INTRODUCTION:

Johnny Mathis was born on September 30, 1935 in Gilmer, Texas, and raised in San Francisco. He was discovered by George Avakian of Columbia Records. He initially recorded as a jazz-styled singer. Columbia A&R executive Mitch Miller switched him to singing pop ballads, and the rest is history. He has 53 charted singles on Billboard Hot 100. But more amazingly, he has 76 charted albums on Billboard 200. His charting career is mainly on Columbia Record label, from 1957 to 2006. He was briefly with Mercury Records label from 1964 to 1967.

Johnny Mathis has an outstanding 4 CD box set called A Personal Collection, released on Columbia Records in 1993. Collectors’ Choice has released quite a few 2 LPs on 2CDs, but for some unknown reason, this series was stopped. Fortunately, Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, now has undertaken to release more of Johnny’s albums, concentrating now on his Mercury releases. So far, 4 sets of 8 albums on 8 CDs have just been released.

CONTENT:

This set consists of two albums on Mercury: So Nice and Johnny Mathis Sings, with a total of 24 songs.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

SO NICE (Mercury 61091) 50/1966:
01 The Impossible Dream
02 I Will Wait For You
03 What The World Needs Now
04 Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here
05 Elusive Butterfly
06 So Nice (Samba de Verao)
07 Dulcinea
08 What Now My Love
09 Man Of La Mancha
10 The Music That Makes Me Dance
11 I Dream Of You
12 Baubles, Bangles And Beads

JOHNNY MATHIS SINGS (Mercury 61107) 103/1967:
13 Saturday Sunshine
14 Lovers In New York
15 Eleanor Rigby
16 Sunny
17 Who Can I Turn To?
18 Strangers In The Night
19 Always Something There To Remind Me
20 Somewhere My Love
21 Who Can Say
22 I Wish You Love
23 The Second Time Around
24 Wake The Town And Tell The People

The sound is as per the high standards at Real Gone Music, fantastic, vibrant, warm, crisp and clear. As Johnny would say, the sound is “Wonderful, Wonderful” and very well remastered. The set also comes with an equally wonderful 16-page booklet. The original front and back covers of both albums were displayed, each covering the entire page. For collectors like myself, this is greatly appreciated. The liner notes are full of interesting facts about how different songs were recorded, some coming from Johnny Mathis himself.

REAL GONE MUSIC:

Besides the 4 sets of Johnny Mathis albums (8 albums), Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, has many other exceptional releases so far, including Complete Singles Collection of artists like B.J. Thomas, Dion, Timi Yuro, Connie Stevens, Joanie Sommers, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Mark Lindsay, Electric Prunes, Rick Nelson, etc. This label produces excellent compilations, containing both a- and b-sides, plus excellent booklets. If you are interested in those artists I just mentioned, please see all my reviews for the above-mentioned elsewhere.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This set is the final two albums released on Mercury before Johnny Mathis returned to Columbia Records. These two albums make their CD debut here. It is interesting to read from the liner notes the reasons why Johnny Mathis left the safety net of Columbia and set up shop at Mercury Records. The enticement was threefold: Mercury offered what Mathis himself described as “an awful lot of money” plus total control over his recording activities, and the added perk of owning his own masters. This latter perquisite would prove quite profitable for the singer in the future. That reminds me immediately of two other singers, Paul Anka and Dave Clark (of Dave Clark Five), who have absolute control of their masters. Smart businessmen!

The entire set is very enjoyable. Of course, the standouts are standards like “The Impossible Dream,” “I Will Wait For You” (from the film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”), “So Nice” (…and sounds so sexy) and “I Wish You Love.”

I am a big fan of Johnny Mathis. So far, I managed to acquire 45 CDs and 51 vinyl albums. I am slowly getting there, but my collection is far from complete. Such great album releases by Real Gone Music are great welcome to my library. I am excited by their many great releases so far. This new-found excitement reminds me of the days in 1990, when Rhino Records released a series called Have A Nice Day. Anyway, all the songs in this set are old standards done in a way that only Johnny can, and are totally enjoyable. This set is highly recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Bee Gees originally hailed from Manchester, England. The group consists of Barry Gibb (born on September 1, 1946), and fraternity twin brothers, Robin (1949-2012) and Maurice (1949-2003). In 1958, they moved to Queensland, Australia. The young brothers were performing under the name Rattlesnakes. Local DJ Bill Gates renamed them the "Bee Gees" after his friend, Bill Goode's, and Barry Gibb's initials – thus the name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.

The Bee Gees started releasing records in Australia, and their most popular hit then was “Spicks & Specks”. If you are interested in their recordings in Australia, prior to becoming popular worldwide, I would recommend the 2 CD set called “Brilliant From Birth” with 63 songs!! You can hear the raw sound of the Bee Gees, singing songs like The Twelfth Of Never, From Me To You and Can’t You See That She’s Mine.

While “Spicks & Specks” was climbing the chart in Australia, the family Gibb decided to move back to England in February 1967. Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb (father) sent demos to Brian Epstein, who passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract. Robert Stigwood was the Simon Cowell of the 60s.

Another significant person in the Bee Gees career is Arif Mardin, the producer of the album “Main Course”. Here, the singing style was changed, later resulting in the hugely popular “Saturday Night Fever”. The rest is history.

CHART ACHIEVEMENTS:

Bee Gees have 48 charted singles on Billboard Hot 100, and 33 charted albums on Billboard 200, with career sale of over 200 million records. They sang three-part tight harmonies that were instantly recognisable; Robin's clear vibrato lead was a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the late 1970s and 1980s. The brothers wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists, like Kenny Rogers and Barbra Streisand. So far, I managed to acquire 38 CDs and 20 vinyl albums.

