Customer Reviews

Let Me Sing And I'm Happy: Al Jolson At Warner Bros. 1926-1936 - Motion Picture Soundtrack Anthology

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This album includes almost all the songs from the Warner Bros soundtracks by Jolson, and excellent liner notes. The greatest thing about this CD ( which is well engineered ) is the inclusion of two recently discovered cuts from the Vitaphone short A PLANTATION ACT which Jolson filmed in 1926 - a year before THE JAZZ SINGER was produced.

Al Jolson helped define American celebrity. The hammy, boastful, overconfident, in your face entertainer proclaimed himself "The World's Greatest Entertainer". This wasn't mere braggadocio. Jolson was widely known and highly praised in the 1920s and 1930s. His name became somewhat synonymous with stardom.

For some modern listeners, Jolson may come across as overbearing, melodramatic, or sappy. More of a steamroller than a performer. Times do change, for better or worse, but in the era before electronic amplification, performers often had to project, amplify their emotions, and even overact so that all in the house could interpret their histrionics. The stil relevant analogy of movie acting versus theater acting helps make this clearer. Jolson came from the era of theater and vaudeville where ham and melodrama packed audiences into theaters in nearly every town. Also, early recording technology required singers to project like a locomotive. Usually they sang into a huge horn with the band in the background. This horn was the sole microphone for the entire ensemble.

One of Jolson's attractions was his rise from poverty to stardom. His father was a rabbi, and his mother died when he was nine. At a relatively early age he literally ran away to join the theater. He made his name on the minstrel show circuit performing in blackface. This historical fact hasn't helped his reputation through the decades after his death in 1950. Then Jolson, already legendary as a stage performer, reached an even wider audience with film. He's most widely know today for 1927's "The Jazz Singer", the first widely released picture with sound (though only the musical numbers really had sound; played from a record which had to be painstakingly synchronized; most of the film played like a silent movie). Jolson's greatest screen triumph was "The Singing Fool" which remained the highest grossing movie until "Gone With The Wind". Jolson's popularity declined in the 1930s (the movies apparently began to repeat themselves) and never quite picked up again. Though he continued to give concerts well into the 1940s.

This CD captures the best of the music from Jolson's movies. All the music from "The Jazz Singer" (except the cantor and the young Jackie in the club) is included here, along with music from "The Singing Fool", "Say it With Songs", "Mammy", "Big Boy", "Go Into Your Dance", and "The Singing Kid".

There's an interesting story behind one of the biggest hits of the 1930s, "Sonny Boy". A songwriting team set out to intentionally make the most clichéd song they could think of as a joke. The result was "Sonny Boy". Someone heard it, loved it, and passed it on to Jolson, who also loved it. It became a huge seller (back then sales were gauged by sheet music, not by records). The version from the movie, included here, showcases Jolson at his most dramatic (some may say melodramatic). The song had audiences in tears at the time. The songwriters themselves probably didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The sound quality of the CD reflects its era. It sounds like recordings from the 1920s and 1930s. Recording technology still struggled to capture a wide range of frequencies then. Considering this, the CD still maintains listenability throughout. The sound obviously lends the music a degree of historical interest as well.

This CD probably represents the best introduction to the music of Al Jolson. Though he recorded much more material of higher sound quality, the music here resulted in the majority of his mass popularity. Not only that, the music here is a lot of fun to listen to and showcases Jolson's style in the context of his films. Listen to it and get to know one of the major celebrities of the 20th century.

These are the best recordings we have of Jolson. Earlier than this, he's pretty stiff -- Jolson (and everyone else) hadn't figured out the recording session yet. Later than this (the Decca years) he's to shmaltzy, big strings, etc. This film work captures the energy of his live performance as best as we will ever know it.

Just listen to "Sittin' On Top of the World" and you'll be sold. Jolie was the greatest. He would have told you that, too.

The now-controversial master showman is captured in his prime on this amazing disc. Although some prefer the Decca years Jolie (1945 to 1950), these '26 to '36 movie cuts gather more luster with every audition. There are even two pre-JAZZ SINGER numbers, meticulously restored from sound-on-disc: "Rock A Bye.." and "April Showers". There are the historic selections from that '27 movie landmark, including the haunting "Mother Of Mine, I Still Have You". Those who decry Jolson as a shameless imitator should hear this magnificent cantorial effort. The entire package is awesome!

