Search - Various Artists :: Fabulous Swing Collection

Great CD, the classics can't be beat.

Ken Johnson (big_kahuna_ken@hotmail | Hope International University, Fullerton, Ca | 10/14/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is one of the best in Swing that I have heard. I like it because it is the origenal recordings of the musicians. Yes the CD might not have the same perfect quality of the modern, remastered CDs, but that classic feel is unbeatable. This is the music that my grandparents listened to on Saturday night with an antique radio. This is the music that I want to listen to as well with that same feel."

Swing Revival Met "Fabulous"-ly On RCA Big Band Set

Anthony G Pizza | FL | 01/14/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"RCA's "Fabulous Swing Collection" was released to exploit a national big band revival craze, led by groups like Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Brian Setzer's Orchestra and in full swing (pardon the pun) in 1998. That revival has cooled but this generous (19 songs, 65 minutes) set remains among the era's better one-disc compilations (all songs from RCA family labels) for now third-generation fans.It may not have been all the classics revivalists danced to; two swingin' Louises (Prima and Jordan) recorded their jump, jive and wailin' big band tunes for Capitol and Decca Records, respectively. But many of the era's signature tunes are represented, sounding surprisingly warm in analog sound: Glenn Miller's anthemic "In The Mood," "String of Pearls," and "American Patrol," Benny Goodman's hard, wild swinging "Sing, Sing, Sing" (heard recently and famously in a cookie commercial but better in Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert), Cab Calloway's 1933 "Minnie The Moocher," which he performed nearly a half-century later in the first "Blues Brothers" film and here does in full-throated youthful yodel. You also get seminal sides from Charlie Barnet ("Cherokee"), Tommy Dorsey ("Marie," "Opus One"), and Duke Ellington ("Take The 'A' Train," "Cotton Tail"). While these songs swing sweeter than 1998's martini-and-cigar crowd might have liked, "Fabulous" may well be among the few big band CDs a new fan would need. Longtime fans have these classics on the artists' original LPs (or more studious sets like Columbia's "16 Most Requested Big Band Themes") and can probably swing past it."

Entertaining, but some tracks don't belong here

Elizabeth Rosenthal | 04/06/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The main problem with this CD is the coupling of great tracks with fairly awful ones.On the great side, you have Benny Goodman's rollicking "Don't Be That Way" and a song destined to kill live in "Sing Sing Sing." Tommy Dorsey's beautiful "Opus One" and lively "Boogie Woogie." Duke Ellington's signature "Take The 'A' Train." Artie Shaw's bouncing "Back Bay Shuffle." Glenn Miller's theme for jitterbuggers, "In The Mood." Then there are the disappointments. The whitebread "Casa Loma Stomp" by Glen Grey. The cringe-inducing "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" by Bunny Berigan. The extremely silly "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Fletcher Henderson, which is especially disillusioning to hear when one considers that Henderson supplied a good many of Benny Goodman's hard swinging band arrangements!We can at least be thankful that Kay Keiser and Hal Kemp didn't show up on this disc."