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5.0 out of 5 stars
Anne's recordings for Rex in 1940 and 1941, April 3, 2009
This review is from: Blitz Hits (Audio CD)
Anne Shelton was a wonderful sing who did much to support British troops during the war. It is therefore somewhat ironic that her signature song, Lili Marlene, was of German origin. Anne recorded 13 singles for Rex (a Decca subsidiary) and the first ten are featured in this compilation, though there are only 18 tracks. Were a couple of tracks duplicated? Or have a couple of B-sides been missed out? I don't know, but as this is a budget collection, I'm not complaining.
Lili Marlene inevitably opens this collection. The remaining tracks feature songs that were popular at the time, some of which will be recognizable to followers of American music from the same era, especially Fools rush in, Blues in the night, Where or when, At last, Dancing in the dark, I'll be with you in apple blossom time and I'll be seeing you. There were no record sales charts in Britain at the time, but most of the songs here featured in the sheet music charts. Of course, there is no way of knowing which version of each song caused its popularity in Britain, but given Anne's popularity at the time, I suspect that her recordings would have been an important factor.
Anne Shelton remained an active performer for most of the rest of the 20th century, though her last chart hit came in 1961. The best of those later recordings can be found elsewhere, but these recordings, made when Anne was still a teenager, set the standard for the rest of her career. Wonderful.
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