Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 09/02/2003
This compilation is the first of ten to be compiled and released on
EMI/
Capitol's
Liberty imprint containing performances of songs that are part of "The Great American Songbook," i.e.,
traditional pop standards from the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s, mostly written for Broadway musicals or Hollywood movies, and subsequently sung in nightclubs and on records. The "(A-I)" designation simply means that all of the songs included in this volume begin with words the first letter of which is among the first nine letters of the alphabet, an arbitrary organizing principle if there ever was one, but no matter. Executive producer/annotator
Alan Warner is bent on demonstrating that the songs have continued to be performed long after their introductions, and in doing so, he has ranged far beyond the ample vaults of
Capitol Records (which was founded in the 1940s in part to record this very repertoire) to license tracks from all of the other major labels. The recordings were made between 1944 (
Bing Crosby's
"I'll Be Seeing You," originally released on
Decca Records and licensed from
Universal), and 2001 (
Dianne Reeves'
"Embraceable You," released on
Capitol imprint
Blue Note), and they include not only
traditional pop singers such as
Tony Bennett,
Peggy Lee, and
Dinah Shore, but also
R&B performers
Ray Charles and
Etta James,
jazz singer
Sarah Vaughan, '70s
pop singer
Harry Nilsson, and
country star
Willie Nelson. Selection and sequencing work to give the album flow and consistency. But this is still a somewhat random compilation, not unlike dozens of others.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
;)
Listen