CONTENT:

This 2 CD set has a total of 40 songs! If you are looking for their 60s output, then, I would recommend their 4 CD box set “Tales From The Brothers Gibb”. The most outstanding aspect of this set is the SOUND! There are very few CDs out there that I would say…perfect sound, with no need for my further remastering. This set is it! The other perfect sounding CD is 1 by the Beatles.

Here, you can clearly define the tight three-part harmonies of the Bee Gees. All the background music is also very well recorded and remastered. This is one of the few CDs that has HDCD. If your CD player has this feature, the sound will be enhanced. I notice that quite a few reviewers have condemned the sound of this set as too loud and full of white noise with clipping. Here, I would just say that their audio equipments do not have enough power to handle such high dynamic range. The result is clipping and distortion. But I can reassure all of you that this audio will sound great with any reasonable audio system. If I want to extract any Bee Gees song, this is my reference CD. (The sound 5/5)

The song selection covers the entire career of the Bee Gees, including many tracks after their popularity of “Saturday Night Fever” has faded. “You Win Again” hit Number 1 in UK (1987). Since the track listing is already available on the website, I shall not repeat it here.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

It is impossible to cover the entire career of the Bee Gees in details with a 2 CD set. Being a completist, I simply will purchase every single of their releases. Now I can say that I have every release of the Bee Gees. It is with great sadness to see Maurice depart from us (bowel obstruction), and this year, Robin (from cancer). I still remember in the Bee Gees blu ray set “In Our Own Time”, I wrote in my review: “The ending of the disc was especially poignant, with Barry on guitar alone with Robin in the studio, singing To Love Somebody and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, purely from their hearts, to their lost brother, Maurice!!! Wow, it was very moving indeed. If you carefully listened to the lyrics, these two songs would move you to tears...” Now, with Robin gone too, there is no way to mend any broken heart…

So if you want a set that covers their entire career, but with top-notched sound, this set is very highly recommended. There is no other group that can replace the Bee Gees’ three part harmony. Long Live the Brothers Gibb!!!

INTRODUCTION:

Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby on May 2, 1903, and died on a golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977 at the age of 74. He is considered the most popular entertainer of the 20th Century’s first 50 years. He was a multi-media entertainer, in recordings, movies, television and radios. His chart achievements are unparalleled, with 41 Number 1 hits and 340 charted entries in Joel Whitburn’s Pop Memories Book (before 1955). Using this book as reference, plus from various sources on the internet, I managed to do a Complete Singles Discography on Bing Crosby, with an astonishing 555 entries in his entire career!!! This is even more than our King, Elvis Presley, which I managed to obtain 247 entries in Elvis’s shortened recording career.

Bing’s recording career can be divided into three main stages:

(1) Pre-Decca years (1927-1934): Victor (1927-1928), followed by Columbia (1928-1930), Victor (1930-1931), and Brunswick (1931-1934). This was his pre-baritone years, under Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, joining forces with Al Rinker and Harry Barris to become the Rhythm Boys.
(2) Decca years (from 1934-1957): This was his golden years, when his soothing baritone voice resulted in 41 number 1 songs (the most in any artist’s career up to now).
(3) Post-Decca years (from 1957-1977): His labels included Capitol, RCA, Kapp, United Artists and a few small labels like Daybreak.

CONTENT:

I personally have acquired 77 CDs on Bing Crosby, and alas, this is far from complete. His output was so large that it is impossible to cover with a few box sets. Just no way. The best box-set so far is the 4 CD set called Bing Crosby: His Legendary Years on MCA released in 1993. Unfortunately, this set is out of print. If you like his 1950s output, Sepia Records from UK has released a 10 volume series (purchased individually), called Through The Years. This covered his career from 1950 to 1955. There are also 2 separate Greatest Hits 2 CD sets from Living Era, which are also quite good.

I am glad that people at Membran label have decided to group songs in the 10 CDs under different headings, instead of arbitrarily putting songs at random.

The grouping is as follows:

CD 01: Early Bing, Vol. 1 (24 songs)
CD 02: Early Bing, Vol. 2 (24 songs)
CD 03: Early Bing, Vol. 3 (24 songs)
CD 04: The King of Jazz (1930)(24 songs)
CD 05: The Dance Band Days (24 songs)
CD 06: Bing Sings A Song Of The Island (24 songs)
CD 07: A Musical Autobiography, Vol. 1 (32 songs)
CD 08: A Musical Autobiography, Vol. 2 (25 songs)
CD 09: Bing And The Dixieland Bands (24 songs)
CD 10: Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters (24 songs)

It is impossible to have a complete song listing because there are 249 songs in all. I shall highlight some of the charted singles in each volume:

CD 01: Early Bing, Vol. 1: Makin’ Whoopee (8/1929); Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)(9/1929); My Kinda Love (1929); Louise (8/1929)

CD 02: Early Bing, Vol. 2: If I Had A Talking Picture of You (7/1929); St. Louis Blues (1932); You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me (3/1930); Livin’ In The Sunlight, Lovin’ In The Moonlight (16/1930); Shadows On The Windows (b-side to Shine); Paradise (7/1932); Waltzing In A Dream (6/1932); Lazy Day (4/1932)

CD 03: Early Bing, Vol. 3: Love Me Tonight (4/1932); You’re Beautiful Tonight My Dear (12/1933); My Love (4/1933); You’ve Got Me Crying Again (12/1933); Young And Healthy (2/1933); Shadow Waltz (1(2)/1933); Home On The Range (18/1933); Little Dutch Mill (1(5)/1933)

CD 04: The King of Jazz (1930): Dinah (1(2)/1932); Please (1(6)/1932); Learn To Croon (9/1933); Thanks (2/1933); Black Moonlight (b-side to Thanks, 1933); Temptation (3/1933); The Day You Came Along (3/1933); Beautiful Girl (11/1933); Our Big Love Scene (1933).

