The One and Only
Artist: Margaret Whiting
Blues Cross Country
Artist: Peggy Lee

One of Peggy Lee's most intriguing concept LPs of the '50s and '60s, Blues Cross Country teams her with the Quincy Jones Orchestra on a set of swinging blues set all over America, almost a continental version of Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me." She balances standards like "Basin Street Blues," "St. Louis Blues," "I Left My Sugar (In Salt Lake... Read More

Life Is a Song
Artist: Fred E. Ahlert

Twenty-five of Fred Ahlert's greatest songwriting moments are collected on Life Is a Song: The Songs of Fred Ahlert. Though his songs were always performed by big stars, this is the only collection available dedicated solely to Ahlert's work. Tracks include "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," "Keep Your Last Goodnight for Me"... Read More

Learn to Croon
Artist: Frank Sinatra & Tommy Dorsey

This 16-track companion to It's All So New is less interesting but just as entertaining, focusing on Sinatra and Dorsey's live broadcast covers of pop standards of the period. As annotator Will Friedwald points out, Dorsey and Sinatra were unusual (though not unique) as top-flight, cutting edge entertainers who made a habit of reaching back to... Read More

57 - In Concert
Artist: Frank Sinatra
Sweet Control: The Best of Jon Lucien
Artist: Jon Lucien

This 1999 release was long overdue, since none of Lucien's earliest material existed in print since RCA deleted his Best of several years prior. This disc ranges from the singer's first album, I Am Now, to Mother Nature's Son from the early '90s. You can hear his influence on the quiet storm formats yet to come in tunes like "Would You Believe... Read More

The Very Best of Dick Haymes, Vol. 2
Artist: Dick Haymes

This flawless 20-song compilation picks up right where Volume 1 left off: in the fall of 1945 with the Top Ten hit "It Might as Well Be Spring" from the film State Fair (in which Dick Haymes appeared). From there, it presents the rest of his major hits through 1950, when his popularity tailed off. In fact, Haymes was just past his peak as this... Read More

The Very Best of Dick Haymes, Vol. 1
Artist: Dick Haymes

"Faultless" would be a good word to describe this 20-song compilation, which contains every one of Dick Haymes' Top 20 hits from the start of his solo career in 1943 to the fall of 1945, a period when he was one of the most successful recording artists in the U.S. His biggest hit of the period was the gold-selling chart-topper "You'll Never... Read More

Endless Is Love
Artist: Jon Lucien

This represents a return to form for Lucien after two hit-or-miss efforts by Mercury to turn him into an R&B singer. Lucien's milieu is more jazz-influenced, and he's right at home in musical settings from Chuck Loeb and John Lee, as well as a few of his own. His deep baritone works best when singing romantic songs, of which there are plenty... Read More

The Best of the Columbia Years: 1943-1952
Artist: Frank Sinatra
The Columbia Years (1943-1952): The Complete Recordings
Artist: Frank Sinatra
Community Score: 9.00
That's Where I Came In
Artist: Mel Tormé

This 44-track, two-disc British compilation contains all 18 of the sides Mel Tormé & the Mel-Tones recorded for Musicraft Records in 1946-1947. Also included are 16 sides Tormé recorded on his own for Musicraft from 1946 to 1948, plus ten airchecks from Tormé's radio program during the summer of 1948, when he effected a reunion of the Mel-Tones,... Read More