Search - Vaughn Monroe :: The Night Is Young

Monroe Classics That Need To Be Heard Again

Daniel Mugan | Little Neck, New York United States | 03/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In case you don't know it, and to be up-front, I am a big Vaughn Monroe fan. Therefore, anything that I write about him is not from an unbiased base. That said, at least I try to be objective and will never assert that Monroe always chose the most suitable material for recording or was given songs that do not deserve to be heard by anyone - even unabashed fans like myself. But it does mean that in this collection of songs, which is a follow-up to an earlier British release entitled, "The Vaughn Monroe Collection," there are some real gems that are worth listening. In this two disc album, are a number of tunes extracted from previous album collections including the old 45 rpm versions of "On The Moon Beam", "Silver Lining Songs", "The Cole Porter Songbook" and the "Rogers and Hart Songbook", and tribute to Victor Herbert, among others. Outstanding among these I would suggest are a fine rendtion of "Begin The Beguine", "What Is This Thing Called, Love", a very tender offering of "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" and a version of "Don't Fence Me In" that easily rivals Bing Crosby's hit of so many years ago. The two songs sung with Patrice Munsel, "Falling In Love With Love" and "With A Song In My Heart" will leave you humming or whistling for the rest of the day. In addition to these fine songs, there are seveal western songs which suits Monroe's singing range - I would mention "Pony Express" and the prophetic, "No Range to Ride Anymore" and a few which do not fit into any specific category but range from the romantic(The Night Is Young), to the military (Old Soldiers Never Die and Sound Off!) If I have one criticism to make of these new releases of Vaughn Monroe's recordings, it is that there is a tendency to repeat the same tunes from one CD to another. Any serious collector of Monroe's recordings will find here tunes that have appeared on other CD's including "Take It Jackson" "Shine On Harvest Moon" and "The MoonWas Yellow" to mention but a few. From the top of my head I can think of a half dozen Monroe recordings that appear on none of the CD's currently available to the public. Such fine songs as "Mexicali Trail", "Beware My Heart"- both sung incidentally by Monroe in his film appearances, "Sunny Boy" and "There She Goes", as well as "Marionette", "A Senorita's Boquet" and the "Melancholy Minstrel" among others. Oh, well, maybe some CD company will take note of these comments and release them sometime in the future. To end on a postive note - mention needs to be made of two excellent instrumentals on this CD and I refer here to "Indian Summer" and "Toyland" which very much have the Glen Miller feel in their arrangements and performance. regretfully.both are available on other CDs. Happy Listening!"