The Best of the Definitive American Songbook, Vol. 1 (A-I)

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: This compilation is the first of ten to be compiled and released on EMI/Capitol's Liberty imprint containing performances of songs that are part of "The Great American Songbook," i.e., traditional pop standards from the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s, mostly written for Broadway musicals or Hollywood movies, and subsequently sung in nightclubs and on records. The "(A-I)" designation simply means that all of the songs included in this volume begin with words the first letter of which is among the first nine letters of the alphabet, an arbitrary organizing principle if there ever was one, but no matter. Executive producer/annotator Alan Warner is bent on demonstrating that the songs have continued to be performed long after their introductions, and in doing so, he has ranged far beyond the ample vaults of Capitol Records (which was founded in the 1940s in part to record this very repertoire) to license tracks from all of the other major labels. The recordings were made between 1944 (Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Seeing You," originally released on Decca Records and licensed from Universal), and 2001 (Dianne Reeves' "Embraceable You," released on Capitol imprint Blue Note), and they include not only traditional pop singers such as Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, and Dinah Shore, but also R&B performers Ray Charles and Etta James, jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, '70s pop singer Harry Nilsson, and country star Willie Nelson. Selection and sequencing work to give the album flow and consistency. But this is still a somewhat random compilation, not unlike dozens of others. ~ William Ruhlmann

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