This week’s American Idol made me realize that I am not nearly so well versed in the standards as I’d like to be. I was familiar with most of the songs the contestants chose, but I didn’t “know” them like I know too many rock and pop songs.
So, what are your favorite/must-have albums or box sets of standards? I should state at the outset that I’m not the biggest Frank Sinatra fan in the world, although admittedly most of my exposure to him has been from the latter portions of his career. I just never really liked how…New Jersey…his voice sounded. If the accent was a little less pronounced in his earlier days then I would probably take to it more, but on the whole I’d rather listen to Tony Bennett or Mel Torme.
I do love Lullabye of Broadway: the Best of Busby Berkeley at Warner Brothers, since it’s the best collection of Harry Warren tunes out there.
You already know Harry Warren’s songs, BTW, even if you don’t know his name. Harry never seems to get proper credit, but his music is as commonly performed today as any of the other composers of his era (if only for “That’s Amore”).
Otherwise, I usually like collections of composers. George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin are my favorites. Fred Astaire: Song and Dance Man is a particularly good collection of their works. That seems to be out of print, but there’s Top Hat: Hits from Hollywood.
A great place to start would be the **Ella Fitzgerald Songbook **series - where over a series of albums, she handles standards by most of the great composers. Easy to find and hailed by critics and fans - and, heck, it’s Ella.
Here is a link to the Amazon listing to the complete Songbook series - very expensive, but you can link from there to the individual CD’s, etc…
I can recommend 'Round Midnight, a two-disc set of Linda Ronstadt and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, for big band standards. It’s basically a compiliation of the three single albums Ronstadt did with Riddle - What’s New, Lush Life, and For Sentimental Reasons.
I don’t think you could go wrong with anything by Nat King Cole, either.
Harry Nilsson’s album A Little Touch of Schmlsson in the Night is a wonderful collection of old pop standards. The arrangements are by Gordon Jenkins, who did many of Sinatra’s arrangements. When I owned this on vinyl, I literally wore it out.
The best series of standards, IMHO is on the Verve label: 'S Wonderful and 'S Marvelous (Gershwin songbooks), Night and Day (probably my all-time favorite standards collection) and I Get a Kick Out of You (Cole Porter songbooks), My Funny Valentine** and We’ll Have Manhattan (Rodgers & Hart songbooks) and **Blue Skies and Cheek to Cheek (Irving Berlin songbooks). Great variety of singers from the Verve label: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Blossom Dearie, Dinah Washington, Joe Williams, Anita O’Day, Bing Crosby, and many more. All indispensable.
The **Capitol Sings** series is also quite good, especially if you’re interested in some of the great songwriters that are not quite so familiar to contemporary listeners: Jimmy McHugh, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Sammy Cahn, Frank Loesser, Harry Warren, and others. Really good stuff (and usually very generous–over 20 songs per disc).
The American Songbook Series from the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings distinguishes itself for offering very often the seminal version of songs. Though the recordings themselves show their age, they also cover an immense variety of artists and songwriters and are all worth getting as well. I believe this series is OOP, but should be easy to get used, and they’re all terrific as well (and also usually run over 70 minutes per CD).
If I had to pick my Top 5: Night and Day (Porter/Verve) Irving Berlin (Smithsonian) S’ Wonderful (Gershwin/Verve) My Funny Valentine (R&H/Verve) Stardust (Carmichael/Capitol)
This is what I came here to mention. They are by far, the most amazing collection of standards ever. I’ll be listening to these for the rest of my life.
I thought I would be the only one to list the Linda Ronstadt albums. I’ve always loved her, and it was a bit of a surprise to go to the mall in Cranbrook, BC way back in the 80s to get the new Linda Ronstadt record (yes, those big shiny black things) and find out it was… This kind of music I’d never heard before. (Well, my parents had some Sarah Vaughn records, but I didn’t listen to them.)
I listened to them after Linda, though. Kudos to her for doing an album of standards long before a lot of other pop singers jumped on the big band wagon. She brought me to an appreciation of another genre of music I might not have ever grown to love.
There are some fine, fine songs in the standards repetoire, and I’m awed by a lot of the very clever writing (e.g. But Not For Me).
(I hope Melinda Dolittle records an album of standards. She was BORN to sing that stuff!)