Search - Various Artists :: Nipper's Greatest Hits - The 20's

10 STARS: WE NEED MORE LIKE THIS!!!

Pope | Wisconsin, United States | 01/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was so glad when this CD came in the mail today. I love it! To be able to hear the **actual** recordings people were listening to 80 years ago is phenomenal. Sure the sound quality is not the greatest and the recordings abound with surface noise of all sorts. But that only adds to the pleasure of listening to this CD. Its just as if we were listening to the old victrola itself! (Remember, the 78's that we are familiar with hadn't even been perfected yet). Consider further that many of the recordings on this disc were made without the use of any electricity. They are all a lot nicer to listen to than most of the garbage that has come out of the record companies in the last 20-30 years.Hats off to RCA for releasing a collection like this. Its so wonderful to hear what popular music was like so many years ago. We need more collections like this! Maybe some with even earlier recordings!?!"

This is the BEE'S KNEES!

Pope | 02/11/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"23 skidoo to the checkout button and shimmy away with this one kiddy! All the flappers are shakin their gams to this one! All you need is a speakeasy and some hooch and you'll be the bee's knees too! The opening track "Let's Misbehave" got me hooked on this CD. "Collegiate" makes a girl bob her hair and a guy grab his Racoon coat. "Charleston" will have you knocking your knees in notime. About half of the tracks are acoustical recordings (imagine that -- no electricity involved whatsoever! It's made by the impact of their voices on the record ALONE!) and the other half are "electrical" made after about 1925. I bought this when it hit the market several years ago and it remains one of my favorites."

For real nostalgia buffs only

tcbnyc | 08/03/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Nipper's Greatest Hits--The 20's is a very good CD for those who are interested in music of a by-gone era. It probably isn't for the average listener--the typical music buyer today would probably not have heard of very many of the artists represented, but might know some of the songs on the CD--"I Wanna Be Loved By You" by Helen Kane, the original voice of Betty Boop was also featured on an episode of Gilligan's Island (Ginger sang it). Most people would recognize the names Maurice Chevalier ("Every Little Breeze Seems to Whisper Louise" is on this collection), Eddie Cantor ("Makin' Whoopie") and Fanny Brice ("My Man") because their names live on in the movie world. As well, some names are still famous in the music world today--Duke Ellington ("Black and Tan Fantasy") and George Gershwin ("Rhapsody in Blue"). Some names are almost forgotten today but deserve to be remembered--Paul Whiteman ("Whispering! ", "Charleston" and leader of the orchestra behind George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue") was one of the first 'big bands' with a modern sound that still stands up today alongside better known bands of the 30's and 40's.The only downside of this, and the other CDs in the Nipper series is that it only features RCA artists. Fortunately, RCA was the biggest label in the 1920s and made most of the hits of that era so that's not really a problem for this, the earliest era represented in the Nipper series so far. Of course, another problem is the sound, far from the hi-fi we are used to today. All selections on this CD were recorded in the 1920s, with primitive techniques (magnetic tape was still 20 years in the future) but it is remarkable what can be done with technology. These tracks sound better today than they did 70 years ago when they were first recorded!I would consider this to be a very good buy for the money, but only if you are interested! in the music of the long-past. A must-buy, however, for D! Js, for all the dances of the 20's--"Lucky Lindy" by Nat Shilkret, "The Varsity Drag" by George Olsen, "Charleston" by Paul Whiteman, among others."