CD 05: The Dance Band Days: It Must Be True (4/1930); Them There Eyes (7/1930); I Surrender Dear (3/1931); One More Time (5/1931); Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (4/1931); Just A Gigolo (12/1931); Out of Nowhere (1(3)/1931); Ho Hum! (6/1931); Were You Sincere (12/1931); I Apologize (3/1931); Star Dust (5/1931); Sweet And Lovely (9/1931); A Faded Summer Love (8/1931), Goodnight, Sweetheart (5/1931)
(Note: This is the CD that I have found many of the tracks in my singles collection, not found elsewhere)

CD 06: Bing Sings A Song Of The Island: Bing Crosby has released quite a few CDs on Hawaiian songs. The famous Blue Hawaii is out of print. The other great selection is Bing Crosby Sings Hawaiian Songs. Here in this set, there are 24 songs! Amazing!

CD 07: A Musical Autobiography, Vol. 1: The 32 songs in this CD are recorded in 1954, not the original versions on Victor or Brunswick. Nevertheless, Bing still did a great job in re-recording this famous hit songs.

CD 08: A Musical Autobiography, Vol. 2: same comment as CD 7.

CD 09: Bing And The Dixieland Bands: This CD includes a lot of songs with Bing and His Friends (and relatives): Bing and Gary Crosby, Bing & Al Jolson, Bing & Louis Armstrong, Bing & Jane Wyman, Bing & Bob Hope and finally, Bing & Connee Boswell. A great set of 24 songs!

CD 10: Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters. This 24 duet songs are priceless. To buy individual Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters: the Complete Recording CD is highly expensive. This is a great inclusion in the set.

The audio was remastered using 24-bits/96kHz, with great results. The sound is not as vibrant as that in the Essential Bing Crosby Columbia Years because Columbia owned the original master tapes. Each CD is housed in its own cardboard case. The song listing was clearly stated along with composers and orchestra, plus year of recording. There is no booklet.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I bought the above set, initially to get many of the songs that I could not find while I was doing the Complete Singles Discography on Bing. Now I have those missing songs. To my mild surprise, the entire set was very well done, with separate CDs covering his duet with Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Gary Crosby, Jane Wyman, etc., and also his Hawaiian island songs. The only mild criticism is the omission of his Cowboy years and his Irish songs. But this is a 10 CD set with 249 songs! I bought the above through sellers for $15…very reasonable. If you like Bing Crosby as much as I do, this set is recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Johnny Mathis was born on September 30, 1935 in Gilmer, Texas, and raised in San Francisco. He was discovered by George Avakian of Columbia Records. He initially recorded as a jazz-styled singer. Columbia A&R executive Mitch Miller switched him to singing pop ballads, and the rest is history. He has 53 charted singles on Billboard Hot 100. But more amazingly, he has 76 charted albums on Billboard 200. His charting career is mainly on Columbia Record label, from 1957 to 2006. He was briefly with Mercury Records label from 1964 to 1967.

Johnny Mathis has an outstanding 4 CD box set called A Personal Collection, released on Columbia Records in 1993. Collectors’ Choice has released quite a few 2 LPs on 2CDs, but for some unknown reason, this series was stopped. Fortunately, Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, now has undertaken to release more of Johnny’s albums, concentrating now on his Mercury releases. So far, 4 sets of 8 albums on 8 CDs have just been released.

CONTENT:

This set has 2 albums on one CD, consisting of a total of 21 songs.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

THIS IS LOVE (Mercury 60492) 40/1964:
01 Put On A Happy Face
02 Poinciana (Song Of The Trees)
03 The Touch Of Your Lips
04 Just Move Along, Meadow Lark
05 Under A Blanket Of Blue
06 Over The Weekend
07 More
08 You Love Me
09 Limehouse Blues
10 What Do You Feel In Your Heart
11 The End Of A Love Affair
12 Fantastic

OLE (Mercury 20998) 1965:
13 Granada
14 Without You (Tres Palabras)
15 Medley: 1. Generique, 2. Felicidade
16 Manha de Carnival (Morning Of The Carnival)
17 Samba de Orfeu
18 La Montana
19 Babalu
20 Serenata
21 Bachianas Brasileiras (parts 1-3)

As Johnny would say, the sound is “Wonderful, Wonderful” and very well remastered. The set also comes with an equally wonderful 16-page booklet. The original front and back covers of both albums were displayed, each covering the entire page. For collectors like myself, this is greatly appreciated. The liner notes are full of interesting facts about how different songs were recorded, some coming from Johnny Mathis himself.

One of the writers for the song “Just Move Along, Meadow Lark” was Paul Vance. Johnny Mathis stated: “Initially, I didn’t take him seriously. And (laughing) he had all these girl songs." (Examples included Brian Hyland’s “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini” and Perry Como’s “Catch A Falling Star”. Later, he was one of Johnny’s favourite songwriters…writing such great ballads like “Gina”, “What Will My Mary Say” and “Bye Bye Barbara”. And in case you’re not paying attention, the titles say it all. In “This Is Love” album, other stand-outs include “Poinciana (Song Of The Trees)” and “More”.

In Ole, only Johnny Mathis can get away with humming for the first half of “Manha de Carnival (Morning Of The Carnival).” “Granada” and “La Montana” are also outstanding.

