Search - The Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, Kate Smith :: The War Years

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08/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Don't bother with this set if you're looking for quality sound reproduction of the music of the war years. Since it first came out in 1993 there have been other releases which not only have superior sound, eliminating much of the hiss and pop, but which give you only hit versions of the songs in question.



In this 4-disc set it's a mix and match when it comes to original hit renditions. For example, in disc one tracks 1 to 4 and 6 to 9 were all hits for the artists concerned, but on This Is Worth Fighting For the acknowledged 1942 hit belonged to Jimmy Dorsey, not The Ink Spots. Also, for (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover there were five hit versions in 1942 - Glenn Miller, Kay Kyser, Kate Smith, Jimmy Dorsey, and Sammy Kaye - any one of which would have been preferable to that by Dick Todd, a Canadian artist who had six major hits from 1940 to 1953 - but this was not one of them.



The same kind of thing is evident in each of the other three discs as well. For track 1 on disc 2, Carl Grayson did do the vocal, but the credited artist was Spike Jones & His City Slickers. And while everything else here relates to WW II, the inclusion of Sound Off (The Duckworth Chant} is a little out of place since it came out in 1951 [or was that included because of the Korean War?].



There are liner notes [by David Lennick], but this Canadian-produced set just does not stand the test of time with respect to sound clean-up. Do it over InterSound, and this time do it properly."