Instrumental Gems of the Fifties

Various Artists (Artist), Joe "Fingers" Carr (Artist), Les Paul (Artist), Mitch Miller (Artist), Percy Faith (Artist), Perez Prado (Artist), Tommy Dorsey (Artist), Ray Anthony (Artist), Martin Denny (Artist), Billy Vaughn (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 19, 1999)
• Original Release Date: October 19, 1999
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Collector's Choice
• ASIN: B00001ZWD0
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,618 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Third Man Theme - Anton Karas Listen

2. Sam's Song Listen

3. Nola - Les Paul Listen

4. Laura - Stan Kenton & His Orchestra Listen

5. Down Yonder Listen

6. Delicado - Percy Faith & His Orchestra

7. Meet Mister Callaghan - Les Paul

8. Caravan - Ralph Marterie

9. Song from Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart?) - Percy Faith

10. Oh! - Pee Wee Hunt & His Orchestra

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Unchained Melody - Les Baxter & His Orchestra

2. Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle

3. Autumn Leaves - Roger Williams

4. Moritat (A.K.A. Mack the Knife) - Dick Hyman

5. Poor People of Paris (Jean's Song) - Les Baxter & His Orchestra

6. Moonglow/Theme from "Picnic" - Morris Stoloff

7. Canadian Sunset - Hugo Winterhalter

8. Song for a Summer Night - Mitch Miller & the Sing Along Gang

9. Shifting Whispering Sands - Billy Vaughn & His Orchestra

10. So Rare - The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars once there were greenfields, January 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Instrumental Gems of the Fifties (Audio CD)

A truly amazing collection of wonderful music from the pre-rock days! This album has it all: Frank Chacksfields "Ebb tide" (1953), Nelson Riddle's Lisbon Antigua (#1 in 1956) and there's even the immortal, enchanting "April in Portugal" (#1 in 1955). Not to mention Percy Faith's "Delicado" - what a delicious toe-tapper it still is! Makes me go back to the days when really enjoyable music became big hits. OK, I'm pushing 60, so I'm prejudiced. But for a guy my age, this collection is priceless. If you're part of the post-war generation, don't hesitate, buy this CD. You won't regret it, instead, you will play it over and over. Yeah, it's true, they don't make hits like this anymore...

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goosebumps from the memories of the greatest, October 28, 2000

By 

Robert A. Stutts (San Antonio, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Instrumental Gems of the Fifties (Audio CD)

These disks capture - with the original artists - the heart of the music that warmed me in the 50's. The selections - held in the fairly consistent mood that was popular instrumentals of the 50's yield over an hour of timetravel listening to the songs as they were first played. I'll be sending these out to folks for Christmas this year. These are meant to be shared.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not quite titled correctly, but still nice to listen to, August 20, 2004

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Instrumental Gems of the Fifties (Audio CD)

As a couple of other reviewers state, this CD set has a couple of items that I wouldn't call "instrumental." One, Percy Faith/Felicia Sanders on "The Song from Moulin Rouge," happens to be one of my all-time favorites, and the other, Billy Vaughn/Ken Nordine on "The Shifting Whispering Sands," is a fiendishly hard to find piece, especially if you are looking for the whole thing (it ran about twice as long as a typical '50s hit!) so I have to forgive the producers for their lapses.



Some of the songs on here overlap another CD I reviewed earlier, "Big Hits of the '50s," and I'd rather not have the overlap, but this is something hard to avoid these days. And it has some truly hard to find pieces (like the abovementioned "Shifting Whispering Sands," and the Dick Hyman version of "Moritat," which sounds totally different from the versions appearing under the name of "Mack the Knife"), so that even with that overlap, I'm glad I have both CDs in my collection.



Anyone who likes the pre-rock'n'roll era's music is sure to find some favorites on here. There are a couple of pieces where I'd consider that the version on this CD set is not the top version (It has Ralph Marterie's version of "Skokiaan" rather than the Bulowayo Sweet Rhythms Band's, and certainly Les Baxter's is not the definitive version of "Unchained Melody" -- but if you are stressing instrumentals, Baxter's would be the one you'd select, of course). But even in those cases, the versions did make the charts as well as the top versions, so they can be accepted. And over all, this is a nice set to listen to.



All in all, considering all the pieces I've mentioned, as well as the last Big Band pieces to chart (the '50s are certainly after the Big Band era, but Jimmy Dorsey had a hit with "So Rare" as late as the middle of the decade! And it's on this set.) This is a great collection.