REAL GONE MUSIC:

Besides the 4 sets of Johnny Mathis albums (8 albums), Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, has many other exceptional releases so far, including Complete Singles Collection of artists like B.J. Thomas, Dion, Timi Yuro, Connie Stevens, Joanie Sommers, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Mark Lindsay, Electric Prunes, Rick Nelson, etc.
This label produces excellent compilations, containing both a- and b-sides, plus excellent booklets. If you are interested in those artists I just mentioned, please see all my reviews for the above-mentioned elsewhere.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I am so glad that Real Gone Music is releasing 8 of Johnny’s Mercury albums on 4 sets of CDs. I have bought them all and enjoyed all the music in clean and warm digital sound. I am a big fan of Johnny Mathis. So far, I managed to acquire 45 CDs and 51 vinyl albums. I am slowly getting there, but my collection is far from complete. Such great album releases by Real Gone Music are great welcome to my library. I am excited by their many great releases so far. This new-found excitement reminds me of the days in 1990, when Rhino Records released a series called Have A Nice Day. This set is slightly different, with a Latin flavour, a touch of Samba and a touch of Rumba, but totally enjoyable. The orchestration is simply first-class. This set is recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Johnny Mathis was born on September 30, 1935 in Gilmer, Texas, and raised in San Francisco. He was discovered by George Avakian of Columbia Records. He initially recorded as a jazz-styled singer. Columbia A&R executive Mitch Miller switched him to singing pop ballads, and the rest is history. He has 53 charted singles on Billboard Hot 100. But more amazingly, he has 76 charted albums on Billboard 200. His charting career is mainly on Columbia Record label, from 1957 to 2006. He was briefly with Mercury Records label from 1964 to 1967.

Johnny Mathis has an outstanding 4 CD box set called A Personal Collection, released on Columbia Records in 1993. Collectors’ Choice has released quite a few 2 LPs on 2CDs, but for some unknown reason, this series was stopped. Fortunately, Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, now has undertaken to release more of Johnny’s albums, concentrating now on his Mercury releases. So far, 4 sets of 8 albums on 8 CDs have just been released.

CONTENT:

This set consists of 2 great albums of Johnny Mathis on Mercury, with a total of 24 songs.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

THE SWEETHEART TREE (Mercury 61041) 71/1965:
01 A Wonderful Day Like Today
02 Arrivederci Roma
03 Clopin Chopant
04 This Is Love
05 I’ll Close My Eyes
06 The Very Thought Of You
07 Danny Boy
08 The Sweetheart Tree (108/1965)
09 Symphony
10 The Skye Boat Song
11 Autumn Leaves
12 Mirage (b-side to The Sweetheart Tree, 1965)

THE SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE (Mercury 61973) 9/1966:
13 Moment To Moment
14 The Shadow Of Your Smile
15 Michelle
16 Yesterday
17 Something’s Coming
18 A Taste Of Honey
19 In Love For The Very First Time
20 Quiet Nights (Corcovado)
21 (I Left My Heart In) San Francisco
22 On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)(98/1965)
23 Melinda
24 Come Back To Me (b-side to On A Clear Day)

As Johnny would say, the sound is “Wonderful, Wonderful” and very well remastered. The set also comes with an equally wonderful 16-page booklet. The original front and back covers of both albums were displayed, each covering the entire page. For collectors like myself, this is greatly appreciated. The liner notes are full of interesting facts about how different songs were recorded, some coming from Johnny Mathis himself.

For example, the song “The Sweetheart Tree”, was an Oscar nominated song from the film “The Great Race” and written by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini. Its arrangement is credited to a young Lincoln Mayorga, who was just starting a distinguished career. Any audiophile will have some of his many classic vinyl albums. But in this case, he was still very young, and as Johnny Mathis stated: "We were having a little trouble with “The Sweetheart Tree” and we kept calling Henry Mancini and asked …should we do this…should we do that…Finally he said, “Where are you? I’ll be right there.” And he came down and just sorta took over the date.”

REAL GONE MUSIC:

Besides the 4 sets of Johnny Mathis albums (8 albums), Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, has many other exceptional releases so far, including Complete Singles Collection of artists like B.J. Thomas, Dion, Timi Yuro, Connie Stevens, Joanie Sommers, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Mark Lindsay, Electric Prunes, Rick Nelson, etc. This label produces excellent compilations, containing both a- and b-sides, plus excellent booklets. If you are interested in those artists I just mentioned, please see all my reviews for the above-mentioned elsewhere.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I am so glad that Real Gone Music is releasing 8 of Johnny’s Mercury albums on 4 sets of CDs. This current set is simply one of my favourite, with so many classics, done Johnny’s style…simply wonderful to listen to. Besides the other title song "The Shadow Of Your Smile" from "The Sandpiper", another stand-out is another Henry Mancini’s “Moment To Moment” from the movie of the same name.

I am a big fan of Johnny Mathis. So far, I managed to acquire 45 CDs and 51 vinyl albums. I am slowly getting there, but my collection is far from complete. Such great album releases by Real Gone Music are great welcome to my library. I am excited by their many great releases so far. This new-found excitement reminds me of the days in 1990, when Rhino Records released a series called Have A Nice Day. Anyway, all the songs in this set are old standards done in a way that only Johnny can, and are totally enjoyable. This set is highly recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Johnny Mathis was born on September 30, 1935 in Gilmer, Texas, and raised in San Francisco. He was discovered by George Avakian of Columbia Records. He initially recorded as a jazz-styled singer. Columbia A&R executive Mitch Miller switched him to singing pop ballads, and the rest is history. He has 53 charted singles on Billboard Hot 100. But more amazingly, he has 76 charted albums on Billboard 200. His charting career is mainly on Columbia Record label, from 1957 to 2006. He was briefly with Mercury Records label from 1964 to 1967.

