Customer Reviews

Complete Capitol Hits of Margaret Whiting

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Maggie Whiting was born for a career in music, as her father was a successful songwriter and had many friends in the business. So, all she needed to be a successful singer was a reasonably good voice. In fact, she had a wonderful voice, ideally suited to the romantic songs which provided her with her greatest hits.

This compilation is by far the strongest available, and is likely to remain so unless Bear Family or Proper decide to release a boxed set - if that happens, I'll buy it immediately.

With access to the finest songs available at the time, Maggie recorded the original versions of several songs which have become popular classics, including Moonlight in Vermont, Far away places and Baby, it's cold outside. I've heard several versions of these songs, but Maggie's originals are hard to beat.

My particular favorite song of Maggie's, A tree in the meadow, was actually her biggest hit, but there are not many covers of this song around. Could this be because meadows themselves are a rarity these days?.

Maggie was also a major influence on popular music via her duets with country star Jimmy Wakely. Probably conceived as an idea to give Jimmy some pop success, these duets were not only very successful on the pop charts, but also on the country charts. And so it was that country/pop crossover was firmly established.

All the hit duets with Jimmy, plus all her solo hit singles are here. There are some hits that she recorded with other acts which are missing, but nothing essential. An earlier reviewer suggests that The money tree is not included despite being listed. It is on my copy, so perhaps there is something wrong with his copy, or perhaps his was an early pressing, corrected later.

Maggie was at her peak commercially in the late forties, but still had a few hits in the early fifties, when she started to include more upbeat songs in her repertoire. The birth of rock'n'roll killed her pop career, but she continued to record excellent music, most notably the Jerome Kern tribute album. If you only buy one collection of Magic Maggie's music, this is the one to buy. If you want more, start with the Jerome Kern tribute.

I grew up listening to oldies like Miss Whiting and rock at the same time. I snapped up every old, scratched-up LP of performers from the forties and fifties at garage sales, and treasured them. So many of these recording legends didn't make it to cassette, and LP's were dying out in the eighties. When the major labels finally realized what they were holding in their archives, they began releasing remastered recordings on CD in the late eighties and early nineties. Now, we can find most mainstream and many minor performers on CD, with its associated permanance.

Margaret Whiting isn't my favorite singer from the postwar period--Jo Stafford is. I always enjoyed the crystal clarity of Miss Whiting's voice, it simply never conveyed either sex or emotion in the way that Stafford's does. However, the quality of the material that Miss Whiting recorded is matchless. Additionally, the remastering quality is amazing for these old recordings. On some of these compilations, you can tell immediately which recordings were on record and which ones on tape. All of Miss Whiting's recordings sound like they were recorded at least ten years later!

This set won't disappoint. Her music is great for late night listening on a cold night with a hot drink. . .

Methinks some titles are missing at the end of disc 2. I have the album and disc 2 ends with Margaret's version of "Why Don't You Believe Me." What's to be said about Maggie that already hasn't been? That fresh-white-sheets-on-the-clothesline-on-a-sunny day voice. The perfect pitch. The intelligent reading of lyrics. The crisp diction. The singer-as-actor approach. The versatility. Which she sure needed because Capitol threw everything but the kitchen sink at her, musically speaking. There's a ton of hits here--almost everything made the top 30--and this collection provides an excellent visit to what pop music was like in the the late '40s and early '50s. Singers recorded and released records frequently--three months was a long time between records--and it was all done live with the orchestra in one or two takes. Even as a teenager Maggie sounded like a wise woman. And a very good singer.

This is a comprehensive collection of the best recordings made by one of the all time best pop singers in the business. It includes all of her hit Capital recordings and some of the lesser known sides. Everthing Maggie recorded is tasteful and well produced and the sound reproduction here is excellent. Many of these sides cannot be found on any other CD collection. You won't go wrong with this.

Invariably, when a label purports to offer "the complete hits" of a certain artist in one compilation, they always manage to leave out several significant songs. However, this release by Collector's Choice is as close to being complete as you'll find anywhere, even to the point of including all but one of the nine great duet hits from 1949 to 1951 with Country legend Jimmy Wakely, each of which also scored on the C&W charts.

The only legitimate Capitol hits missing are Silver Wings In The Moonlight [Capitol 146 which went to # 19 in April 1944 while she was with Freddie Slack's orchestra], My Ideal and There Goes That Song Again when with Billy Butterfield and his orchestra [Capitol 134 - # 11 in August 1943 and Capitol 182 - # 10 in March 1945], 1947's So Far [Capitol 461] which went to # 14 that December [backed by Frank DeVol's orchestra] as the flipside of Lazy Countryside - which is here; and I Donèt Want To Be Free, the missing duet with Wakely which topped out at # 5 Country in December 1951.

Other than those omissions this is, indeed, a marvelous collection of the hits of one of the most influential female singers of the 1940s and early 1950s who, along the way as a solo artist, had the backing of some of the biggest names in orchestras: Jerry Gray, Carl Kress, Paul Weston, Frank DeVol, Billy May and Lou Busch (her husband).

After leaving Capitol, Margaret recorded briefly for Dot, and in 1958 covered Hank Williams' I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You), which, with the backing of Billy Vaughn's orchestra, reached # 74 Billboard Pop Top 100 in March. She next turned up with London Records where, from 1966 to 1970, she registered 12 more hit singles, most of them on the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts, introduced in late 1961, with several making the Pop Hot 100 "Bubbling Under" charts (introduced in 1959) and two the Hoy 100. One was The Wheel of Hurt, which spent four weeks at # 1 AC in late summer 1966 and also # 26 Hot 100, while the other was a cover of the Gene Pitney hit, Only Love Can Break A Heart, which reached # 96 Hot 100 in June 1967. Both were backed by the Arnold Goland orchestra.

It would be nice to see a compilation offering the missing hits. Meanwhile, this is the best Margaret Whiting release on the market offering flawless sound reproduction and five pages of background notes written by Joseph F. Laredo, sprinkled with photos taken through the years. Included are those with her famous popular composer father Richard Whiting, Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Wakely, husband Lou Busch and their daughter Debbie, June Christy & Peggy Lee, Al Jolson & Jack Kirkwood, and Gary Moore & Jimmy Durante.

I really enjoyed this cd. A great selection of favorites and some never-heards. I'm usually a little apprehensive about any compiliation type collections, but this really hits the nail on the head. Two discs, 45 titles...you can't go wrong. "My Foolish Heart" is of course a favorite, but I never, ever get tired of hearing it.

WHAT A SINGER! WONDERFUL CLEAR VOICE, PERFECT DICTION, WARM INTERPRETATIONS. MAGGIE CAN SING IN A WHISPER, STRAIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF A SONG WITH GLORIOUS LOW NOTES, OR IN FULL VOICE, BELTING OUT WITH THE LUSTIEST OF ORCHESTRATIONS. LISTEN TO HER WONDERFUL RENDITION OF Come Rain or Come Shine AND HER FULL-VOICED RENDITION OF Why Don't You Believe Me? MARGARET WHITING SINGS THEM ALL THE WAY THEY SHOULD BE SUNG. I DISAGREE WITH ANOTHER REVIEWER OF THIS CD RELEASE THAT JO STAFFORD WAS MORE EMOTIONAL AND HAD A SEXIER SOUND THAN MARGARET WHITING. I THINK IT'S JUST THE OPPOSITE. STAFFORD'S VOICE WAS VERY CLEAR, BUT COLD. MAGGIE IS A SINGER'S SINGER AND A WINNER!