The leader of a first-class jazz-oriented dance band for over 60 years, Les Brown's music was never innovative but was generally quite pleasing. While attending Duke University in 1935, he put together his first big band, the Duke Blue Devils. After the group broke up in 1936, Brown worked as an arranger before forming a permanent orchestra in... [+] Read More

The leader of a first-class jazz-oriented dance band for over 60 years, Les Brown's music was never innovative but was generally quite pleasing. While attending Duke University in 1935, he put together his first big band, the Duke Blue Devils. After the group broke up in 1936, Brown worked as an arranger before forming a permanent orchestra in 1938. Influenced by the swing of Benny Goodman but gradually forging its own sound, the Les Brown Orchestra had major hits in "Sentimental Journey" (featuring Doris Day in 1944) and a catchy arrangement of "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." Several excellent soloists spent time with the band (including Abe Most and Ted Nash). In 1947, Brown started working with Bob Hope, and the association, although putting the band in a subsidiary role, made it possible for the orchestra to stay together for so many decades. The Dave Pell Octet, which was quite popular in the mid-'50s, was comprised of some of Brown's sidemen. In the late '50s, Brown became one of the founding members of the Recording Academy. Les Brown occasionally toured throughout the decades to come, even performing within a year of his death on January 4, 2001, at the age of 88. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

"The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven" was the logo of Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians, who by 1930 had established themselves as America's top dance band. Unfairly lumped in with unswinging "mickey mouse" bands of the era, the music of Lombardo's outfit was actually top-notch, and they were constantly cited by Louis Armstrong as his... [+] Read More

"The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven" was the logo of Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians, who by 1930 had established themselves as America's top dance band. Unfairly lumped in with unswinging "mickey mouse" bands of the era, the music of Lombardo's outfit was actually top-notch, and they were constantly cited by Louis Armstrong as his favorite band for their purity of intonation. A cache of early sides for Gennett reveals that the band was capable of playing "hot" any time they wanted to, but sweet music and singing novelties featuring brother Carmen is what the public wanted, and Lombardo failed to disappoint. He became a national institution hosting televised New Year's Eve broadcasts from New York, making his rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" part of our national memory chest and his lasting legacy.

Guy Lombardo began his musical career in 1924, when he and his brothers Lebert, Carmen, and Victor -- who joined slightly later -- formed a big dance band. Originally, Guy was a violinist for the band, but he soon became its leader and conductor. The band received a moderate amount of success in Canada and soon went to the United States, where they landed a regular gig in Cleveland, Ohio. While they were performing in Cleveland, they began using the name Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. After their Cleveland engagement, they moved to Chicago and then New York City, which became their home base after a successful stay at the Roosevelt Grill.

Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played numerous radio broadcasts from New York and they began a long string of hits in 1927 that ran all the way to 1954. By the early '30s, Lombardo was an international celebrity, having hit records and appearing in films like Many Happy Returns. During this time, not only Lombardo's records were massively popular, but so were his radio broadcasts; it was his annual New Year's Eve show that made "Auld Lang Syne" a national standard. Lombardo also became a well-known speed boat racer during the '40s and, in fact, won many awards for his skills, including a National Championship in the late '40s.

Between 1927 and 1954, Lombardo and his Royal Canadians sold well over 100 milllion records on a variety of labels, including Columbia, Brunswick, Decca, and RCA/Victor; it's estimated that his total worldwide record sales ranged between 100 and 300 million copies. In 1954, Lombardo assumed the operation of the Marine Theatre, located at New York's Jones Beach. At the Marine Theatre, he staged a number of musical revues that were very popular. Lombardo continued to lead these musical productions until his death in 1977. ~ Cub Koda & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Harry James was one of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work instantly identifiable. He was also one of the most popular bandleaders of the first half of the 1940s, and he continued to lead his band until just before his death, 40 years later. James was the child of... [+] Read More