Johnny Mathis has an outstanding 4 CD box set called A Personal Collection, released on Columbia Records in 1993. Collectors’ Choice has released quite a few 2 LPs on 2CDs, but for some unknown reason, this series was stopped. Fortunately, Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, now has undertaken to release more of Johnny’s albums, concentrating now on his Mercury releases. So far, 4 sets of 8 albums on 8 CDs have just been released.

CONTENT:

This 2 CD set contains two albums on 2 CDs: Tender Is The Night and The Wonderful World Of Make Believe.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

Disc 1:
TENDER IS THE NIGHT (13/1964) Mercury 60890:
01 Tender Is The Night
02 Laura
03 No Strings
04 I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby
05 April Love
06 Call Me Irresponsible
07 A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
08 A Ship Without A Sail
09 Forget Me Not
10 Where Is Love?
11 Somewhere
12 Tomorrow Song

Disc 2:
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MAKE BELIEVE (75/1964) Mercury 60913:
01 Camelot
02 I’m Always Chasing Rainbows
03 House Of Flowers
04 Beyond The Ser
05 Sky Full Of Rainbows
06 Sands Of Time
07 Shangri-La
08 Alice In Wonderland
09 Dream, Dream, Dream
10 The Wonderful World Of Make Believe
11 When You Wish Upon A Star
12 Beyond The Blue Horizon

As Johnny would say, the sound is “Wonderful, Wonderful” and very well remastered. The set also comes with an equally wonderful 16-page booklet. The original front and back covers of both albums were displayed, each covering the entire page. For collectors like myself, this is greatly appreciated. The liner notes were full of interesting facts, plus personal input from Johnny Mathis himself. Great job! I also appreciate Real Gone Music putting each album in its separate CD, instead of cramping two albums onto 1 CD.

REAL GONE MUSIC:

Besides the 4 sets of Johnny Mathis albums (8 albums), Real Gone Music, an excellent reissue label from UK, has many other exceptional releases so far, including Complete Singles Collection of artists like B.J. Thomas, Dion, Timi Yuro, Connie Stevens, Joanie Sommers, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Mark Lindsay, Electric Prunes, Rick Nelson, etc. This label produces excellent compilations, containing both a- and b-sides, plus excellent booklets. If you are interested in those artists I just mentioned, please see all my reviews for the above-mentioned elsewhere.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I am a big fan of Johnny Mathis. So far, I managed to acquire 45 CDs and 51 vinyl albums. I am slowly getting there, but my collection is far from complete. Such great album releases by Real Gone Music are great welcome to my library. I am excited by their many great releases so far. This new-found excitement reminds me of the days in 1990, when Rhino Records released a series called Have A Nice Day. Anyway, all the songs in this set are old standards done in Johnny’s style, and are totally enjoyable. This set is highly recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Roger Williams was born Louis Jacob Weetz on October 1, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. He learned to play the piano by age three. He was educated at Drake University, Idaho State University and Julliard School of Music. He took lessons from Lenny Tristano and Teddy Wilson. His career started with a win on the TV show Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts that led to a prolonged contract at Kapp Records. He has 30 charted singles on Billboard Hot 100. His first hit was also his biggest: Autumn Leaves, which was Number 1 for 4 weeks in 1955. He was more an album artist, with a total of 39 charted albums on Billboard 200. In real life, he has released over 100 albums!

CONTENT:

This 2 CD set from Jasmine contains 4 complete original albums with bonus tracks, 24 songs in Disc 1 and 27 songs in Disc 2.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

Disc 1:
WITH THESE HANDS (8/1959):
01 Gigi
02 O Mio Babbino Caro
03 An Affair To Remember
04 Two Different Worlds (41/1956)
05 Forgotten Dreams
06 Yellow Bird
07 Bess You Is My Woman
08 Greensleeves
09 With These Hands
10 Strange Music
11 Snowfall
12 The Syncopated Clock
ALWAYS (25/1960)
13 Stardust
14 Stranger in Paradise
15 Traumerei
16 Moonlight and Roses
17 To A Wild Rose
18 Dark Eyes
19 Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet
20 The Skaters Waltz
21 Moonlight Sonata
22 None But The Lonely Heart
23 Brahms’ Lullaby
24 Till The End of Time

Disc 2:
SONGS OF THE FABULOUS FIFITIES (6/1957)
01 Moonglow/Theme from Picnic
02 Unchained Melody
03 Tennessee Waltz
04 Hey There
05 April in Portugal
06 My Heart Cries For You
07 True Love
08 La Vie En Rose
09 Three Coins in the Fountain
10 Young at Heart
11 I Believe
12 Autumn Leaves (1/1955)
TEMPTATION (5/1960):
13 Theme from The Sundowners
14 Theme From The Apartment
15 Temptation (56/1960)
16 One Finger Symphony
17 Homesick For New England (b-side to Temptation, 1960)
18 La Montana (98/1960)
19 Never on Sunday
20 Riviera Concerto
21 It’s Now Or never
22 What Lies Over The Hill? (b-side to La Montana, 1960)
23 Raindrops
24 Little Rock Getaway
BONUS TRACKS:
FROM SONGS OF THE SOARING 60’S (35/1961)
25 Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini
26 Sailor (Your Home Is The Sea)
27 Main Theme from Exodus

