Search - Russ Morgan :: Best of

Here We Go Again

Paul Yohe | 09/25/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In keeping with my favorite lament - "best of" compilations that proceed to leave out legitimate top hits while filling the album with minor or non-hits - MCA does the same with Russ Morgan, who led one of the most successful big bands of the 1940s and early 50s.



On this CD exactly half the 24 selections are Top 40 hits, although I have to admit that some of those are among his very best. Like his two # 1 hits - Cruising Down The River and Forever And Ever, both in 1949. Also here are Dogface Soldier, a #30 in 1955 from the film To Hell And Back - the story of America's most decorated war hero Audie Murphy - and the original You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You, written and performed by Russ in 1946 (# 14 pop) and which, of course, Dean Martin took to new heights in 1965.



There's nothing wrong with any of the other selections (which includes his theme song Does Your Heart Beat For Me?) but I wish MCA would come out with a volume 2 including some [all?] of the other 21 Top 40 charters he gave us. Such as Goodnight, Wherever You Are and There Goes That Song Again (both 1944), Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! [with Connie Boswell in 1946), Sunflower and The Johnson Rag in 1949, and Sentimental Me from 1950.



Some liner notes would be appreciated as well (this has nothing in that regard), and when printing the contents, try not to use a purple background that almost makes it impossible to read the upper half of the list! All in all, just not a very well thought out compilation."