Harry James was one of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work instantly identifiable. He was also one of the most popular bandleaders of the first half of the 1940s, and he continued to lead his band until just before his death, 40 years later. James was the child of circus performers. His father, Everette Robert James, was the bandleader and trumpet player in the orchestra for the Mighty Haag Circus, and his mother, Maybelle Stewart Clark James, was an aerialist. Growing up in the circus, James became a performer himself as early as the age of four, when he began working as a contortionist. He soon turned to music, however, first playing the snare drum in the band from about the age of six and taking trumpet lessons from his father. At 12, he took over leadership of the second band in the Christy Brothers Circus, for which his family was then working. He attended grade school in Beaumont, TX, where the circus spent the winter, and when he was 14 he won a state music contest as a trumpeter. That inspired him to turn professional and begin playing in local bands. James' first job with a national band came in 1935 when he was hired by Ben Pollack. In May 1935, he married singer Louise Tobin, with whom he had two children and from whom he was divorced in June 1943. He made his first recordings as a member of the Pollack band in September 1936. Not long after, he was tapped by Benny Goodman, then leading one of the country's most popular bands, and he began working for Goodman by the end of 1936. He rapidly gained notice in the Goodman band, and by December 1937 he had begun to make recordings under his own name for Brunswick Records (later absorbed by Columbia Records). In early 1939, he left Goodman and launched his own orchestra, premiering it in Philadelphia in February. That spring, he heard the then-unknown Frank Sinatra on a radio broadcast and hired him. The band struggled, however, and when the more successful bandleader Tommy Dorsey made Sinatra an offer at the end of 1939, James did not stand in his way. Around the same time, he was dropped by Columbia and switched to the tiny Varsity Records label. After two years of difficulties in maintaining his band, James changed musical direction in early 1941. He added strings and turned to a sweeter, more melodic style, meanwhile re-signing to Columbia Records. The results were not long in coming. In April 1941, he first reached the Top Ten with the self-written instrumental "Music Makers." (His band was sometimes billed as Harry James and His Music Makers.) A second Top Ten hit, "Lament to Love," featuring Dick Haymes on vocals, followed in August, and late in the year James reached the Top Five with an instrumental treatment of the 1913 song "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)." This was the record that established him as a star. But with its sweet style and what was frequently described as James' "schmaltzy" trumpet playing, it was also, according to jazz critic Dan Morgenstern (as quoted in the 1999 biography Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James by Peter J. Levinson), "the record that the jazz critics never forgave Harry for recording." James was second only to Glenn Miller as the most successful recording artist of 1942. During the year, seven of his recordings peaked in the Top Ten: the Top Five "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," with vocals by Helen Forrest; the number one instrumental "Sleepy Lagoon"; the Top Five "One Dozen Roses," with vocals by Jimmy Saunders; the Top Five instrumental "Strictly Instrumental"; "He's My Guy"; the Top Five "Mister Five by Five"; and "Manhattan Serenade," the last three with vocals by Helen Forrest. In September, when Miller went into the armed forces and gave up his radio show, Chesterfield Time, he handed it over to James, a symbolic transference of the title of top bandleader in the country. (James was ineligible for military service due to a back injury.) Meanwhile, wartime travel restrictions and the recording ban called by the musicians union, which took effect in August 1942, had limited James' touring and recording activities, but another avenue had opened up. He began appearing in movies, starting with Syncopation in May 1942 and continuing with Private Buckaroo in June and Springtime in the Rockies in November. His next hit, "I Had the Craziest Dream," with vocals by Helen Forrest, was featured in Springtime in the Rockies; it hit number one in February 1943. The movie is also memorable for having starred Betty Grable, whom James married in July 1943; they had two children and divorced in October 1965. "I Had the Craziest Dream" was succeeded at number one in March 1943 by another James record with a Helen Forrest vocal, "I've Heard That Song Before." "Velvet Moon," an instrumental, followed and did almost as well, but with that Columbia's stockpile of James recordings made just before the start of the recording ban was almost exhausted. The label went into its vaults and began reissuing older James recordings. Frank Sinatra had recently emerged as a solo star, and in the spring of 1943, Columbia reissued "All or Nothing at All," a song he had recorded as James' vocalist in 1939; the song reached the Top Five. Next, Columbia released "I Heard You Cried Last Night," a year-old recording with a Helen Forrest vocal; it too reached the Top Five. Once again, James ranked as the second most successful recording artist of the year, just behind Bing Crosby. Meanwhile, James was based in New York, doing his three-times-a-week