COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Conifer
WORKS: Great Film Songs
PERFORMER: Various
CATALOGUE NO: 75605 52283 2
From the other side of the pond comes You Must Remember This... Great Film Songs. Well, some of this I do indeed remember, but some I’m delighted to encounter for the first time.
The recording quality here is superior, but there is still the thrill of a vanished sound-world. Astaire and Rogers are here, as is Satchmo’s breathy rasp and Dorothy Lamour’s porcelain purity. Deanna Durbin’s chipmunk tones re-echo charmingly, as does Carmen Miranda’s ‘Aye-aye-aye-aye like you vairy much’. Helen Forrest sings as though doped with lust; when Eddie Cantor opens his mouth, the sun comes out; when Bing delivers ‘Moonlight Becomes You’, it’s like being caressed on a pillow. And Irene Dunne gives ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ an unusually delicate twist.