Customer Reviews

Golden Years: 1938-42

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This set of four CD's was released by Proper, who have released over thirty similar sets of some of the legends of the thirties and forties. There have been many compilations of Glenn's music - and will continue to be many more, but this is by far the best I've come across.

It contains all his big hits, all the other songs he is famous for and so much more besides. At the time I bought this, I didn't even realise his line-up included a female singer! Actually, if you buy a single-CD compilation of Glenn's music, chances are that you will get mostly (perhaps exclusively) instrumental tracks, with any vocals being by one of the male singers, usually Ray Eberle.

A four CD set allows you to hear a much broader range of music than you would get from a single CD. These include vocals from Marion Hutton and all the featured male singers, but ultimately it is the instrumental tracks (of which In the mood and Moonlight serenade are the most famous) which are what Glenn will be best remembered. He never attached great impotrance to singing, content to employ good singers who were not the absolute best. Some other bands had better singers but were less successful, so Glenn was right - it's the music that counts.

If you are thinking that four CD's is more than you need, compare the price of this to a double-CD. If you decide to buy this, you will find the extra variety - different voices on songs as well as instrumentals - will dispel any doubts. My opinion of Glenn's music (already favorable) increased considerably as a consequence of listening to this set. Four CD's is fully justified - enjoy them.

I've only recently "discovered" that I like Big Band music. We Boomers grew up loving our rock 'n roll and mostly thought of the Glenn Miller Band and others like it as relics of our parents' days in the Depression and World War II. After rap came to the forefront of popular "music", I listened to Classical music exclusively and got very comfortable with the music of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and many others.

Through a series of odd coincidences I tuned in several times to an AM radio station here in Colorado Springs that plays a lot of orchestral and band music from the 30's through the early 60's. To my surprise, I found myself listening to all this stuff from Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and others.

Lo and behold, I was completely captivated by this delightful music. It's so, well, civilized! It's joyous, lovely, whole-hearted American music from a time when we were truly at our best as a nation. Moreover, it's masterfully constructed, and, in this collection, performed as well as I could have hoped for.

The search began for a good GM collection that "had it all", and I spent a lot of time here on Amazon browsing literally dozens of offerings, listening to samples for hours, and reading many fine, informative reviews. I knew that there was a great variance of opinion about the quality of the audio transfers, and not a few people were very upset about the noise of scratches, pops, and thin, "tinny" reproduction along with an overall loss of full fidelity.

This research by a complete neophyte in the subject material led me to the conclusion that I definitely wanted a collection that had the 18 songs I wanted most, including many of those the band is so well known for. This 4-CD set was the only one that had them, except for one much larger set that costs quite a lot. I got mine through MovieMars, one of the Amazon dealers, and everything was perfect.

This set is ideal in every way. It has superb audio quality with none of the distractions that evidently exist in some other collections. Here, the sound envelope is fully reproduced: you can hear the bass viols clearly without any "muddiness"; the reed instruments are sharp and bright without being shrill and tinny; the brass is clear and mellow, but also bold; the vocals are warm and round with the singers' resonance.

Well, that's the recommendation of an admitted newcomer to all this. Don't wait too long to decide on this collection because I've seen that the availabilities and prices for it fluctuate quite a lot.

Fabulous! This was a gift to my 87 year-old father whose face lit up when he opened it. This is the "best music that was ever made", and he becomes more youthful with a definite spring to his step whenever he's listening to it. He has assured me that Glenn Miller is the best of the big band era.

As well as the standard classics (Tuxedo Junction etc) and a smattering of sentimental clunkers (April Played the Fiddle, etc) this complilation has quite a few outstanding and memorable swing (jazz) numbers that the band did well including Johnson Rag which swings like made, Slow Freight, Anvil Chorus Pts1&2 et al. It is these that make this compilation expecially enjoyable for me. The sound is good and the price is low. The best Miller Cd's available as I am not a completist

This box-set is an wonderful musical document, and an exceptional value for the money. The 40-page booklet of bio, session & discography info makes for pleasant reading while listening. I'm going to enjoy this for a long time. The only minor disappointment was that the compiler was unable to find room for "St. Louis Blues March", a personal favorite & memorable selection from Hollywood's The Glenn Miller Story (1953) -- an excellent film, the DVD of which is also available here on Amazon.

This is the best collection of Glenn Miller! It doesn't sound "tinny" like so many remastered CDs. The only one you need.

What can i say about GM he I think had the best sound of all the bands from that era.Great dance music.

I've been a huge fan of the Glenn Miller Orchestra since my teen years (I'm 59 years old, so Glenn was already gone before I was born). I have several vinyl Glenn Miller albums and one or two CDs, but none of them match the quality of this CD. The selection of songs is also excellent providing a wide range of Miller music both instrumental only and with the varioius vocalists that worked with Miller over the years. Higly reccomended for Glenn Miller and big band fans.

Now if I could only find some of the old movies which featured the Glenn Miller Orchestra on DVD...

I think I was born in the wrong time! I love this old stuff.

There have been many Miller's compilations over the years, but this is the best of the bunch. Four discs for the price of one (well...one and a half). It contains all the famous songs and so many more gems besides, but there are a few strange choices.

From disc one; "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" should have been dropped for "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" (a great Tex Beneke vocal) and instead of "Blue Orchids" it should have been "To You" (from the great - Memorial collection).

From disc two; instead of "Blue Moonlight" it should have been "Blue Rain" (a much better Ray Eberle vocal that appeared on the "Platinum" collection recently) and instead of "Careless" another Eberle vocal, it really should have been Marion Hutton's "Say Si Si" (from the great Essential collection of a few years back).

From disc three; "Blueberry Hill" should have been cut for "A Million Dreams Ago" (the flip side of BH, that also appeared on the Essential collection) and instead of "Spring Will Be So Sad" it should have been "Cross-town" (a top ten hit from 1940).

From disc four; instead of the silly "Kiss Polka" it should have been "Keep `Em Flying" (a smoking` 1942 instrumental) and instead of "Moonlight Becomes You" it should have been "The Lamplighter`s Serenade" (one of the band`s and my favorites).

Still, not a bad batting average, so this box set is getting 4 ½ stars for the song selection (but it's only my opinion). The booklet gets 4 stars, a great read (5 stars) while listening along, but the photo selections (3 stars) could have been much better.

If you are new to The Glenn Miller Orchestra and only know their "HITS" this is a nice collection to graduate to.

PS: I HOPE THE NICE FOLKS AT PROPER ARE IN THE PROCESS OF
MAKING A - GLENN MILLER RADIO BROADCASTS - BOX SOON!