radio show and appearing at major venues such as the Paramount Theatre and on the Astor Hotel Roof. He also appeared in the June 1943 film release Best Foot Forward. Decca Records settled with the musicians' union in 1943, which gave its recording stars an advantage, but while Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and Jimmy Dorsey (all on Decca) were the top recording artists of 1944, James came in fourth without ever stepping into a recording studio. His instrumental "Cherry," recorded in 1942, became a Top Five hit early in the year; "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)," recorded in 1941 with Dick Haymes on vocals, hit number one in June; and he had eight other chart records during the year. He also continued with his radio show through March and had two films, Two Girls and a Sailor and Bathing Beauty, in release in June. The two remaining major labels, Columbia and RCA Victor, came to terms with the musicians' union in November 1944, freeing James to return to the recording studio. This resulted in seven Top Ten hits in 1945: the number one "I'm Beginning to See the Light"; "I Don't Care Who Knows It"; "If I Loved You"; "11:60 P.M."; the Top Five "I'll Buy That Dream"; "It's Been a Long, Long Time"; and "Waitin' for the Train to Come In." "If I Loved You" had vocals by Buddy DiVito; all the rest had vocals by Kitty Kallen. That was enough to make him the third most successful recording artist of 1945, behind only Bing Crosby and Sammy Kaye. Meanwhile, he and his band became regulars on the Danny Kaye Show radio series in January 1945, and he hosted its summer replacement program from June to September. James scored two Top Ten hits in early 1946 -- the Top Five "I Can't Begin to Tell You," which featured a pseudonymous vocal by his wife Betty Grable, and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," with a vocal by Buddy DiVito -- but then his recording success began to decline, though he managed one more Top Ten hit, "This Is Always," with Buddy DiVito on vocals, in the fall. Having appeared in a number of films, he formally signed a movie contract with 20th Century Fox, resulting in bigger parts in Do You Love Me?, released in May, and If I'm Lucky, out in September. He also took to the road for the first time since the end of the war. The declining popularity of the big bands led many to break up in December 1946, James' orchestra among them. But in January 1947, his All Time Favorites collection was at the top of the album charts, indicating he was still broadly popular, and within months he had re-organized his band, reducing the number of strings (and soon eliminating them entirely), and taking a more jazz-oriented approach. He scored only one Top Ten hit in 1947, "Heartaches," with vocals by Marion Morgan. And he appeared in the film Carnegie Hall in May. James appeared in the film A Miracle Can Happen (aka On Our Merry Way) in February 1948, the same month he became a regular on the radio show Call for Music, which ran until June. He was not much visible in 1949, but in February 1950, his trumpet playing was heard in the film Young Man with a Horn, though the man fingering the trumpet onscreen was Kirk Douglas. The Young Man with a Horn soundtrack, credited to James with Doris Day, hit number one in May 1950. Repeating that pairing, Columbia teamed James with Day for "Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)," which hit the charts in March 1951 and reached the Top Ten. Similar success was achieved with "Castle Rock," which paired James with Frank Sinatra and reached the charts in September. Meanwhile, James had his own TV series, The Harry James Show, which ran on a Los Angeles station for the first six months of 1951. From this point on, James maintained his band as a touring unit, though he was less frequently glimpsed in the media. He played himself in the film biography The Benny Goodman Story in 1955, the same year that, having moved to Capitol Records, he released Harry James in Hi-Fi, an album of re-recordings of his hits that reached the Top Ten in November. (The 1999 compilation Trumpet Blues: The Best of Harry James combines tracks from this album and its follow-up, More Harry James in Hi-Fi.) By now, he was deliberately trying to make his band sound like Count Basie's. He was back onscreen in November 1956 in the film The Opposite Sex. He made his first major tour of Europe in October 1957, and in ensuing years he alternated national and international tours with lengthy engagements at Las Vegas hotels. There were two more film appearances, The Big Beat (June 1958) and The Ladies Man (July 1961). James performed regularly through the early '80s. He was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1983, but continued to play, making his last appearance only nine days before his death at 67. Led by trumpeter Art Depew, his band continued to perform. No one questioned James' talent as a jazz trumpeter, though after his commercial ascendance in 1941 many jazz critics dismissed him. After his period of greatest success, he turned back to a more jazz-oriented style, which failed to change the overall impression of him, if only because he was no longer as much in the public eye. Nevertheless, his swing hits remain among the most popular music of the era. In addition to the Columbia recordings from his heyday, there are numerous other titles in his discography, notably many airchecks, though his recordings of the '50s are also worth seeking out. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide [-] Hide

