Search - Pied Pipers :: Dreams from the Sunny Side of the Street

Perhaps the best harmonizing of the 1940s--and what music!

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 06/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Pied Pipers were one of the very few truly great harmonizing groups of the 1940s. The group consisted of the great Jo Stafford and three other men including, at various times, Billy Wilson, Chuck Yokum and Hal Hopper. They worked with the greatest solo vocalists and musicians of their time including Tommy Dorsey, Johnny Mercer, Connie Haines and even Frank Sinatra.



The songs on this rich two CD set are enchanting to listen to and they harmonize so well! I was thrilled to listen to it. This is also a two CD set which gives you a total of fifty (yes, fifty) songs the group produced so it's a very thorough retrospective.



The sound is very good, even on a portable CD player; there is little if any of the original hisses and pops that must have been on their 78 rpm records of the day. Tall Order Mastering did a great job of digital processing on these two CDs!



There is a wide variety of songs here, too. There's the romantic slow ballad by Gershwin entitled "Embraceable You," and there are silly songs as well including "Mairzy Doats." I particularly liked "Embraceable You," "Jamboree Jones," "Old Man River," "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" and "The Trolley Song." It's also fantastic that the two CD set includes The Pied Pipers singing with Frank Sinatra on songs like "You Might Have Belonged To Another" and "Let's Get Away From It All." Who could ask for anything more? SMILES



The liner notes include a nice picture on the front of the quartet vocalizing and there is an extensive essay about the history of the group by Ossie Dales.



I highly recommend this two CD set for fans of classic pop vocals, fans of The Pied Pipers (obviously), and even fans of the great vocalists like Frank Sinatra as well. It's a good value at the price because you get two CDs for your money and the sound quality is excellent. Who says older music has faded away? I sure don't! SMILES

"

A must have!

God's Will Know-it-all | Elko County, Nevada | 01/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This two-CD set has great songs, is of mostly very high quality, and is a bargain! Could have used a better photo on the cover ... but that's a very minor complaint."