I want to get a cd of 40’s popular music. I went on Amazon and saw that there was a bunch available. It’s a new genre for me, so I don’t know which one would be a good choice.
I don’t want to get an expensive box set. Yet, anyway.
Suggest away!
also,
“Mr Sandman”. The famous one isn’t by the Andrews Sisters? I looked for their cds and didn’t see it. Was the popular version really by the Chordettes?
• GI Jukebox: Songs from World War II
• 16 Most Requested Songs of the 1940s
• Those Were Our Songs: Music of World War II
If you like big band swing from the 40’s, try some sort of greatest hits of the Glenn Miller Orchestra
If you like pop, look for hits by the Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, Sinatra, etc.
If you like Jump Blues - basically a standard blues-y progression, but played with a full orchestra - get “No Moe - Louis Jordan’s Greatest Hits”. Remember the big swing dancing revival from a couple of years ago? That CD is pretty much the bible for the bands that play that kind of music (back me up on this Big Bad Voodoo Lou)
If you like jazz, then at the time, be-bop was the hot thing, and I would strongly recommend Bird’s Best Bop a collection of Charlie Parker’s be-bop tunes.
Just off the top of my head, but a good start.
If you like big band swing, the names you can’t go wrong with are Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller. There are others, but they’re usually acknowledged as the best. There are literally dozens of big band swing compilation albums out there to choose from.
While big band was going on in the mainstream and cutting across racial divides, the coolest jazz musicians were inventing bebop in after-hours New York clubs: a wild, fast, frenetic form of jazz that was meant for LISTENING, not dancing. Charlie Parker was the best sax player of the bebop era (and perhaps of all time). WordMan is not lying.
Jump blues is awesome, and Louis Jordan was the best of that era. The missing link between big band swing of the ‘40s and rock ‘n’ roll of the ‘50s, jump blues featured blues-based song structures, rockin’ guitars, swingin’ horn sections, and often funny or sexually-charged lyrics. Wynonie Harris was another important jump blues singer in the late '40s, but everyone goes back to Louis Jordan. Like WordMan said, this stuff was probably the biggest influence on the “swing revival” of the late '90s.
we have a lot of swing music already - DUke Ellington, Bassie, etc.
I am mainly looking for ‘fun’ sing-y stuff.
It all started off with us singing Mr Sandman to our baby. From there, we started to sing Rum and Coca Cola… and now my repetoire of 40’s songs is running out.
Thanks for the suggestions!
There was an excellent 4 CD collection called Sentimental Journey that Rhino records put out. Unfortunately, I think it’s been discontinued, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find copies still around online.
My mistake. I just checked and all four CD’s are still in print. Amazon also has used copies of all four. Here’s the songs on them:
Vol 1
Vol 2
Vol 3
Vol 4
Yes, the Chordettes had the famous version of that song. They did some rock ‘n’ roll later on, but started out as a female barbershop quartet.