Customer Reviews

Billy's Best

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I read an interesting book by jazz critic Will Friedwald, and he mentions his favorite "desert island" jazz vocal albums, and Billy's Best is among those. So I decided to try it, and it is in every way perfect. There are some bonus tracks here whcih don't really take away or add anything from the original lp material. However Eckstine's rich baritone voice, with just the right amount of vibarato, always hits the spot(think of a male jazz singer with the talent equivelent to Sarah Vaughan). His voice soars thru songs of all eras leading up to the 50's, starting with the 30's hit Bouolevard Of Broken Dreams right up to Desi Arnez's theme song Babalu. Wonderful arrangements with orchestra and strings only compliment and uplift Billy's jazz phrasing, making this the essential jazz/pop vocal lp, by any non-Sinatra male singer from the late 50's. A great disc thru and thru.

There is no one around today that can compare with Billy. He was simply the best at what he did.

Perhaps a knowledgable soul can end my desperate search..

Some years ago I left a casette recording the late night songs of a jazz station here in Caracas.. when I listen to it, there was a version of Tenderly sang live by Mr. B.. at that time i did not know it was him so I searches everywhere all the versions of tenderly I could find.. by a miracle I found a studio version in a cd that recorded the best male jazz vocalist and it was my introduction to Mr. B-

What a voice and style, this is the model to follow, this cd has arragments made by H. Mancini !!! yes it has some very bad last 3 songs where one can tell the voice lost some of its glory, still is a must have..

Now if anybody can help me find the LIVE version of tenderly sung by Mr. B please contact me via Skype at Humberto_Mejia Thanks!!!

Billy Eckstine is One Of The Greatest Vocalist Ever.His Voice Sounds Fantastic&the Music has a Timeless Quality.He was a Legend.

My mother in law had always loved listening to Billy Eckstine...she is now in a nursing home with dementia...but for Christmas I decided to purchase this cd for her, since it's her short term memory that's gone...the first time she heard it, tears weld up in her eyes and I knew I chose the *perfect* gift for her..listening to him just brought back good memories for her...she loves listening to him.