Search - Various Artists :: Unforgettable Instrumental Hits

Instrumentals That Made Musical History!

Dr. Glenn W. Briggs | KSC, Florida & Chengdu, China | 07/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is most difficult to adequately describe the overall quality and value of this album without getting redundant to the reviews of similar collections produced by this organization.



This is truly another spectacular value for the collector, in that we have seventy-five superlative selections for the total price of $11.99. Folks, that is about a nickel per song, and about what you would have popped into the juke box when some of these songs were originally recorded!



Now, every selection is the original recording, and many of these are instrumentals that made musical history, as they are "standards" that have stood the test of time. In terms of instrumental variety, simply matchless. You can be lulled away from the computer or TV screens by the magic of "Ebb Tide," "Stardust," or Mantovani's incredible "Charmaine," just for starters. If you want trend-setters that will get your toes tapping, how about "Hot Toddy," "Sugar Blues," or Buddy Morrow's "Night Train?" Freddy Martin's "Piano Concerto in B-Flat" brings back some powerful memories of the great big bands.



Yes, the wonderous variety and transfer quality of these pieces will captivate listeners from any era. There are several songs by Glenn Miller and Leroy Anderson who were absolute virtuosos across many decades. Even my children listen to these, and in fact, my initial order of the CDs included a set for my sister.



No, this is not an opportunity for a balance of value and pleasure that you will want to miss. There are not many values like this left out there."

I understand about public domain recordings, but... geez...

Kimba W. Lion | the East Coast | 12/16/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I know that in Europe it's legal, for the moment at least, to copy old records to CD and sell them. One would hope, however, that people going to the trouble of making and selling the CDs would put a little effort into producing a product they could be proud of. Some of these tracks sound like they couldn't even be bothered to clean the fuzz off the record player needle. Most of the records they used sound severely worn. Other tracks sound like bad MP3s. Some suffer from amateurishly applied noise reduction; others have no noise reduction at all. It's really a slapped-together collection of records found at the local junk store.



Not that the music involved is junk--not at all. (Even though some of these aren't even instrumentals.) If you miss hearing these tracks since your local Music Of Your Life station went to brokered religious programs, you'll likely put up with the serious sonic flaws. One of the advantages of Public Domain --that's rapidly being taken away from us-- is that a collection like this can be put together that would be practically impossible to do otherwise.



And that's why I'll keep this collection, even though I know that they could have done much better without too much time and effort."