Customer Reviews

American Songbook 1: Best of A-I

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had this CD accompany me worldwide on business, airplanes, hotels. It is a wonderful compilation of both various artists and composers. What I really appreciate is the variety of high-quality performances. By far and away, this has the best performances of "At Last" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" that I have every heard. Ever listened to the Starbucks album with "Baby..cold outside?" You simply cannot appreciate it after hearing the fabulous version on this CD.

I own big compilations like Ella Fitzgerald sings the Cole Porter songbook. Sure, excellent excellent set of recordings. Yet, jazz does well with variety. This album is no exception. It withstands the repetition of same singer/same composer, and thus has huge re-re-replay value.

If you are looking for a great compilation and variety of high-quality jazz performances, this is a wonderful album to own.

This is a really nice addition to the growing examination of popular American songs. We put it on last week at a friend's barbecuse and withnearly every song on both Volumes someone had a something great to say about either the song or the singer. A must have for any msuci collector. My kids love it too as they are beginning to get exposed to music from the '30's - '50's in school through theater and dance performances. Great liner notes too!

Short review here...

After listening to this set of two discs (A-I and J-Z), I was really pleased with the cross section of artists they served up. I was not real happy with the song selections though. There are far, far better songs done by each artist that could more effectively capture what this set was trying to accomplish.

I do have one serious critique of disc A-I: what were they thinking when they put Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes" on there??? I started to sing that Sesame Street song "One of these is not like the other...". Maybe it was an error or oversight, but either way, detracted from the disc.

This collection will take you back to the yesteryears, but other recordings can do it much better.

This may look like a great buy, but in fact these are for the most part second rate performances that don't do the songs or their historical period justice. Many sound like they're off the cuting room floor and others are simply "filler".