Search - Andrews Sisters :: Golden Greats

Most of their hits and much else

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 04/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This European budget release has no booklet but the sound quality is fine for the age of the recordings. So there are no liner notes but the tracks (with songwriters) are listed on the back of the jewel case.



Some people say that the Andrews sisters' songs all sound the same but I disagree. Their swinging, upbeat songs (with a few ballads but not many) come from a wide variety of sources, both within America and from other countries and the wide difference in styles is apparent even though the sisters always stamped their identity on whatever they recorded. You wouldn't mistake their sound for anybody else's - there was nobody like them at the time and hasn't been since.



Despite being only a budget collection, the vast majority of their big American hits are here including their duets with Bing Crosby. By the time record sales charts started in Britain (November 1952), their hit-making days were over but they clearly have plenty of UK fans wanting to buy their music.



Among the big hits to be found here (without Bing Crosby) are Bei mir bist du schoen, Hold tight hold tight, Beer barrel polka (better known as Roll out the barrel), Well all right, Say si si, Woodpecker song, Ferryboat serenade, Boogie woogie bugle boy (revived by Bette Midler in the seventies), I'll be with you in apple blossom (their finest ballad), Strip polka, Shoo-shoo baby, Straighten up and fly right, Rum and Coca Cola, Rumors are flying (with Les Paul), Near you, Civilization (with Danny Kaye), You call everybody darling, I can dream can't I and I wanna be loved.



Bing Crosby joins the sisters on Yodelling jive, Pistol packing Mama, Is you or is you ain't ma baby, Don't fence me in, Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, Along the Navajo trail and South America take it away.



There are a few omissions, notably A hot town in the town of Berlin (with Bing Crosby) but this is a budget release and it comes closer to being a definitive hits collection than some full-priced compilations.



Apart from the many hits of their own, this set includes their own versions of other people's hits. Glenn Miller is well-represented via covers of I've got a guy (gal) in Kalamazoo, Chattanooga choo-choo, Pennsylvania 6-5000 and Don't sit under the apple tree - the last-named song was a minor hit for the sisters but a much bigger hit for Glenn.



As an introduction to the music of the Andrews sisters this is brilliant despite the absence of liner notes. If you've already got some of their music but want more, you will surely find some tracks you haven't already got among the 77 here."