4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two and a half hours of Spike Jones, January 27, 2007
This review is from: Essential Collection (Audio CD)
This double-CD set contains 50 tracks, representing Spike's output from 1941 to 1947. Most of the tracks (40) are from Spike's RCA Victor records; the rest (10) are from military-issue "V-Discs." You'll find Spike's biggest hits, and some very obscure stuff as well (such as the weak "My Pretty Girl"). Curiously, two of the songs are duplicated from disc #1 to disc #2.
I'm amazed at how the noise from the original 78 rpm records has been totally removed. The trade-off is that sometimes the sound is a bit bassy, or even "hollow" (like an MP3 file with a low sample rate). On the other hand, some of the other tracks are very good. (This is probably the best master of "Chloe" I've heard.) But here's a good decision: None of the tracks have ADDED any sound to the original recordings, such as reverberation or "stereo" effect.
The album notes are brief, perhaps rehashed from Wikipedia. But the song credits (soloists and composers) are thorough.
The band picture on the front cover was taken in 1957, 10 years after the latest recording session in this set.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
It'd be a GREAT collection IF..., February 22, 2007
This review is from: Essential Collection (Audio CD)
Disc 1 would play.
I've ordered this set twice...from different vendors...and both times, Disc 1 would NOT load, would NOT play...on ANY CD machine or computer at home or at work. Try it if you want but make sure the seller has an easy return policy.
I'll give it 1 star for disc 2, which was fine. But I really wanted "Popcorn Sack" and that's on disc 1.
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