1932-1934 4 [Import]

Boswell Sisters | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 30, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Nostalgia Arts
• ASIN: B00004WL99
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,292 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. California Medley (Part 2)

2. O.K. America (Part 2)

3. We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye

4. Sleep, Come On And Take Me

5. Down Among The Sheltering Palms

6. Mood Indigo

7. Forty-Second Street

8. The Gold Diggers' Song

9. It's Sunday Down In Caroline

10. Puttin' It On

11. Swanee Mammy

12. Sophisticated Lady

13. That's How Rhythm Was Born

14. Song Of Surrender

15. Coffee In The Morning

16. You Oughta Be In Pictures

17. I Hate Myself (For Being So Mean To You)

18. Goin' Home

19. The Lonesome Road

20. Rock And Roll

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very influential, but not the mothers of rock'n'roll, February 3, 2003

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1932-1934 4 (Audio CD)

The Boswell sisters, although largely unknown these days, were an enormous influence on many singers of the forties and fifties, including other sister groups like the Andrews sisters and solo singers like Ella Fitzgerald. Their sound was jazz based, like much music of the era. They were capable of many different types of song - they could swing but they could also sing romantic love songs.

On this, the fourth of an excellent five-CD series of their music, there is a song called Rock and roll, which was a #7 hit for them in 1934. While it is an excellent upbeat song that swings at a good pace, it is some way removed from the music of the fifties that we now know as rock'n'roll. Nevertheless, there are those who acclaim the Boswells as the mothers of rock'n'roll on the strength of their music in general and this song in particular. Much as I love their music, I think not.

For reasons that are not obvious to me, some tracks appear on more than one volume in the series. For example, four of the tracks here (Coffee in the morning, If I had a million dollars, The object of my affection and Dinah) also appear on Volume 5, which I've already reviewed. From the information supplied, I do not think they are different recordings. Still, there are so many songs on each volume that the duplication does not matter, except if they are played back-to-back.

Apart from songs already mentioned, there is one other hit here - You oughta be in pictures, which peaked at #17 in 1934. The remaining songs are all wonderful, including covers of two Duke Ellington songs, Sophisticated lady and Mood indigo.

While this is an excellent collection, it is not the most important volume in the series. I collected volumes 1, 3 and 5 in this series first, because nearly all the important songs are in those CD's. I enjoyed them so much that I bought volumes 2 and 4 not long afterwards. They are less important, but equally brilliant.