backed by a Dixieland group with a rasping trumpeter. She also interprets songs which have become jazz standards - like Hoagy Carmichael's brace of most memorable melodies: Stardust and Skylark. However you classify Dinah, she had a beautiful voice: always singing in tune, with sensitivity to the needs of each song.

This album includes many of Dinah's hits, such as Blues in the Night, The Breeze and I, Yes, My Darling Daughter and Dearly Beloved. Besides these familiar songs, there are several that seem to have been almost totally forgotten: sometimes inexplicably (like I Hear a Rhapsody and One Dozen Roses), sometimes understandably (like Murder, He Says). However, Dinah could make even the corniest song sound significant.

This is not only a generous compilation (about 158 minutes of music) but also a fitting reminder of what a fine singer Dinah Shore was. And its reasonable budget price should help you decide to buy it.

 

Tony Augarde

 

 

 

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