Customer Reviews

Chattanooga Choo Choo: The #1 Hits

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

 

 

This is a good collection of Miller's music, but the sound is compromised. I own actual 78's of this material, and the cd sounds harsh and compressed compared to to originals. Old 78's have a better frequency range than most people realize, and Miller's music needs to be remastered with newer restoration tools in order to best preserve the sound.

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This is a great CD, don't get me wrong, but if you are looking for the *one* disc that best covers Glenn Miller's famous charts and signature sound, you might want to keep looking. At 23 tracks, it definitely delivers on quantity but the quality of the sound is only mediocre. Not a lot has been done to "clean up" the original masters (which actually might be a positive to many purists) and the sound is a bit distant and bright. There are also some notable exceptions, particularly "Moonlight Serenade," "Pensylvania 6-5000" and "Little Brown Jug." Of course, the movie soundtrack covers those tunes and is in stereo, though the sound is not as authentic as these recordings.

RCA/BMG's engineers apparently took fifth-generation tapes of these hits (two stars for the music alone) and then did a putrid job of remastering them. A good vinyl reissue from the 1950s would produce richer, fuller sound than this catastrophe. There are many Miller compilations produced after about 1997, when they finally learned how to remaster from 78 rpm. Seek them out.

Just received this Cd in themail I am so thrilled with it. These songs were taped in 1939 and around that time - the original ones. Anyone who listened to Gleen Miller during the World War 2 - must have this C.D.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra is the most successful, and most well know of all the 'Big Bands'. 23 #1 hits spanning the period of May 1939 to February 1943, is an amazing accomplishment. I wasn't born when these songs came out, but growing up, I heard them played at my grandparents house a lot, and they bring back memories to me of those times. As a child I loved these songs and used to sing along with the vocals. It was also a thrill when my grandparents used to tell me stories of those times, of memories associated with these songs. My grandma, during WW2, hearing some of these songs in the background, while sitting in a bomb shelter in the midst of falling bombs, my grandads memories of being in the Royal Marines, and hearing these songs over the radio. I became spellbound, and to hear these songs now sometimes bring a lump to my throat for the memories they stir. This is truly a remarkable album, and all songs have been digitally remastered, so they sound wonderful.