Way back when, Al Jolson was indeed sitting on top of the world; he had achieved great fame in theater productions including vaudeville and his ability to belt out a song with all his heart and soul moved countless audiences to tears or joy depending on the type of song he performed. Jolson could take any audience and wrap it around his pinky finger by delivering songs flawlessly; the audience knew he meant every work he ever sang. Some may say that his on-screen presence was not as good as his on stage presence. Nonetheless, this album is important because we don't have too many Al Jolson movie soundtrack recordings available for sale at this time; and concerts were not routinely recorded at that time. The quality of Jolson's work also shows that despite his career dive in the 1930s, he deserves to be remembered much, much more than he is today. Sure, he did some numbers in blackface which is now completely unacceptable; but his honestly in everything he ever sang makes him important even in our times.

The CD starts off strong with two songs from a Vitaphone short entitled "A Plantation Act" which was filmed with Jolson during 1926--before the 1927 release of "The Jazz Singer." The quality of the recordings could be a bit better but you'll have no difficulty making out the words and I think you will enjoy these songs nonetheless. "April Showers" is very pretty; and Jolson (as always) never lets go of a single superfluous note! "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" is equally well done with a musical arrangement that makes good use of the strings and brass; and that's grand.

We then get songs from other films including five from "The Jazz Singer:" "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face;" "Toot, Toot Tootsie;" "Blue Skies;" "Mother of Mine, I Still Have You" and "My Mammy." I particularly love hearing the moving "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" and "Blue Skies." The songs from "The Singing Fool" of 1928 are also terrific; I really like "I'm Sitting on Top of the World;" this number showcases Al's ability to project and turn out a positively stunning performance! "There's a Rainbow `Round My Shoulder" gets another especially passionate treatment from Jolson; and listen for "Sonny Boy" which became popular even though it wasn't meant to be more than a joke!

"Back in Your Own Back Yard" and the other songs from "Say It with Songs" are all faultlessly done; I love it all! There are also three tracks from "Mammy:" "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" "(Across the Breakfast Table) Looking at You" and "Why Do They All Take the Night Boat to Albany?" There are two tracks from "Big Boy" as well; "Liza Lee" (the music is great but trust me, if you see the number in the movie, it's embarrassingly dated) and the sweet "Little Sunshine." "About a Quarter to Nine" from "Go Into Your Dance" gets the royal treatment from Al Jolson; and wow, what a musical arrangement this has! The last track, "I Love to Sing-A," comes from "The Singing Kid;" and it leaves me wanting more!

The CD comes with extensive liner notes by Ian Whitcomb and there are very interesting photos of Jolson and the people he knew and worked with. We also get the song credits and recording dates.

Overall, this is a solid CD for anyone who enjoys the artistry of Al Jolson. It is all so well done that this can also serve as a fine introduction to Jolson, too. People interested in musicals from the early "talkie" era of motion pictures may want this album, too.

No, it doesn't bother me, though it puts me in my age-related place, to find college students who have never even heard of Bing Crosby, much less heard him sing. So, to be reviewing an Jolson disc is really a comment on history; for, before there was Crosby, there was Al Jolson, whom Crosby often spoke of as the entertainer who inspired him and like whom he wanted to be. From about 1911 through 1930 (the beginning of the Crosby era) he stood astride Vaudeville and Broadway stages, as well as the acoustical and early recording studios, as the top singing comic in the business. With his performance in the first singing film, The Jazz Singer, he became the International Star of Song. By 1930, audiences were heartily sick of musicals, his star began to fade there, badly hit by the depression, people cut back on buying recordings, and he gave up making them, vaudeville was in its death throes and the Broadway stage was on oxygen; he did a number of radio programs, none successful, some films, even taking a co-starring, actually supporting, role to his wife, Ruby Keeler, and gradually was forced into semi-and-then compete retirement. Only with his film biography, starring Larry Parks, was he able to make a notable radio comeback for his remaining years, dying after a tour of military camps in Korea during the first terrible years of that awful war. From personal experience, watching him perform live in 1946, I can assure you that the audience who came out to hear him were as mesmerized as ever, by what he had meant to them, and by his projection from the stage.

