Customer Reviews

Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye: 21 of His Greatest Hits

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This compact disc offers an excellent one-disc overview of Sammy Kaye's biggest hits. Sammy Kaye had many hits in the 1940s and early 1950s, and this disc includes many of his memorable recordings, including "Daddy", "Harbor Lights" and "The Old Lamp-Lighter." Some wonderfully sentimental songs of the late 1940s are also included -- "Apple Blossom Wedding", "Serenade of the Bells" and "Roses". The sound quality is excellent. This is a first-rate disc and the only disappointment is that Collector's Choice has not yet issued Volume 2!

If more people had the feel for this music, the world might be just a little more gentle as it was after the war. This compact disc offers an excellent one-disc overview of Sammy Kaye's biggest hits. Sammy Kaye had many hits in the 1940s and early 1950s and this disc includes many of his memorable recordings, including "Daddy" and "Harbor Lights." I enjoyed the music of Sammy Kaye and have a difficult time finding his recordings. It was refreshing to stumble across this sample. I am especially interested in his "Sunday Serenade" radio programs of the 1940s and 1950s and I wonder if they (recordings) are available.

As even the liner notes to this CD admit, bandleader Sammy Kaye represented the squarer, more commercial end of the Big Band era, taking his cues from the workmanlike Glenn Miller, but restricting his dance music to an even more controlled, brisker, less lyrical style. It's fine stuff, emblematic of the times and well-packaged music. This generously programmed 21-track set features a wide swath of Kaye's work--from 1939 to 1950.

The bad thing is that all the songs featured here have vocals (Don Cornell, Jimmy Brown, Tony Alamo, Billy Williams, Nancy Norman, Laura Leslie, Betty Barclay as well as the Kaydets and the Kaye Chior) and no instrumentals--but that's okay, since I'm sure there are instrumentals on other Sammy Kaye CD's.

This is a Great CD by the best of the sweet bands. The sound quality is excellent. A second volume should be issued featuring his immediate post-war vocalists and the songs that made the top 100. It's not immortal, timelessly poetic music (like many of the big band records were), but it is a nice slice nostalgia and perfectly fine in its own right. Worth checking out!

Great CD by the best of the sweet bands. A second volume should be issued featuring his immediate post-war vocalists and the songs that made the top 100.

I always liked Sammy Kaye and when I got this CD, o was hoping there'd be instrumentals; but noooo, all the songs are vocal numbers. The best songs are "Penny Serenade" (v-Jimmy Brown), "I Left My Heart At The Stage Door Canteen" (v-Don Cornell), "That's My Desire" (v-Don Cornell and the Kaydets), "There Goes That Song Again" (v-Nancy Norman), "Careless Hands" (v-Don Cornell and the Kaydets), "Room Full Of Roses" (v-Don Cornell and the Kaydets), "It Isn't Fair" (v-Don Cornell) and "Harbor Lights" (v-Tony Alamo and the Kaydets). This CD could've been better, but the next Sammy Kaye will have instrumentals. I hope!

The title of this release delivers exactly what it says - 21 of his greatest hits. The thing is, he had 105 from 1937 to 1964 so, as one reviewer says, it's time for a volume 2. Followed by Volumes 3 to 5!

This one is a little light on his early years, delivering just seven of 64 hits from 1937 to 1945. These are: Penny Serenade (# 2 in March 1939 with vocal by Jimmy Brown, and his 16th hit); Until Tomorrow [Goodnight My Love] (# 10 in May 1941 with vocal by The Three Kaydets); Daddy (# 1 - for EIGHT weeks - in summer 1941 with vocal by The Kaye Choir); I Left My Heart At The Stage Door Canteen (# 3 in late summer 1942 from the Broadway music This Is The Army, with vocal by Don Cornell); There Goes That Song Again (# 8 in early 1945 with vocal by Nancy Norman); Chickery Chick (# 1 - for FOUR weeks - in late 1945 with vocal by Nancy Norman, Billy Williams and The Kaye Choir); It Might As Well Be Spring (# 4 late 1945/early 1946 from the film State Fair with vocal by Billy Williams). Omitted from this period were these # 1 hits: Rosalie (late 1937/early 1938), Love Walked In (spring 1938), and Dream Valley (late 1940) - all three with vocals by Tommy Ryan.

The remaining 14 hits cover the period 1946 to 1950: I'm A Big Girl Now (# 1 in spring 1946 - Betty Barclay vocal); The Old Lamp-Lighter (# 1 - for SEVEN weeks - in late 1946 with vocal by Billy Williams and The Choir); Sooner Or Later [You're Gonna Be Comin' Around} (# 8 in late 1946 with Betty Barclay and The Quintet) and its flipside, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (# 11 with The Three Kaydets & Chorus) - both from the film Song Of The South; That's My Desire (# 2 in late spring 1947 with Don Cornell & The Kaydets); An Apple Blossom Wedding (# 5 in late 1947 with Don Cornell & The Glee Club); Serenade Of The Bells (# 3 in December 1947 with Don Cornell, The Kaydets & The Choir); and Careless Hands (# 3 in spring 1949 with Don Cornell & The Three Kaydets).

These next three were all released within days of one another and all peaked in the summer of 1949: Room Full Of Roses (# 2 with Don Cornell & The Kaydets); The Four Winds And The Seven Seas (# 3 with Tony Alamo & The Kaye Choir); Baby, It's Cold Outside (# 12 with vocal billed to "America's Sweethearts" Don Cornell & Laura Leslie. In spring 1950, It Isn't Fair peaked at # 2 with vocal by Don Cornell, followed in June by Roses (# 5 with The Kaydets), and in the fall by Harbor Lights (# 1 - for FOUR weeks - with Tony Alamo & The Kaydets). All his # 1 hits in this period are covered.

The sound quality is excellent, and with the insert you get two pages of background notes written by noted author Colin Escott, and a complete discography of the contents,

This is music I cut my teeth on. My Father after returning from the War (WWII) made sure that we listened to Sammy Kaye every Sunday. If people had the feel for this music, the world might be just a little more gentle as it was after the war. Get the music of Sammy Kaye and then close your eyes and listen to it and, you will have a little heaven.
Larry McFall