During the '30s, Glen Gray formed a band from an orchestra contracted to Jean Goldkette (called the Orange Blossoms) and named it after a hotel that never opened. Through savvy talent-recruiting and immensely popular records, The Casa Loma Band became a sensation in 1931-1935. This was precision, drilled music with virtually no rhythmic fervor... [+] Read More

During the '30s, Glen Gray formed a band from an orchestra contracted to Jean Goldkette (called the Orange Blossoms) and named it after a hotel that never opened. Through savvy talent-recruiting and immensely popular records, The Casa Loma Band became a sensation in 1931-1935. This was precision, drilled music with virtually no rhythmic fervor or blues feeling, but the Casa Loma Band maintained its popularity through the '30s and into the '40s. Gray retired in 1950 but kept working with the band until his death in 1963. Alumni include Herb Ellis, Red Nichols, and Bobby Hackett. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Doris Day has packed four careers into one lifetime, two each in music and movies. The pity is that all most people remember are her movies from Teacher's Pet (1957) onward, as the quintessential all-American girl, the perpetually virginal screen heroine, cast opposite such icons of masculinity as Clark Gable and, rather ironically, Rock Hudson.... [+] Read More

Doris Day has packed four careers into one lifetime, two each in music and movies. The pity is that all most people remember are her movies from Teacher's Pet (1957) onward, as the quintessential all-American girl, the perpetually virginal screen heroine, cast opposite such icons of masculinity as Clark Gable and, rather ironically, Rock Hudson. She also transposed this following to television at the end of the 1960s with a situation comedy that lasted into the early '70s. If most people remember her as a singer, it's usually for such pop hits as "Secret Love" and her Oscar-winning "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which became her signature tune.

But before all of that, from 1939 until the end of the 1940s, Doris Day was one of the hottest, sultriest swing band vocalists in music. That body of work -- which contains at least one unabashed classic early-'40s recording, "Sentimental Journey" -- is one of the most impressive in the fields of swing and popular jazz, and deserves to be heard far more than it is. Moreover, before those late-'50s comedies, Day had a film career that included adaptations of Broadway musicals (The Pajama Game), classic thrillers (The Man Who Knew Too Much), and searing social drama (Storm Warning).

She was born Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1924, in Evanston, OH, a suburb of Cincinnati. Her father was a music teacher, choir master, and church organist. Her mother loved popular music, especially (surprisingly) country music.

Her parents divorced when she was 12, and Doris lived with her mother and older brother in College Hill, OH. From age six, she had taken dancing lessons, and that was the career she ultimately intended to pursue. In 1937, when she was 13, she and a young male partner won a 500 dollar prize in an amateur dance contest. The family decided to pursue stardom for their young child in Hollywood.

Her hopes for a career in dance were shattered on the trip out West in an automobile accident that severely injured her right leg. Her recuperation, over the Cincinnati tavern owned by an uncle, gave the young teenager access to a jukebox that played the hits of the day; and by the time she was 14, she had developed a taste for swing stars such as Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers, among numerous other bands. She also started singing along with Ella Fitzgerald's records and tried to develop her own style.

Music became a new aspiration, and the timely intervention of voice coach Grace Raine helped her develop the approach to song that was to characterize her career. Raine arranged for Doris to appear on the Cincinnati radio station WLW on an amateur showcase -- the song that she sang was Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz's "Day After Day," from 1932, which earned her a featured spot on the station.

She was still known as Doris Kappelhoff when she got a job singing at a local club, but when a chance for radio broadcasts from the club was brought up. She ultimately took the name Doris Day, owing to the popularity of "Day After Day," and while the gig didn't last, the name did. In 1939, however, she was told of the opening for a vocalist in the band of Bob Crosby, Bing's brother and a star band leader in his own right. Day auditioned and got the job at age 17. She stayed with Crosby's band for three months before she was approached by band leader Les Brown.

This was 1940, and the musical world was dominated by the big bands, jazz-influenced swing outfits that gave singers like Sinatra (who was just getting rolling himself as a star vocalist) extraordinary opportunities to interpret the songs of the day. Tin Pan Alley still ruled the airwaves (though country and, to a lesser degree, blues were making inroads), and there was no shortage of great songs.

In the middle of all that was this little 17-year-old girl, who could impart a feeling of world-weary sensuality or sensual innocence to a song, shading her voice in textures almost too delicate to analyze. And Doris Day became a budding star, in an era in which Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra -- not to mention Ella Fitzgerald -- were just a few of the vocalists competing for public attention.

