Critic's Review
Matt Collar, All Music Guide
Collectables' three-disc package It's a Wonderful World features five of clarinetist/bandleader Les Brown's albums. Included here are Brown's The Lerner and Loewe Bandbook, The Richard Rodgers Bandbook, Bandland: Great Songs of Great Bands, Revolution in Sound, and The Best of the Rare Les Brown and His Orchestra. The four full albums are representative of his early-'60s big-band charts, which harked back to his popular '40s dance-band sound while updating it for the hi-fi lounge era. However, this best-of disc features rare tracks recorded from 1941 to 1950 and showcases Brown at the height of his career popularity and creativity. This is a quirky mix of the essential and the oddball, but most Brown fanatics should find this package hard to resist.
