Search - Matt Monro :: Rare Monro

Rare Monro Is Superb

Andy Grobins | Tacoma, Washington | 10/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Five years in the making while the dust was removed from the tapes in the EMI vaults, Rare Monro is Matt Monro once again at his best. Too often compared to Sinatra, Monro has great timing, an incomparable range,and a kinder voice. The two-disc plus booklet set is well worth the purchase price. Included are some familiar tunes such as the legendary Try To Remember, New York New York, Alone Am I, When Love Comes Along, and Let Me Choose Life that was previously recorded by folk singer Glenn Yarbrough and written by former co-Limeliter Alex Hassilev. Monro's version of the great Blue Moon will hold you breathless in a momentary spell. The remaining tunes are in fact rare or seldom heard or recorded by others. There are, however, gems that for whatever reason were never previously included on Matt Monro albums and CDs. One such pearl is All That Remains, but there are many among the 50 songs plus 4 short commercials found in this set. When the music stops, it's easy to conclude that Monro left us far too early. Rare Monro is a rare treat, yet excellent in the usual Matt Monro tradition."

Best of previously un-issued recordings

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 05/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I know that some rarities are rare for a good reason, not being up to the artist's usual standard, but that there are other rarities that deserve to be heard. I figured that if Matt's rarities weren't very good, it would be stupid to release a double CD filled with them. Furthermore, I looked at the track listing and although some of the song titles were familiar, I didn't recognize them as songs that Matt had recorded for the albums that I already owned, so I took a chance and I'm glad that I did.



Matt Monro recorded a lot of tracks during his career that were never released at the time, it being Matt's policy to record plenty of spares each time he went into the studio, so that somebody else could choose what to release. As a result, plenty of in-issued tracks accumulated in record company vaults. This compilation is the result of a lot of work, spread over five years, to identify all the material and to select some of it for release. From previous experience of buying rarities collections,



This compilation shows that Matt could swing as well as croon, as it contains some great up-tempo songs as well as plenty of the ballads that became his trademark. Based on recordings by other singers, the most famous songs here include Try to remember, New York New York, Taking a chance on love, Floral dance, Blue moon, Making whoopee, Day in day out, Strike up the band, Till, Birth of the blues, In the still of the night and Lulu's back in town. Even among those songs, there's quite a variety of material. There's also a Spanish version of Can't take my eyes off you. Covers of soundtrack songs such as Alone am I (from Tomorrow never comes) and When I look in your eyes (from Dr Doolittle) are also featured. Some tracks are brief while others are live recordings but the vast majority are full-length studio recordings.



The final track of the collection is a medley of commercial jingles, the last of which extols the wonder of Woolworth. Even Matt's talents couldn't prevent that business from going into a long period of decline, during which it slowly but steadily lost market share to various rivals. Perhaps the wonder of Woolworth is that it survived as long is it did, with the last British Woolworth stores closing in January 2009. Even then, the Dorchester store was bought by its local manageress and re-opened under a slightly different name as Wellworth. (Maybe their jingle could be based on the Billy Connolly song, If it wasn't for your wellies.)



There are many brilliant tracks here and, according to the liner notes, there are over a hundred tracks that had to be left out. So there's enough quantity for two more double albums, but what about the quality? This compilation doesn't represent a noticeable drop in quality from the regular releases, so although these tracks presumably represent the best of the hitherto un-issued tracks, I expect that there's at least enough decent tracks left to fill one more double CD."