This wonderful compilation, with 79 minutes of music, is a great introduction to long gone names whose music still sparkles after many decades.
What we have here is some really fun and entertaining music, even from the times when ballads were supposed to be sad (Al Jolson chest-beating became unintentionally funny). The album opens with the (then) young and awful-voiced Marlene Dietrich singing her signature song "Falling In Love Again", which sounds much, much different than her later versions (later she honed it to a perfection, here she was just a young German woman who was falling in and out of pitch!), and what follows is really glowing with humour. Listeners will recognise Cab Calloway's "Minnie The Moocher" from the "Blues Brothers" movie. Also of note is the great Paul Robeson and Fred Astaire, the lovely, happy "Louise" by Maurice Chevalier, the breathtaking vocal acrobatics of The Mills Brothers and Ink Spots and the wonderful "Leaning On A Lamp Post" by George Formby.
