This British compilation is subtitled "25 Hits 1932-42," and which is not exactly true, since it features only a handful of Connee Boswell's popular recordings from the period (notably, the Bing Crosby duets "Basin Street Blues" and "Bob White," "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart," "On the Isle of May," and "Sand in My Shoes"). Annotator Peter Dempsey puts it better when he writes that the album contains a "cross-section" of Boswell's "wide-ranging discography." The range extends from ballad standards in orchestral ...
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This British compilation is subtitled "25 Hits 1932-42," and which is not exactly true, since it features only a handful of Connee Boswell's popular recordings from the period (notably, the Bing Crosby duets "Basin Street Blues" and "Bob White," "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart," "On the Isle of May," and "Sand in My Shoes"). Annotator Peter Dempsey puts it better when he writes that the album contains a "cross-section" of Boswell's "wide-ranging discography." The range extends from ballad standards in orchestral arrangements like "You Forgot to Remember" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" to jazz dates like "Me Minus You," which features a pickup band led by the Dorsey brothers and a Bunny Berigan trumpet solo, and "Gypsy Love Song" with Bob Crosby's Bob-Cats. Although Boswell was an accomplished torch singer in the tradition of Helen Morgan, one might have wished for more of the jazz material since it shows off her terrific sense of swing, which influenced a generation of singers, especially Ella Fitzgerald. Still, at 75½ minutes, this collection is an excellent single-disc sampler. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
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