CD1
Noel Coward sings Mrs Worthington
The Ink Spots – Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
Edith Piaf – La vie en rose
Richard Tauber – Vijalied
Billy Cotton – A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Doris Day – I Don’t Want To Be Kissed
Nelson Eddy - Indian Love Call
Larry Adler – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Marian Anderson – Deep River
Al Jolson – Don’t Write Me Letters
Vera Lynn – We’ll Meet Again
Tino Rossi – Marinella
The Mills Brothers – Tiger Rag
Judy Garland – Over the Rainbow
Billy Mayerl – Marigold
Leadbelly – Black Smoke Moan
Josephine Baker – Bonsat, mon amour
Frank Sinatra – East of the Sun
Paul Whitman - Southern Melody
Richard Crooke – Canter in the Air
George Formby – The Window Cleaner
Lucienne Boyer – Parlez-moi d’amour
Josef Locke – My Heart and I
Mantovani – El Toreador
Roy Rogers – Along the Navajo Trail
Gertrude Lawrence – Mad About the Boy
CD2
Cole Porter – You’re the Top
Marlene Dietrich – Falling In Love Again
Paul Robeson – Ol’ Man River
Maurice Chevalier - Place Pigalle
The Comedy Harmonists – Whistle While You Work
Charles Trenet – La Mer
Anne Shelton - Blueberry Hill
Lawrence Tibbett – On the Road to Mandalay
Frank Crumit – The Song of the Prune
Dinah Shore – Come Rain or Come Shine
Leroy Anderson – Sleigh Ride
Guy Lombardo – The Band Played On
John McCormack –The Rose of Tralee
The Andrews Sisters – Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Freddy Gardner – These Foolish Things
Gracie Fields – The Biggest Aspidistra in the World
Perry Como – Surrender
Bing Crosby – Brother Can You Spare A Dime
Jean Sablon – Le chanson des rues
Edmundo Ross – Mambo Jambo
Woody Guthrie – Dear Mr President
Xavier Cugat – Bim Bam Bum
Fred Astaire – Puttin’ On the Ritz
Ivor Novello – Keep the Home Fires Burning
Mario Lanza – Be My Love
This double album is a compendium of tracks culled
from other Naxos releases in their Nostalgia series. It’s a wonderful
bargain – a collection of jewels from the 1930s and 1940s – as far as
my memory serves - because the down side is that there are no notes
whatsoever only a list of Naxos recordings from which this release has
been compiled.
One of the many highlights is the inclusion of composers
Noel Coward singing ‘Mrs Worthington’ (don’t put your daughter on the
stage) and Cole Porter’s rendering of his own hit, ‘You’re the Top’
from Anything Goes, to open of each CD. And (almost) to
close the concert, there is Ivor Novello singing his World War I hit,
‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’. Then there are the invaluable historic
recordings of Marlene Dietrich sultrily singing ‘Falling in Love Again’,
the oaken tones of Paul Robeson in Ol’ Man River’ and the sturdy imperial-voiced,
Lawrence Tibbett singing ‘On the Road to Mandalay’ Continental classics
include: Edith Piaf’s ‘La vie en rosse’, Richard Tauber’s ‘Vijalied’,
and Maurice Chevalier’s ‘Place Pigalle’ Great artists are remembered
like heartthrob Nelson Eddy making his ‘Indian Love Call’, the Andrews
Sisters welcoming ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, Vera Lyn promising
‘We’ll Meet Again’, Perry Como ‘Surrender’ – ing, and Judy Garland in
her immortal, ‘Over the Rainbow’. There are plenty of comedy songs including
George Formby’s revelatory ‘The Window Cleaner’, Frank Crumit’s dastardly
picture of elderly women, ‘The Prune Song’ and Gracie Field’s portrait
of that domestic pest, ‘The Biggest Aspidistra in the World’ Of the
instrumental pieces I would mention Billy Mayerl’s delightful ‘Marigold’,
Mantovani’s Latin-inflected ‘El Toreador’, and Freddy Gardner’s band
in ‘These Foolish Things’.
A treasury of golden oldies.
Recommended.
Ian Lace
CD Reviews
Naxos Nostalgia
2 CDs 8.120754-55 [159 mins approx.]