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Time-Life Treasury of Christmas
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Bing! His Legendary Years, 1931 to 1957
: :Bing Crosby was a laidback swinger, and this four-CD box spends a fair amount of its time reminding us of an era when the emphasis was as much on the swing as on the lazy-lidded attitude. Never as angst-ridden as Sinatra could be, and consequently not as multilayered, Crosby is nonetheless not a singer to be missed. The quarter century surveyed here includes cultural touchstones ('White Christmas,' 'Don't Fence Me In') and obscurities. All deserve to be heard by fans of the American song book and stylish performances. --Rickey Wright
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The Complete Capitol Singles Collection
: :Each song on this 96-cut collection is wonderful. And the Capitol years were when Sinatra's fullest voice was used on material by the best (Arlen, Porter, Van Heusen, Cahn, Styne). But a purist will miss the narrative that was so special in the original albums. Records such as This is Sinatra, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, and Only the Lonely were among the first concept albums in pop music. If you're used to hearing 'Three Coins in the Fountain' after 'I've Got the World on a String,' this relatively random cornucopia--though full ...
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The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books
:Album Description:16 CD limited edition box set release to commerorate her 75th birthday. :This 16-CD set collects all of Ella Fitzgerald's Songbooks, a monumental tribute to the American popular song and its greatest composers, recorded for Verve between 1956 and 1964. There is likely no other singer possessed of the mix of talents that Fitzgerald brought to the project, a combination of sheer vocal technique, creativity in phrasing and rhythm, and fidelity to lyrics and intent. The sheer scale of the project contributes to its value, for Fitzgerald went far beyond ...
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The Patsy Cline Collection
: essential recording:The Country Music Foundation offers 104 songs--more than four hours of music--even though Patsy Cline died at 30 after less than a decade of recording. Given the wavering quality of her later string-laden work, four CDs might be excessive, but this set comprehensively follows Cline from upstart country boomer to pop diva. She could take charge of a song from day one, as the two 1954 radio transcriptions prove. On her vibrant late-1950s work, she moves from honky-tonk and rockabilly to soft ballads in commanding fashion. 'Walkin After Midnight,' ...
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Edith Piaf: L'Intégrale (Complete) / 20 CD / 413 Chansons
from: EMI Music France
:Album Details:2007 Reissue of a Mammoth 40th Anniversary 20 CD Box Set Released in Conjunction with the Arrival in Theatres of the Motion Picture Biography 'la Mome', Directed by Olivier Dahan. Includes 413 Recordings, of which Seven Are Previously Unreleased and 77 Various Rarities and Alternative Takes. The Discs Include her Legendary Concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1956 and 57.
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The Music of Johnny Mathis - A Personal Collection (Repackaged)
: :Mathis was among the singers who, in the '60s and '70s, churned out an album every few months--often made up largely of the same recent chart hits his peers (Andy Williams, Jerry Vale) were covering. Despite the presence of 'Feelings,' however, this four-CD box is low on chaff and high on the wispy romanticism of hits such as 'Chances Are,' 'Misty,' and 'It's Not for Me to Say.' --Rickey Wright
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Have A Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box
from: Rhino / Wea
: :When this material originally resurfaced in an earlier Rhino-celebrates-the-'70s program, many rock scribes contorted themselves into revisionist pretzels: this isn't so bad, they argued--none too convincingly. There'll be none of that here: much of the music on this colossal box set is godawful. The world doesn't miss the likes of Sammy ('Chevy Van') Johns and Sammy ('Candy Man') Davis. Or at least it doesn't miss the records they cut during the decade of disaster flicks and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. That said, this elaborate box is something to behold. The lovingly compiled ...
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1940's Christmas
: :When this material originally resurfaced in an earlier Rhino-celebrates-the-'70s program, many rock scribes contorted themselves into revisionist pretzels: this isn't so bad, they argued--none too convincingly. There'll be none of that here: much of the music on this colossal box set is godawful. The world doesn't miss the likes of Sammy ('Chevy Van') Johns and Sammy ('Candy Man') Davis. Or at least it doesn't miss the records they cut during the decade of disaster flicks and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. That said, this elaborate box is something to behold. The lovingly compiled ...
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Fifty Years: The Artistry Of Tony Bennett (5CD)
: :When this material originally resurfaced in an earlier Rhino-celebrates-the-'70s program, many rock scribes contorted themselves into revisionist pretzels: this isn't so bad, they argued--none too convincingly. There'll be none of that here: much of the music on this colossal box set is godawful. The world doesn't miss the likes of Sammy ('Chevy Van') Johns and Sammy ('Candy Man') Davis. Or at least it doesn't miss the records they cut during the decade of disaster flicks and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. That said, this elaborate box is something to behold. The lovingly compiled ...
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