The sound is very well remastered, with no hiss. These are all original versions from the original albums. The bonus tracks are appreciated.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Roger Williams is a fantastic pianist. In the late 50s and early 60s, it was the trend that instrumental versions of pop vocal hits were released by artists like Billy Vaughn, Lawrence Welk, Frank Chacksfield, and also Roger Williams. These instrumental albums were very popular then. Unfortunately, it is relatively hard to find music of Roger Williams on CDs. In the past, my reference is the 2 CD set called The Greatest Popular Pianist: The Artist’s Choice on MCA released in 1992. Other labels like Curb and Varese, also released single CDs. Recently, Sepia Records from UK has released a series of 2 LPs on one CD (Temptation/Yellow Bird), plus Collector’s Choice’s similar release (Till/Near You). Now Jasmine Records from UK released this set of 4 LPs on 2 CDs. This is indeed a welcome addition to my library. I personally have 18 CDs and 26 vinyl albums on Roger Williams, and still searching for more. If you like the crisp and soothing piano sound of Roger Williams, you will enjoy these 2 CD set with his instrumental interpretation of many popular hits. This set is highly recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby on May 2, 1903, and died on a golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977 at the age of 74. He is considered the most popular entertainer of the 20th Century’s first 50 years. He was a multi-media entertainer, in recordings, movies, television and radios. His chart achievements are unparalleled, with 41 Number 1 hits and 340 charted entries in Joel Whitburn’s Pop Memories Book (before 1955). Using this book as reference, plus from various sources on the internet, I managed to do a Complete Singles Discography on Bing Crosby, with an astonishing 555 entries in his entire career!!! This is even more than our King, Elvis Presley, which I managed to obtain 247 entries in Elvis’s shortened recording career.

Bing’s recording career can be divided into three main stages:

(1) Pre-Decca years (1927-1934): Victor (1927-1928), followed by Columbia (1928-1930), Victor (1930-1931), and Brunswick (1931-1934). This was his pre-baritone years, under Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, joining forces with Al Rinker and Harry Barris to become the Rhythm Boys.
(2) Decca years (from 1934-1957): This was his golden years, when his soothing baritone voice resulted in 41 number 1 songs (the most in any artist’s career up to now).
(3) Post-Decca years (from 1957-1977): His labels included Capitol, RCA, Kapp, United Artists and a few small labels like Daybreak.

CONTENT:

I personally have acquired 77 CDs on Bing Crosby, and alas, this is far from complete. His output was so large that it is impossible to cover with a few box sets. Just no way. The best box-set so far is the 4 CD set called Bing Crosby: His Legendary Years on MCA released in 1993. Unfortunately, this set is out of print. The alternative is a 5 CD box set called Legends: 100 Hits. (my review elsewhere). And if you like his 1950s output, Sepia Records from UK has released a 10 volume series (purchased individually), called Through The Years. This covered his career from 1950 to 1955. There are also 2 separate Greatest Hits 2 CD sets from Living Era, which are also quite good.

The title of this current set, Bing Crosby The Columbia Years, is a little misleading. Strictly speaking, when one is talking about Columbia Years, this period is referred to the period when Bing Crosby was in the group The Rhythm Boys under Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (1928 to 1930). But this set has songs on the Brunswick label (from 1931 - 1934). The reason why it was called Columbia Years is because Brunswick label was later acquired by Columbia Records.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

01 Dinah (1(2)/1932)
02 Paradise (7/1932)
03 Sweet Georgia Brown (2(3)/1932)
04 Love Me Tonight (4/1932)
05 Please (1(6)/1932)
06 Here Lies Love (11/1932)
07 Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (1(2)/1932)
08 Young And Healthy (2/1933)(b-side to You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me)
09 My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms (with Mills Brothers, 1933)
10 Blue Prelude (10/1933, b-side to Down The Old Ox Road)
11 Thanks (2(2)/1933)
12 Beautiful Girl (11/1933)
13 Temptation (3/1933)
14 Did You Ever See A Dream Walking? (5/1933)
15 Love Thy Neighbour (2/1934)
16 Love In Bloom (1(6)/1934)

The sound is very well remastered, as per Columbia Legacy tradition. In this “Essential series” by Columbia Legacy, many sets are 2 CD set. In this case, since there are 60 entries on the Brunswick label for Columbia executives to choose from (1931 to 1934), putting a mere 16 songs in this set is very stingy! A 2 CD set with 50 songs is more like it. Are you listening, Columbia Records?

The booklet is also very stingy with 8 pages, although the pictures of Bing Crosby are very clear and well done.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This set has great sound, showing off the rich baritone of Bing Crosby. This CD was first released in 2003. Now you can only buy from sellers now. But for $6.99 used, I feel this is a bargain and definitely recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby on May 2, 1903, and died on a golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977 at the age of 74. He is considered the most popular entertainer of the 20th Century’s first 50 years. He was a multi-media entertainer, in recordings, movies, television and radios. His chart achievements are unparalleled, with 41 Number 1 hits and 340 charted entries in Joel Whitburn’s Pop Memories Book (before 1955). Using this book as reference, plus The Billboard Singles Book, and various sources on detailed discography on the internet, I managed to do a Complete Singles Discography on Bing Crosby, with an astonishing 555 entries in his entire career!!! (Repeat entries for White Christmas not counted) This is even more than our King, Elvis Presley, which I managed to obtain 247 entries in Elvis’s shortened recording career.

Bing’s recording career can be divided into three main stages:

(1) Pre-Decca years (1927-1934): Victor (1927-1928), followed by Columbia (1928-1930), Victor (1930-1931), and Brunswick (1931-1934). This was his pre-baritone years, under Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, joining forces with Al Rinker and Harry Barris to become the Rhythm Boys.
(2) Decca years (from 1934-1957): This was his golden years, when his soothing baritone voice resulted in 41 number 1 songs (the most in any artist’s career up to now).
(3) Post-Decca years (from 1957-1977): His labels included Capitol, RCA, Kapp, United Artists and a few small labels like Daybreak.

