Billy's Best! [EXTRA TRACKS]

Billy Eckstine

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 24, 1995)
• Original Release Date: January 1958
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000046XP
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,264 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute perfection, worthy of six stars, not just five!, April 27, 2004

By	Fat-boy-James (Studio City, CA) - See all my reviews

I read an interesting book by jazz critic Will Friedwald, and he mentions his favorite "desert island" jazz vocal albums, and Billy's Best is among those. So I decided to try it, and it is in every way perfect. There are some bonus tracks here whcih don't really take away or add anything from the original lp material. However Eckstine's rich baritone voice, with just the right amount of vibarato, always hits the spot(think of a male jazz singer with the talent equivelent to Sarah Vaughan). His voice soars thru songs of all eras leading up to the 50's, starting with the 30's hit Bouolevard Of Broken Dreams right up to Desi Arnez's theme song Babalu. Wonderful arrangements with orchestra and strings only compliment and uplift Billy's jazz phrasing, making this the essential jazz/pop vocal lp, by any non-Sinatra male singer from the late 50's. A great disc thru and thru.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the voice I was looking for, June 15, 2006

By	Humberto Mejia "Still alive and kicking" (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Perhaps a knowledgable soul can end my desperate search..

Some years ago I left a casette recording the late night songs of a jazz station here in Caracas.. when I listen to it, there was a version of Tenderly sang live by Mr. B.. at that time i did not know it was him so I searches everywhere all the versions of tenderly I could find.. by a miracle I found a studio version in a cd that recorded the best male jazz vocalist and it was my introduction to Mr. B-

What a voice and style, this is the model to follow, this cd has arragments made by H. Mancini !!! yes it has some very bad last 3 songs where one can tell the voice lost some of its glory, still is a must have..

Now if anybody can help me find the LIVE version of tenderly sung by Mr. B please contact me via Skype at Humberto_Mejia Thanks!!!

17 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What A Great Voice, May 17, 2000

By	[e-mail] "mistermaxxx" (usa) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Billy Eckstine is One Of The Greatest Vocalist Ever.His Voice Sounds Fantastic&the Music has a Timeless Quality.He was a Legend.