The Fabulous Fifties: Unforgettable Fifties is the second disc in a four-CD box set that is itself the first of two sets making up a total of eight CDs surveying the non-rock popular music of the 1950s. (Just to be confusing, there is also a nine-CD version of the package, divided into three triple-CD sets.) Assembled by Time-Life Music's Heartland Music division with manufacturing by Sony Music Special Products, the 15-track album, running 44 minutes, is typical of Time-Life's approach to compilations. Containing music ...
Read More
The Fabulous Fifties: Unforgettable Fifties is the second disc in a four-CD box set that is itself the first of two sets making up a total of eight CDs surveying the non-rock popular music of the 1950s. (Just to be confusing, there is also a nine-CD version of the package, divided into three triple-CD sets.) Assembled by Time-Life Music's Heartland Music division with manufacturing by Sony Music Special Products, the 15-track album, running 44 minutes, is typical of Time-Life's approach to compilations. Containing music originally released between 1950-1954 (plus one tune, "Theme From 'A Summer Place'," from late 1959), it is heavy on hits: every track was a Billboard number one. The songs have been licensed from a variety of labels, five of them coming from the archives of Sony Music, with three each drawn from fellow majors Universal, BMG, and EMI, and one from independent Cadence. That is one advantage to Time-Life collections -- they are not limited to a single label. Another is sound quality; drawn from the original masters, the tracks sound great. The disadvantages of the Time-Life style are also apparent, however. Despite brief liner notes from Joseph Lanza that provide two or three sentences on each track, there isn't much scholarship evident. To the listener, this is just a miscellaneous bunch of tracks, seemingly sequenced in any old order. And, of course, 44 minutes isn't very long for a CD. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Read Less