CONTENT:

I personally have acquired 77 CDs on Bing Crosby so far, but alas, this is far from complete. His output was so large that it is impossible to cover with a few box sets. Just no way. The best box-set so far is the 4 CD set called Bing Crosby: His Legendary Years on MCA released in 1993. Unfortunately, this set is out of print. If you like his 1950s output, Sepia Records from UK has released a 10 volume series (purchased individually), called Through The Years. This covered his career from 1950 to 1955. There are also 2 separate Greatest Hits 2 CD sets from Living Era, which are also quite good. When I was spending quite a few days doing his complete singles discography, I came across many rare gems not found in my collection. In order to complete my discography, I have also just purchased 3 separate sets of CDs: a 10 CD Best of from Membran label, a 2 CD Essential Bing Crosby collection, plus his cowboy CD. When I receive the above, and have listened to them, I shall post my reviews so that you can have more choice in the right selection.

In this current set being reviewed, there are 5 CDs with 100 songs (20 songs in each disc). As you can see from my song listing with chart positions and year, these 100 songs give a good representation of Bing’s career, including many of his No. 1 hits. In this 100 Hits series, other artists included Everly Brothers, Andy Williams, Foster and Allen, Doris Day, Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzerald, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Vera Lynn, plus many Karaoke discs in this series.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:

Disc 1:
01 When The Blue Of The Night (Meets The Gold Of The Day)(4/1932)
02 It’s Been A Long, Long Time (1(2)/1945)
03 Swinging On A Star (1(9)/1944)
04 Moonlight Becomes You (1(2)/1942)
05 San Fernando Valley (1(5)/1944)
06 I’ll Be Seeing You (1(4)/1944)
07 Dolores (2/1941)
08 If You Please (5/1943, b-side to Sunday, Monday Or Always)
09 You Are My Sunshine (19/1941)
10 Along The Santa Fe Trail (4/1941)
11 New San Antonio Rose (7/1941)
12 Miss You (9/1942)
13 The Bells Of St. Mary’s (21/1946)
14 Be Honest With Me (19/1941)
15 The Whiffenproof Song (7/1947)
16 Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1(2)/1938)
17 Be Careful, It’s My Heart (2/1942)
18 The Road To Morocco (21/1945)
19 What’s New (2/1939)
20 Small Fry (3/1938)
Disc 2:
01 Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive (2/1945)
02 Going My Way (15/1944)
03 I Can’t Begin To Tell You (1(6)/1945)
04 I Love You (1(5)/1945)
05 Too Marvellous For Words (1(1)/1937)
06 Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?)(1(1)/1937) with Connee Boswell
07 The Moon Got In My Eyes (1(4)/1937)
08 Only Forever (1(9)/1940)
09 I’m An Old Cowhand (2/1936)
10 Too Romantic (3/1940)*quite a bit of hiss
11 Sierra Sue (1(4)/1940)
12 I’ve Got A Pocketful Of Dreams (1(4)/1938)
13 Remember Me? (1(3)/1937)
14 People Will Say We’re In Love (2/1943)
15 Mexicali Rose (3/1936)
16 Alla En El Rancho Grande (6/1939)
17 You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby (1(2)/1938)
18 It’s The Natural Thing To Do (2/1937)
19 MacNamaras’s Band (10/1946)
20 Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Rai (That’s An Irish Lullaby)(4/1944)
Disc 3:
01 Don’t Fence Me In (1(8)/1944)
02 Sweet Lelani (1(10)/1937)
03 Trade Winds (1(4)/1940)
04 Blue Hawaii (5/1937, b-side to Sweet Leilani)
05 Sunday, Monday Or Always (1(7)/1943)
06 An Apple For The Teacher (2/1939)
07 The Singing Hills (3/1940)
08 Sioux City Sue (3/1946)
09 The Waiter And The Porter And The Upstairs Maid (23/1941)
10 Mr. Gallagher And Mr. Sheen (3/1938, b-side to Small Fry)
11 I Have Eyes (4/1939)
12 On The Sentimental Side (4/1938)
13 A Man And His Dream (4/1939, b-side to Go Fly A Kite)
14 The Funny Old Hills (5/1939, b-side to I Have Eyes)
15 Empty Saddles (8/1936)
16 Robins And Roses (2/1936)
17 The Touch Of Your Lips (4/1936)
18 You’re A Sweet Little Headache (3/1939)
19 Little Sir Echo (3/1939)
20 Deep In The Heart Of Texas (3/1942)
Disc 4:
01 Surrender Dear (3/1931)
02 Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (4/1931, b-side to Just A Gigolo)
03 Just One More Chance (1(2)/1931)
04 I Found A Million Dollar Baby (2(3)/1931)
05 Dinah (1(2)/1932)
06 Please (1(6)/1932)
07 Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (1(2)/1932)
08 I’ve Got To Sing A Torch Song (9/1933, b-side to Shadow Waltz)
09 Learn To Croon (3/1933)
10 Thanks (2(2)/1933)
11 The Day You Came Along (3/1933)
12 The Last Round-Up (2(2)/1933)
13 Home On The Range (18/1933, b-side to The Last Round-Up)
14 Temptation (3/1933)
15 May I? (4/1934)
16 Love In Bloom (1(6)/1934)
17 June in January (1(7)/1934)
18 It’s Easy To Remember (1(2)/1935)
19 Pennies From Heaven (1(10)/1936)
20 Goodnight Sweetheart (5/1931)
Disc 5:
01 Play A Simple Melody (2/1950)
02 True Love (3/1956) with Grace Kelly
03 Dear Hearts and Gentle People (2/1949)
04 Far Away Places (2/1949)
05 Gone Fishin’ (19/1951) with Louis Armstrong
06 Around The World (65/1956)
07 Ghost Riders In The Sky (14/1949)
08 Mule Train (4/1959, b-side to Dear Hearts and Gentle People)
09 Harbor Lights (8/1950, b-side to Beyond The Reef)
10 Sam’s Song (3/1950)
11 Careless Hands (12/1949)
12 Galway Bay (3/1949)
13 In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening (11/1951)
14 A Gal In Calico (8/1947)
15 Now You Have Jazz (88/1956) with Frank Sinatra
16 Sparrow In The Tree Top (8/1951)
17 Quicksilver (8/1950) with Andrews Sisters
18 I Love You Samantha (1956) from High Society
19 Well, Did You Evah? (b-side to True Love, 1956)
20 Now Is The Hour (1(3)/1948)

