Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
Henry Mancini's response to the lounge-music fad whose beginnings coincided with his 1994 death is unknown, but his place near its center is hard to deny. The Days of Wine and Roses collects three CDs of often wonderful melodies (particularly on the composer's early work) and occasionally less-striking work-for-hire (the theme from What's Happening!). Irony aside, this box's soothing qualities and playful jazziness are worth investigating. --Rickey Wright

---

---

Disc 1:

1. Peter Gunn
2. Dreamsville
3. Slow & Easy
4. A Profound Gass
5. Walkin' Bass
6. My Manne Shelly
7. Blues For Mother's
8. Snowfall
9. Big Noise From Winnetka
10. Sing, Sing, Sing
11. Mr. Lucky
12. One Eyed Cat
13. Blue Satin
14. A Powdered Wig
15. High Time
16. The Second Time Around
17. Theme From 'The Great Imposter'
18. Rain Drops In Rio
19. Blue Mantilla
20. Moon River
21. Breakfast At Tiffany's
22. Holly
23. Experiment In Terror
24. Fluters' Ball
25. White On White

Disc 2:

1. Theme From 'Hatari'
2. Baby Elephant Walk
3. Just For Tonight (Vocal)
4. Days Of Wine And Roses (Vocal)
5. Too Little Time
6. Bachelor In Paradise
7. Charade (Vocal)
8. Latin Snowfall
9. The Pink Panther Theme
10. Royal Blue
11. It Had Better Be Tonight (Vocal)
12. Piano And Strings
13. Dear Heart (Vocal)
14. Soldier In The Rain
15. How Soon (Vocal)
16. A Shot In The Dark
17. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars
18. Come To The Mardi Gras
19. The Sweetheart Tree (Vocal)
20. The Great Race March (A Patriotic Medley)
21. Moment To Moment
22. Something For Sophia
23. We've Loved Before (Yasmin's Theme) (Vocal)
24. The Swing March
25. In The Arms Of Love (Vocal)
26. Cherokee (Indian Love Song)
27. Autumn Nocturne

Disc 3:

1. The Shadow Of Your Smile
2. Blue Hawaii
3. Two For The Road (Vocal)
4. Something For Audrey
5. French Provincial
6. A Quiet Happening
7. I Like The Look (Vocal)
8. Wait Until Dark
9. Nothing To Lose (Vocal)
10. Love Theme From 'Romeo And Juliet'
11. Theme From 'The Molly Maguires'
12. As Time Goes By
13. Whistling Away The Dark
14. Loos Of Love
15. Theme From 'Love Story'
16. All His Children
17. Mystery Movie Theme
18. Theme From 'The Mancini Generation'
19. Theme From 'The Thief Who Came To Dinner'
20. Can't Get Started
21. Ludmilla's Theme
22. Oklahoma Crude
23. Send A Little Love My Way (Vocal)
24. Theme From 'The Girl From Petrovka'
25. Theme From 'The White Dawn'
26. Bumper's Theme
27. What's Happenning!!
28. Silver Streak

Rating: - Just a passing breeze filled with memories.
This three CD box set covers the career of Henry Mancini. Mancini was one of the greatest composers of film and television scores. Mancini did a lot of soundtrack work, but he also recorded many non-soundtrack albums, sometimes featuring material he didn't compose himself. In fact, Mancini's biggest hit single, "Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet", was not composed by Mancini. Most of this music is instrumental, but there are some songs with lyrics sung by a chorus. This is a good sampling of the music of Henry Mancini.

---

Rating: - Cool set...
I've collected Mancini's work over the years and his music sounds real interesting and never be missed. This box set creates a retrospective or an entire anthology of tracks from his RCA years. What's missing on there are the catalog he did from Warner Bros among other labels.

The movie and tv themes are fanastic, the jazz cuts are superb with much space.

They'll never be another one, There is only one guy, one name.

---

Rating: - you must remember this
I got this set, used, at a public radio fundraiser,as a modest extravagance.It was mislabelled actually so I am still missing volume 3.Quibles.If you are at all romantic,this should be in your collection somewhere.True if you are a pre atomic purist, the tight strings and phrasing,the pop time structures on some pieces and short duration times on others are a trial, but the magic is there.

---

Rating: - Superb collection, but....
I used to think Henry Mancini was synonymous with schmaltz, but 1) I've aged and, in the process, developed an genuine appreciation for Mancini's marvelously nuanced and creative arrangements, and 2) now, in an era where any two-bit schmoe can knock out a modified nursery-rhyme on a Roland and it's called music, Mancini is elevated in the heirarchy of musical genius by comparison.

As others have aptly stated, this CD set is both an exercise in musical splendor and bloated. It's as if there were two Mancinis: the jazzman, building rich and timeless, emotion-laden tracks (like "Dreamsville"), and the muzuk-Mancini, full of gimmicky schlock, often sung by plastic voices and full of dated sentiments. Both Mancinis live on this set. As for myself, I'd be much happier with a shorter collection that distills the better stuff.

One inexcusable oversight: the song "Lujon" (heard on the "Sexy Beast" soundtrack, as well as remixes by Dmitri from Paris and the Black Mighty Orchestra, the latter found on the marvelous "Irma on Canvas" collection) that personifies early '60's glamour with its impossibly lush strings, is NOT on this set. Perhaps this is because it had not been created for a sountrack recording. Nevertheless, if you're looking for the perfect Mancini collection and, like me, prefer his classier and jazzier stuff, I'd check out other sets before settling on this one.

---

Rating: - cd one and two! cd three...nah, not really
I bought this three cd set because I wanted all the "must have" mancini, but couldn't find it all on one disk--so I took the plunge and bought these--haven't regretted for one day--Mancini is what he is--fell in love with him for "peter gunn" and "pink panther"--mainly bought the sets for these, but there a number of gems on these albums that make them well worth the price--my only complaint is it seems that the material gets weaker towards the third disk--definately some sub-par filler on these disks that go a little too far disco and quirky (weird whistles and whatnot)--stuff that ain't Mancini--I mean this guy did "moon river"!--I put these three in the changer on random and its three hours of summery, breezy music to listen to on the porch and drink frozen cocktails to--or maybe throw it on for that candlelit dinner--just great atmosphere--like I'm Carey Grant on the riviera--I pretty much guaruntee that you can't like all three albums through and through--but at least two-thirds of this stuff is pure lounge satisfaction