Search - Jane Froman :: Jane Froman On Capitol

This is the best recording of an almost forgotten singer.

Mitch | 08/23/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of the four CD's currently available this recording is the best. The others' sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, but JANE FROMAN, THE CAPITOL RECORDINGS sounds as if it was recorded yesterday by comparison.The true tragedy of Jane Froman, aside from becoming an almost lifelong invalid from a USO plane crash in Lisbon bay, is that she will be remembered, probably, solely for her movie biography. It was told, in a somewhat less than documentary fashion, by 20th Century Fox in 1952 as a Susan Hayward vehicle.While I always thought of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin as Cole Porter and Irving Berlin singers, Jane Froman was the Rodgers and Hart singer for me. She performed with a beauty from that beautiful bygone era of those two writers of ethereal songs. It evokes the times which Ken Burns conjured in his documentary of the radio age, THE EMPIRE OF THE AIR. It speaks of indigo skies and city lights, an age when people drank cocktails and danced to which F. Scott Fitzgerald referred as "yellow cocktail music."Frankly, I was afraid Jane Froman had become something of a forgotten singer. Or this was true until her recordings made at Capitol Records were re-released by Collector's Choice Music.Her heartbreaking rendition of Youmans' and Eliscu's "More Than You Know" makes her classical training obvious. She has one of those voices, instantly recognizable and never forgotten. Idioms like chanteuse, virtuoso, and coloratura could all be used to describe her contralto voice.Some may consider Froman an acquired taste. She is, I suppose, both such a taste and ---once acquired --- such an exquisitely savored one. But I thought it was rather poetically justified, however maudlin his sentiment sounds, that Robert W. Rice, writing in the liner notes, ends with, "The voice of Jane Froman was stilled on April 22, 1980."And what a voice!"

'i'll walk alone' AND 'you'll never walk alone'!

M. farrell | sherman oaks, california USA | 08/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"....sounds like a conflict doesn't it....but it's not...it's actually a perfect way to describe one of the greatest survivors who most of us have never heard of. i remember seeing her musical bio 'with a song in my heart' years ago but i never really got it then....i faintly heard of the name 'jane froman'....but then i got lucky...i hung around this world long enough to see it on cable one night and now i can't stop watching it. i also must've fallen in love with susan hayward along the way. yeah, i know..i suffered a lot. susan hayward was so outstanding as the star of that film you just would not allow your mind to accept the fact that susan hayward wasn't sing one single note.....it was jane froman's voice..it even says so after the opening credits.....but who watches that stuff...you gotta get the popcorn and watch the movie....now i am sitting here and there's susan hayward and even though i know that jane froman is doing the vocal dubbing....i still want to believe it's all susan...and i do! ain't movies great? now i'm starting to listen as well as watch and i hear what jane froman is all about...her humanity....and how she remained alive when everyone else around her said 'pass'....her voice that not only haunts you long after you've heard this cd, but while you're still listening to it! you see, jane froman....got up from a terrible fall in life and walked, in her own magnificent manner, found out that when she stood up for herself and for what she believed in about herself and how she not only survived that plane crash outside of lisbon in the very early part of the forties but that she could possibly go back and make it there this time and thrill audiences as she had never even dreamed she could have in those dark days and nights of her existence and really live life now that she knew how precious it was (she stayed with us until l980) and what a great lesson she taught, if you're willing to listen, and so the title to this review really says it all: it's not a conflict...it's not saying two different things....just one. it's easy to figure it out. jane froman did it and she had a lot of terrible interruptions going on around her and within her...but she got it. and maybe, in our being able to rediscover her today....thru cds, maybe that was her gift to us. and still is."

A superb collection for her fans

Dennis J. Pauly | Evanston, IL USA | 04/16/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thanks to Collectors Choice for compiling this collection of Froman recordings. Taken from her albums and her singles in the 1950s this is a great anthology of what Jane was singing in on her television show. Excellent sound and very nice artwork."