The sound is very well remastered. Crosby’s rich baritone came across smoothly. The 6-page booklet has a short liner note, plus track listing (including year and orchestra).

FINAL THOUGHTS:

There may be other 2 CD Greatest Hits set from Living Era, but this 5CD set has 100 songs!! I bought this from UK. Now this set is out of stock on Amazon.ca, but sellers are selling for only less than $10 used, which is a real bargain. This whole set is totally enjoyable and will give you many hours of enjoyment from Bing, plus some of his duet partners, like Connee Boswell, Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra. Of course, we also have our beloved Princess Grace Kelly in True Love. This set is very highly recommended.

INTRODUCTION:

The Champs was rock and roll instrumental group from Los Angeles, California. It was named after Gene Autry’s horse, Champ. It was originally consisted of studio musicians Dave Burgess (rhythm guitar), Buddy Bruce (lead guitar), Danny Flores (sax), cliff Hills (bass) and Gene Alden (drums). Shortly after Tequila became a hit, Bruce and Hills were replaced by Dale Norris and Joe Burnas. Eight months after recording Tequila, Flores and Alden left, replaced by Jimmy Seals (sax) & Dash Crofts (drums), later a hit recording duo (Seals & Croft). In 1960, Glen Campbell also joined the group for some time. In the end, the Champs became a touring outfit with their records being cut by Burgess and seasoned studio musicians such as Hal Blaine back at Challenge Records. The label’s vice president Burgess disbanded the group in 1965.

During their seven year tenure, the Champs had 9 charted hit singles on Billboard Hot 100.

CONTENT:

After my review on Tequila by the Champs on Jasmine (47 songs on 2 CDs), I found that their later singles are missing, especially Limbo Dance and Mr. Cool, plus their b-sides. They were not available until I found this current set, which has all of the above, plus many uncharted singles from 1962 onwards. Together, my collection on the Champs is complete.

The song listing (with chart position and year) is as follows:
01 Tequila Twist (99/1962)
02 Limbo Rock (b-side to Tequila Twist, and also as a-side, 40/1962)
03 Experiment In Terror (uncharted a-side, 1962)
04 La Cucaracha (b-side to Experiment In Terror, 1962)
05 Limbo Dance (97/1962)*rare gem
06 Latin Limbo (b-side to Limbo Dance)*rare gem
07 Varsity Rock (uncharted a-side, 1962)
08 That Did It (b-side to Varsity Rock)
09 Mr. Cool (111/1963)*rare gem
10 ' Mash (b-side to Mr. Cool, 1963)
11 Nik Nak (uncharted a-side, 1963)
12 Shades (b-side to Nik Nak)
13 Cactus Juice (uncharted a-side, 1963)
14 Roots (b-side to Cactus Juice)
15 San Juan (uncharted a-side, 1963)
16 Jaliso (b-side to San Juan, 1963)
17 Only The Young (uncharted a-side, 1964)
18 Switzerland (b-side to Only The Young, 1964)
19 Kahlua (uncharted a-side, 1964)
20 Fraternity Waltz (b-side to Kahlua, 1964)
21 Brights Lights, Big City (uncharted a-side, 1965)
22 French 75 (b-side to Brights Lights, Big City, 1965)
23 The Man From Durango (uncharted a-side, 1965)
24 Red Pepper (b-side to The Man From Durango, 1965)
25 Anna (uncharted a-side, 1965)
26 Buckaroo (b-side to Anna, 1965)

The sound in this CD is very well remastered, with great clean clear guitar riffs with lots of bass. Good job! These later singles retain the magical sound of the early hits. Led by founder, Dave Burgess, the group now included future stars such as Jimmy Seals, Darryl 'Dash' Crofts and Glen Campbell.

ACE RECORDS:

Ace Records is a reputable UK reissue label, comparable to Rhino Records in the States. They have done a fantastic job in assembling the entire output of the Champs from 1962 to 1965, arranged chronologically and with both a- and b-sides.

BOOKLET:

This set comes with a fantastic 8-page booklet, containing well written liner notes written by Dave Burke and Roy Simonds of Pipeline Magazine, plus many pictures of their covers and group pictures.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

If you are looking for just the Greatest Hits of the Champs, Tequila on Jasmine label is recommended with 47 songs. Ace also has released The Early Singles with 30 songs, and is also recommended. But Jasmine's 2 CD set has those 30 songs, plus 17 more album tracks. However, the discography will be better in the Ace set.

This current set is more for collectors like myself, who likes to have everything on the artist. It is still recommended, especially for collectors who like to have those missing titles not previously available until now.