While singing with Bob Crosby's band, she first worked with many of the sidemen -- Bob Haggart, William Stegmeyer, Billy Butterfield, and Zeke Zarchy -- who would later work on her own recording sessions. It was with Les Brown's band, however, that the public first got to hear her voice and know her name, initially on the radio and then on Brown's recordings. From 1940 until 1946, with a two-year break for an unhappy marriage, Day was a star vocalist, most notably on hits like "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time," both of which were monster hits for the band. "Sentimental Journey" also became especially popular among American soldiers stationed overseas during World War II. By the end of the war and her time with Les Brown, when she was barely into her 20s, Day was considered one of the top band vocalists in the world.

Apart from having a beautiful voice and command of its every shading, Day's success was based on her approach to songs and audiences. When she sang, she sounded as though she were singing not to a crowd or a mass "audience," but to each individual listener. People resonated to her records and her performances personally, and coupled with the considerable merits of her voice and the quality of Brown's band, it made her a huge favorite with almost anyone who heard her.

Her tenure with the band was interrupted by another unsuccessful marriage, and when it ended, Day -- with a young son named Terry from her first marriage to provide for -- was ready to return to Cincinnati and forget about music. So the story goes, her agent persuaded her to attend a party in Hollywood where she impressed songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn with an impromptu performance of "Embraceable You." They were writing the score for a Warner Bros. movie called Romance on the High Seas, which had been planned for several leading ladies, all of whom fell out for one reason or another. Sammy Cahn got Day and her agent down to the studio, and she auditioned before director Michael Curtiz, who ordered a screen test for her. Day's screen test was run for the studio executives alongside two actresses whom they'd previously asked to audition, and she won the role.

The movie was a hit, and Day became a star, not in the perky, virginal persona that people remember today, but as a top-flight singer and actress. After that, Day's two careers went along in tandem, as she starred in movies and often turned their songs into hits. She also appeared in non-musical films, and revealed herself a superb dramatic actress in the groundbreaking topical dramatic thriller Storm Warning (1950), in which she played the victimized wife of a boorish, murderous Ku Klux Klan member (Steve Cochran); but she could also play perky tomboyish parts in movies like On Moonlight Bay (1951).

Day resumed her recording career in 1947, and even amid the growing number of ballads in her output, her early solo sides remained very jazzy, and are among her best sides. Her music softened somewhat as the 1940s wore on, although she did record some superb jazz-style sides for the 1950 movie Young Man With a Horn.

Her most visible sides from the 1950s onward were pop songs. She had huge hits with "Secret Love," a song derived from the movie Calamity Jane (1953), and "Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which she'd sung in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), in which she co-starred with James Stewart. During the 1950s, Doris Day was the most popular and one of the highest paid singers in America; and the sudden burst of popularity of her movies, beginning with Teacher's Pet (1958), only added to her overall impact on the country's popular culture, though the movies ultimately eclipsed the music career. In the midst of her pop-music/movie career, Day recorded an entire album of jazz with Andre Previn as her accompanist, entitled Duet. Its impact was muted by the popularity of her movies which, by the early '60s, turned her into a cultural icon, her wholesome innocence the perfect non-threatening match for Marilyn Monroe's innocent sexuality.

The growth of rock music as the dominant force in popular music in the mid-'60s left Day on the musical sidelines; ironically, her son Terry Melcher became one of the most successful rock producers of the period, most notably in association with the Byrds' early work and Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Day's personal and professional life took a bad turn in the wake of the death of her third husband, Marty Melcher, in 1968. Melcher had managed her business affairs for 17 years, and she learned after his death that he had lost or embezzled her entire career's earnings. Day was left broke, and the ensuing stresses led her to a nervous breakdown.