This recording provides an excelent panorama of the soundtrack,s from his earliest films until the effective end of his movie career as a star in the mid-thirties. He is still in excellent voice (before serious lung problems contracted while on overseas tours for the troops in WW 2) and with film recording techniques well in advance of the then existing discs made by the major record companies. His style reflects the influence of the young Crosby (according to the music critic/Crosby-Armstrong biographer, Gary Giddens) and the absorption of other Jazz influences besides Crosby, as well as the stylistic changes wrought by Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, and other song-writers who provided his material.

For old-timers who remember Jolson, for nostalgia addicts, who have seen the two Larry Parks films, or even one starring Jolson, himself,(increasingly difficult to find because of the black-face he and many other white and African-American performers utilized in his era), this will be a joyful, living entertainment. For the younger set, those few who have some desire to hear what their great-grandparents were seeing and hearing, this is a valuable document. Among the very best of the Jolson recordings available.

AHH..... JOLIE..... JUST GREAT!! IF ANYONE HAS THE TIME OR DESIRE///// GRAB FROM THE AMAZON DVD SECTION____ EITHER OR BOTH ... "THE AL JOLSON STORY" AND (IF JUST 1` GET THE AL JILSON STORY BAS IT WOULDN'T FLOW) "JOLSON SINGS AGAIN") !!! TWO FINE BASED ON TRUE STORY MOVIES ON HIS LIFE!! THE WERE VERY,,, VERY POPULAR______ ACTUALLY BRING HIS MUSIC TO NEW GENERATIONS!! SO POPULAR WAS THE FIRST _____ THAT IT IS AS I KNOW OF THE ONLT "BIO__OP" EVER WITH A SECQUAL!! SURE ENOUGH JOLSON DOES THE SINGING AS LARRY PARKS DOES A FINE OSCAR NOMINIATED "JOLSON"!!! BUT EVEN IN THIS SHOW YOU WILL NOTICE "JOLIE" IN THE SCEEN RIGHT AFTER HE SUDJEST A "WALKWAY RUNNING ..... RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE CROWD. SO HE "COULD GET CLOSER" THEY HAD JOLSON HIMSELF DO THE SCEEN ON RIGHT AFTER ON THE "CATWALK"!!

PLEASE NO COMPLAINTS FOR ALL CAPS I DODN'T REALIZE TILL TO LATE AND I SUCK AT TYPING....SO DIDN'T WANT TO REDO!!

ENJOY THE DOWNLOAD AND THE DVDS IF YOU GET THEM!! MY BEST TO ALL__________DON MARTINEZ CALIF.

This valuable anthology of Al Jolson soundtrack recordings from his Warner Bros. films is essential to anyone interested in early screen musicals. It is marred only slightly by its incompleteness -- only select vocals from the Jolson films of the era, beginning with two tracks from AL JOLSON IN A PLANTATION ACT (a 1926 Vitaphone short) and concluding with the infectious "I Love to Sing-A" from THE SINGING KID (1936), are featured. Stressing the earliest Jolson films, the disc unfortunately gives short shrift to some of his best recordings from the delightful GO INTO YOUR DANCE (including only "About a Quarter to Nine"), his only film with his third wife, Ruby Keeler. A two- or three-disc complete anthology of all Jolson vocals from the Warner Bros.'s films would be a truly historical collection, but this excellent select anthology preserves Jolson in mostly great songs (and Jolson evergreens) from the aforementioned PLANTATION ACT, as well as THE JAZZ SINGER (1927), THE SINGING FOOL (1928), SAY IT WITH SONGS (1929), BIG BOY (1930), MAMMY (1930), WONDER BAR (1934), and the previously mentioned GO INTO YOUR DANCE and THE SINGING KID. Although Jolson was not always well-served by his screen appearances, these soundtrack vocals reflect his unique gifts and his larger-than-life persona. Many of the songs are classics of the great American songbook, some are forgettable, but all profit from Jolson's style. Now if only Turner Classics would release these films on DVD -- only THE JAZZ SINGER has made it so far in a lavish three-disc set.