Customer Reviews

The Mills Brothers Great Hits

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

 

 

Some Mills bros. fans feel that original songs' (from the 30's) sound quality is not up to par yet love the great harmony and so are willing to put up with it. This stereo disc from 1958 not only sounds great but the arrangements are more brilliant and there is a full rhythm section rather than just a guitar as with the original tracks. Now we need to push MCA to release the companion piece to this album called "The Great Hits Volume II" which features terrific versions of "Opus One" and "The Jones Boy" (also in stereo). I highly recommend this album especially for total novices to Mills Bros. music. You won't be disappointed, I assure you.

You really can't beat the Mills Brothers for harmony. They don't need much instrumental backup, but this disc has great arrangements where the instruments augment, rather than cover, the superb voices. They are like additional brothers. In the incomparable "Glow Worm," the brothers show why they sold a million records--a much greater accomplishment then than now.

I had this Mills Brothers Album on casette but bought a newer car with a disc player. I am a big Mill's brothers fan and firmly believe this is their best collection ever. If you happen to be a Mills Brothers fan I highly recommend it

The booklet of this CD is a reproduction of the original LP, with 12 tunes listed. BUT, there are only 10 cuts on the CD. For some reason, MCA cut Cielito Lindo and Across The Alley From The Alamo from the CD release. This could not have been for space considerations, since the whole thing was much less than even an hour long. So why? I could live without Cielito Lindo, but Across the Alley is my favorite Mills Brothers song, and I was really peeved to find it not on the track list. How stupid. The only thing I can think of is that someone decided that the song was racist, since one of the main players in the story is a Navajo (though maybe it was the pinto pony?) and then decided to be PC and leave it off.

I have other Mills Brothers CDs, with this song on it, so it's not like I have no other resources. But I wanted this particular CD because this was the first collection I ever heard of the Mills Brothers, back when my father had an 8 track tape of it. Later I bought an LP. So there were sentimental reasons and I was thrilled to find a CD of it on Amazon. And was sorely disappointed to find it incomplete.

Maybe now that we are getting past kneejerk PCness, someone will release this particular CD with the complete tracks. But I doubt it, since CDs are in trouble now. An opportunity lost and wasted.

Fans of the Mills Brothers who wish to replace their well-used vinyl with a CD will find a refereshing simplicity and clarity to sounds on this disc. But one huge omission is an odd blight on the archive. The vinyl record jacket, and its reproduction on the CD cover, promise the lively "Across the Ally from the Alamo." However, it is nowehere to be found on the CD itself! That tune is the snappiest and catchiest on the enitre LP. So where is it on the CD? It was not removed from the collection for reasons of space; the program on the CD is modest in length. Could it be that there is a different license situation for that one tune? Could be, but, given the age of the songs, I doubt it. Please, oh please, don't tell me it is because the song is about a Navaho or dangerous railroads. One cannot help wonder if this historic record has been revised, like a Soviet-era photograph, to suit modern sensibilities. So, the CD is a nice collection, but it is not a strictly accurate rendering of the classic LP.

I grew up listening to the Mills Brothers on 8 track as my grandparents would drive my siblings and I in their 76? Delta 88 with velvet interior and power windows (remember when power windows were a luxury?). As a result I've always had a fondness for the Mills Brothers and this album allows me to remember those days with nostalgia.

On December 19, 1931 the # 1 record in the land was Tiger Rag by a singing group from Piqua, Ohio named The Mills Brothers - John Jr., Herbert, Harry, and Donald. Thirty-seven years later, in 1968, they would post their last charted single, The Ol' Race Track, with the only change in personnel being their Dad, John Sr., who joined the group in 1936 following the untimely death of John Jr. All are gone now, with Donald being the last to pass away on November 13, 1999 at age 84.

With a firm grounding in the prevailing jazz and pop sound of the day, and often featuring a propensity for imitating the sounds of instruments with their voices, these guys were mainstays on the charts for SIX DECADES.

So it goes without saying that, trying to gather together all their hits in original versions is tantamount to impossible. Adding to that is the fact that, being the prolific recording artists they were, so many, many of their hits have been done and done again over the years, so you have to be especially careful when purchasing one of their CDs if original hits are your goal [see some of the comments for the Anthology set].

This AAD CD is yet another example. First released on vinyl in 1958 by Decca, it contains stereo re-makes of ten of their best-known recordings, complete with the original liner notes.

Not something you want if you're an originals enthusiast, but nevertheless a nice sampling of one of the consistently smoothest sounds ever to be recorded.

What I find astounding is that, while their contemporaries The Ink Spots were inducted into the R&R Hall Of Fame in 1989 in the "Early Influence" category, The Mills Brothers continue to be ignored. Not that I have anything against The Ink Spots [I LOVED their sound], but if they're in then there's no way they can continue to ignore The Mills Brothers in the same category.

If you're one of the few on this planet not familiar with their sound, just get this CD - or any other one for that matter, even their re-makes - and hear what I mean for yourself. You want jazz, seek out the original of Tiger Rag. You want blues give a listen to Basin Street Blues. You want R&B try Put Another Chair At The Table. If you don't think they could handle R&R, then get their hit version of Get A Job [# 21 in 1958]. And as for Country, seek out Between Winston-Salem And Nashville, Tennessee.

They will never be equaled.