Customer Reviews

Crooners

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a nice compilation of songs that are largely forgotten today, with a little too much emphasis on certain "crooners" while ignoring others altogether. Nevertheless, it definitely doesn't deserve the one-star rating assigned to it by the other reviewer here, unless he had no idea what he was buying. But if someone is looking for an excellent overview of music from the 1930's, check out the astounding 4-disc box set from Bear Family Records entitled THE GREAT DEPRESSION: BOOM, BUST, AND THE NEW DEAL. It comes with a hardback book that includes loads of interesting notes and track annotations from Michael Brooks, along with publicity stills, reproductions of songbook covers, and photos of the 78's themselves. It's pricy but very few, if anybody, can compete with the quality of Bear Family releases.

Man, this CD has all my favorite crooners and has helped me to discover ones I might not have heard, if it had not been for this insightful cd re-issure, which is done perfectly. For starters i bought this for the Bing Crosby and Frank sinatra cuts, but discovered some truly great singers. Chick Bullock is my favorite singer on here, he really knows how to carry a tune, and he was one of the 1st white singers in the 30's to sing with an all black band(he was backed by Cab calloway, Ellington, Waller...), he was one cool dude, and probably one of the best singers that ever lived. I wish they would put out a whole box set of Chick Bullock & His Levee Loungers. Anyway Harold Arlen is a great crooner as well as Seger Ellis, man that guy really croons romantic. Dude if you don't get this cd your crazy. Buy it, and do yourself a favor, buy an Al Bowlly cd too, because he wasn't on this one, so buy this and an Al Bowlly cd. Buy it now, laterz.

Wow, I was simply knocked out by Columbia Records Art Deco sereis for putting out such a wide range of crooners, not just the popular ones like Bing Crosby, but the forgotten ones like segar Ellis. Every cut on this superbly done disc is a gem. Even jazz critic Scott Yanow gave this a great review. This is without a shadow of a doubt the best crooner compilation ever put out by anyone, and you must own it. Such artists as Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards, Pinky Tomlin, Willard Robison, and Russ Columbo are here, as well as Bing Crosby Harlan Lattimore, and Dick Haymes, and a few others. This is when men really sang like men, every one of these baritones will leave tingles up and down your spine. A perfect desert island sisc(10 stars)

This cd very good. All great crooner is here. Bing is here Russ is here. All good jazz crooning is in this cd, you enjoy it, i promise.

I keep a copy of this cd at all of my Texas beach houses, i love this cd and I love lovers(everybody loves a lover...), Give this cd and a bottle of wine to any jazz lover(or any lover for taht matter, hahahahaha!!!). This cd includes Bing Crosby, Red McKenzie, Willard Robison and many more great crooners, thsi is teh difinitive crooner cd. A must buy.

This is without a doubt the finest overview of crooners out on cd to date(The First Crooners Vols. 1-3, are also exellent). It covers the well known as well as the obscure and neglected crooners. On this fice cd you will hear Dick Haymes, a young frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Harlan Lattimore, Russ Columbo, Ukulele "Ike" Cliff Edwards, Pinky Tomlin, Willard Robison(yes, the songwriter), and many others too(only the GREAT Al Bowlly is missing). This cd is not to be missed for those that realize the importance of the crooners, if it weren't for them, singers would still be loud and overbearing like al Jolson, or even worst Billy Murray. Crooners changed pop music forever (read Will Friedwald's Jazz Singing and Rise Of The Crooners)! Whatever you do, don't pass this one, this is a classy cd of classy crooners. Buy it today.

Don't let the crabby, overly negative assessments of other reviewers drive you away from this fine collection. Yes, these *are* crooners, and no, every single great song from the Depression era is not represented on this 2-CD set. Maybe if you live in Europe or Asia where countless bootlegs or super-pricey collector nerd editions are available all over the place, this may seem like an inferior set. But for us folks here in poor, benighted America, where this music comes from, this is one of the best sets of its kind that has come out in the CD era. This is packed with plenty of rarities and dimly-remembered artists, a fine set of silly, sissified singers from the 1920s and '30s. It's great stuff. (PS - could fans of reissue material like this learn to critique these collections on the basis of what music is actually available to the individual record labels that put them out, rather than judge them unrealistically based on their list of personal favorite artists? Al Bowlly isn't on here because Sony doesn't own the rights to his stuff.) I for one am thankful to Sony for putting this collection out in the first place, and wish they'd do more reissues along these lines.

In England, they have something called "The Trade Descriptions Act, the purpose of which is to protect the consumer from buying something which fails to live up to its promise. Judging this compilation by its title it's clear Columbia are unaware of the legal risk they are running. Not that the product is inferior, it's just masquerading under false pretences.

The problem is one of definition (Chambers: croon, v.t. to sing softly in a sentimentally contemplative manner). Granted, Bing's photo is on the cover, and he puts in a token appearance. It cannot be denied either that Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes have been allotted the final four tracks between them. Given the presence of Jack Teagarden (the well-known crooner who also messed about on the trombone), Harold Arlen (the well-known crooner who also wrote songs),and Willard Robison and Eddy Howard (the well-known crooners who also led bands). Let us admit, in a spirit of generosity, Gene Austin, Smith Ballew, Russ Columbo and Harlan Lattimore. That still leaves offerings by such renowned abusers of the larynx as Skinny Ennis, Seger Ellis, Pinky Tomlin and Chick Bullock (of which last worthy it was once famously said - by Eddie Condon, if memory serves "He couldn't carry a tune across the road").

Special mention should be made of Cliff Edwards and Red McKenzie, who seem to carry the lion's share in terms of track allocation. Now devotees of the former, of whom there are many, would stoutly defend their idol against a charge of crooning. Indeed, so good was he at projecting his somewhat abrasive tones that Uncle Walt hired him to supply the voice of Jiminy Cricket in "Pinnochio".

Similarly, Red McKenzie is better remembered for his ability to attract the jazz alumni of the day behind his comb and paper lead than for his vocal interpolations on the tracks they recorded. It is surely significant that his most famous record was purely instrumental.

There is nothing here of Al Bowlly's US recordings, and no Fred Astaire. Nevertheless,I will enter a plea of mitigation on the defendants' behalf. However perverse it may seem for them to have assembled this compilation under such a misnomer, one can understand them choosing that in preference to the more accurate title "A Study in Contrasting Male Vocal Styles".

If that is what your taste will accommodate then you will not be disappointed. As far as I'm concerned "Sophisticated Ladies" has the edge.

These guys were all considered "hotties" of thier time, and men really knew how to sing bacj than, in massculine crooning voices. These guys really get to me especially Russ Columbo! The entire cd is great, and it's important historicly. A great 2 cd set!

This cd is absolutly perfect in every way(you get 2 cd's of the worlds finest world class crooners). Who the heck cares if al Bowlly isn't here, every other crooner worthy of mention is(maybe Johnny Marvin is missing). Crosby, Sinatra, Haymes, seger Ellis, Gene Austin, Harlan Lattimore, Harold Arlen, and many others. This cd is the best cd ever!!! Buy it today, it should be called introduction to Crooners 101.