Her recovery came in 1968, when she began work on her CBS network situation comedy. Melcher had committed her to doing the show immediately prior to his death, without her consent, but the program was a success and Day was restored to solvency during the series' four-year run. A year after the program ended, she was awarded a $22 million dollar judgment against her former attorney for his role in Melcher's handling of her finances. Since the cancellation of the CBS series in 1973, she has been less visible, although she did a cable television series, Doris Day and Friends, in the mid-'80s. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide [-] Hide

In 1999, mail-order company Collectors' Choice Music licensed from Sony Music the two-disc/tape, 36-track The Best of Kay Kyser & His Orchestra, the most extensive compilation of Kyser's recordings ever released and, with prices upon release of about $25 for the CDs and $20 for the tapes, at a reasonable cost. Though Kyser led one of the ten... [+] Read More

In 1999, mail-order company Collectors' Choice Music licensed from Sony Music the two-disc/tape, 36-track The Best of Kay Kyser & His Orchestra, the most extensive compilation of Kyser's recordings ever released and, with prices upon release of about $25 for the CDs and $20 for the tapes, at a reasonable cost. Though Kyser led one of the ten most successful swing bands of the 1940s, his sweet, comedic approach brought him less respect and far fewer reissues than bandleaders who played in the more jazz-oriented, hot style. This chronologically sequenced set, drawing upon his Brunswick and Columbia recordings, traces his career from the mid-'30s, when he first began to score hits, to the late '40s, when he turned to television and then retired. In that period, there were ten #1 hits and six reported million-sellers, all of which are included. They ranged from the children's novelties "Three Little Fishes" and "Woody Woodpecker," and the adult novelty "Strip Polka," to romantic fare like "Who Wouldn't Love You" and "On a Slow Boat to China," and a heavy complement of World War II-themed songs like "'Til Reveille," "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) the White Cliffs of Dover," "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings," and "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." The set departs from the hit parade occasionally to include some characteristic and timely numbers, such as "Isch Ka Bibble (I Should Worry)," which gave band member Merwyn Bogue his pseudonym of Ish Kabibble; "So You Left Me for the Leader of a Swing Band?," "The Merry Old Land of Oz" from The Wizard of Oz, and "Way Back in 1939 A.D" (recorded in December 1939). There are enough Top Ten hits left out to fill another disc (the chief omissions are "Playmates" and "Johnny Dougboy Found a Rose in Ireland," both of which hit #2), but the scarcity of Kyser material in print can only make a swing fan thankful for what's here. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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The Popular Frank Sinatra, Vol. 1 is a wonderful, 20-track collection of highlights from Sinatra's stint with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Every song on the collection was recorded between 1940 and 1941, as his star was on the rise, and while this doesn't contain all of his most familiar songs from the period, it contains a good portion of them,... [+] Read More

The Popular Frank Sinatra, Vol. 1 is a wonderful, 20-track collection of highlights from Sinatra's stint with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Every song on the collection was recorded between 1940 and 1941, as his star was on the rise, and while this doesn't contain all of his most familiar songs from the period, it contains a good portion of them, as well as recordings with the Pied Pipers, Connie Hains and Jo Stafford. For collectors who don't want to invest in the box set, yet want more than a greatest-hits disc, this is an ideal series. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Forty-two songs cut between November 1940 and August 1946, and the perfect companion to Bear Family's It's Magic box set -- anyone who's been even tempted to own that will have to get this more modestly priced precursor to that material. Day's period singing with Les Brown is, today, regarded with a degree of love and affection reserved for Ella... [+] Read More

Forty-two songs cut between November 1940 and August 1946, and the perfect companion to Bear Family's It's Magic box set -- anyone who's been even tempted to own that will have to get this more modestly priced precursor to that material. Day's period singing with Les Brown is, today, regarded with a degree of love and affection reserved for Ella Fitzgerald's era with Chick Webb, or Frank Sinatra's work with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Yet Sony Music's own releases devoted to Doris Day and Les Brown spread the music around to several different CDs, and suffered from sound that, today, seems substandard. These newly remastered tracks, offered in chronological order, including one previously unissued song ("Are You Still in Love with Me"), not only display a far richer, warmer sound, but have been presented with the kind of care that is normally reserved for the best parts of a label's catalog -- which these sides definitely are. Day's voice during this period (she was 16 when she cut her first sides with Brown) was an astonishingly expressive instrument. Anyone who thinks that 42 songs is more than they want simply hasn't heard her darkly emotive rendition of "When the Music Plays On," or the playful "Three at a Table with You," her jaunty "Broomstreet," or her gossamer enunciation (highlighted by some lovely high notes) on "Between Friends" -- the arrangements and the performances have the texture of the most finely spun silk. The hits are here, of course, but there's hardly a song on hand that doesn't deserve a hearing 50-odd years later. The notes by Joseph Laredo are also lively and informative. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide [-] Hide