All the forties and fifties hits in one collection
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 11/25/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Not before time, here is a compilation that includes all of Vera Lynn's important tracks from the forties and fifties in one collection including We'll meet again, Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye, Wishing, It's a lovely day tomorrow, A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, Yours, That lovely weekend, I don't want to set the world on fire, White cliffs of Dover, Be like the kettle and sing, Auf weiderseh'n sweetheart (an American number one hit), Forget me not, The homing waltz, My son my son (a British number one hit) and Vera's first solo recording, the oddly-titled Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire. I have carefully compared this set with my other compilations of Vera's music for Decca and while there plenty of wonderful songs that aren't included here (so I can`t dispose of Forces Sweetheart: 49 Original Mono Recordings 1936-1952 or Decca years 1936-1960), all the essentials are. The only minor quibble is the omission of the original 1937 version of Harbour lights, although a re-recording of that song is included.
While I can see that some people may be hesitant to buy a 5-CD set, it is a budget collection and it's a bargain at the price. Not only does this set represent great value price-wise, but it contains all the classic songs, including both the original versions and fifties re-recordings of Yours and We'll meet again. Four of the CD's here are taken from the Decca vaults except for one track on CD 4. CD 3 is the odd one out and it needs some explaining.
The first nine tracks on CD 3 are credited to the Polydor label and are dated 1960, the year in which Vera left Decca. I haven't heard these particular recordings before and I'd been under the impression that Vera switched to a label that is now part of EMI after leaving Decca. It seems that she recorded some tracks for Polydor (now, like Decca, part of Universal) in between. Anyway, they are most enjoyable and include covers of great songs, several of which should be familiar to fans of forties / early fifties music. Young at heart (on CD 4) is also credited to Polydor but is dated 1961, though it may also have been recorded in 1960.
The remaining eleven tracks on CD 3 date from 1979 and 1981, after Vera left the EMI group. It seems that Vera recorded enough material to fill two albums, as a 21-track budget compilation Thank You for the Music was released some years ago on Pulse, a British budget label. So again, I am remiss in not knowing that Vera continued her recording career for at least four years longer than I'd hitherto thought. Based on the track listing for that compilation, eight of the tracks here were among the 21 there, but three tracks (Room five hundred and four, One day I'll fly away, One voice) were not, so dedicated fans may want this collection anyway for these three tracks even if they've got the Pulse CD. So CD 3 is made up exclusively of material that I not only hadn't heard before buying this set, but didn't even know existed. Of course, Vera had recorded some of the songs for other labels and even where she hadn't, I was already familiar with most of the songs by other artists. Nevertheless, this CD certainly gives added value to the set from my perspective.
The remaining CD's, as indicated earlier, focus entirely on Vera Lynn's period at Decca. While two songs exist in two different versions each as already mentioned, there's also a three-song medley among the 100 tracks, so the 100 songs in the title is correct. Because I already had two double CD's and a triple CD of Vera's Decca material, I had most of these tracks already, but there are a few that I didn't have and in any case I didn't have them all in one compilation.
This, then, is the strongest collection yet released of Vera Lynn's music, containing all the essentials and much else besides."
Great music for all .
Alvah D. Kuykendall | New Braunfels , TX | 04/13/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This set is a gold mine of wonderful melody and nostalgia . Ms. Lynn is simply the very best in singing the songs we know and love . Again , this set is a treasure ."
