Customer Reviews

Roaring Twenties

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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This CD is technically great - NO hisses or surface noises unlike other 1920's compilations. The song selection includes all of the essentials: The Charleston, Black Bottom, Varsity Drag, Button Up Your Overcoat, Pasadena and Miss Annabelle Lee. Pasadena, Varsity Drag, Collegian and Black Bottom are terrific dance songs; the sounds are so clear the bands sound live. The song selection also includes a couple of stodgy songs performed by Paul Whiteman, a favorite punching bag of contemporary Jazz critics for daring to call himself the "King of Jazz". Overall a terrific CD for 20's fans and a good CD to give people something different to listen to besides Rap and Rock.

I have been searching for the recording of Charles King singing, "Broadway melody" for years. Here it is - in an excellent restoration - with just the slightest (and soon unnoticed) hint of surface hiss. What a great performance. Gene Kelly imitated King's phrasing and style when he did the same number in "Singing in the rain." King introduced the song in, "Broadway Melody of 1929." He was a talented Broadway singer who hoped to follow Al Jolson's success in Hollywood. He was memorable in the movie but soon returned to Broadway, found plenty of work, and was eventually forgotten.
There are lots of great numbers here. Hooray to Pearl for bringing this one out.

The very first selection on THE ROARING 'TWENTIES is one of the earliest electrical recordings in existence. "Charleston," by the Savoy Orpheans, recorded in 1925, is an ideal way to begin this musical journey back to the carefree days of that unique decade. What follows is a solid set of tunes, many of which got plenty of exposure on early radio.

Two pages of liner notes are included, as well as such details as recording dates and running times. Top rating for album content, source condition and reproduction quality. THE ROARING 'TWENTIES is a terrific collection of late 1920s popular music.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME -- 73:12

One thing I really like about this collection is that it that while it contains a number of "standard" selections from the 20's that have been done many times by many artists, it also contains a lot of selections that you just don't hear that often. In fact some of them are probably next to impossible to find any other place. Considering that most of these recordings were made more than half a century ago, the quality is outstanding. Sometimes old recordings are full of hiss and static and scratchy sounding, but these have been restored to near perfect condition. For old recordings, these are as good as it gets with almost no background noise. The only thing that gives away the age of these records is that some selections do tend to sound slightly flat, probably because they were taken from original monophonic sources and possibly in part due to the noise reduction process. It doesn't detract in the least from the recordings. Of course you can find some more modern groups that have re-recorded some of these songs in full, rich stereo, but they really don't sound that much better and sometimes not as good. The original artists often did the best renditions. If you really want to hear what the 20's sounded like musically, this is the album for you. You won't find a better 20's collection.

Absolutely love this music, just recently received a mixermaster as a gift and I like to play this cd in the kitchen while I bake, it puts me in a good mood!

A great collection of songs. It starts off strong and keeps going. There are a few weak ones but don't let that hold you back just skip over them. Grab the flask, put on your raccoon coat and have some fun.