The Essential Lena Horne -- Remastered 2 CD Set (Playing Disc 1)
Lena Horne
2008 Columbia Legacy Masterworks
A SUPERB COMPILATION, GORGEOUSLY RE-MASTERED!! June 30, 2011
By Ronnie in Weho
Format:Audio CD
Lena was an RCA artist from 1955 to 1962, and then again later in the early 70s. This set is very wisely chosen from her recordings at RCA, with a generous 39 selections, all re-mastered brilliantly, to bring out the best sound. Besides her two live albums, also on RCA and released as a double CD, At the Waldorf Astoria / At the Sands, this is the perfect choice to sample Lena's incredible singing style. For the true Lena-philes, it contains a gift of FOUR songs given their FIRST appearance on CD, and which were extremely rare to find even on records: The following selections appear for the first time on CD:
If You Can Dream (recorded January 20, 1956 with Lennie Hayton and His Orchestra)
Give Me Love (recorded June 13, 1958)
Push de Button (JAMAICA) (recorded August 27, 1957) with Neil Hefti, His Orchestra and Chorus
Ain't It The Truth (JAMAICA) (recorded August 27, 1957) with Neil Hefti, His Orchestra and Chorus .
Take It Slow, Joe (JAMAICA) (recorded August 27, 1957) with Neil Hefti, His Orchestra.
The three JAMAICA songs are DIFFERENT versions from the RCA Cast Album JAMAICA--and I think all three are even better versions than on the cast album. "Take It Slow, Joe" finally sounds like the real "Lena Nightclub song" it was meant to be!
Is Lena's "The Man I Love" on this compilation--(from Live At The Sands) accompanied only by her husband's piano--the BEST VERSION EVER? The "always surprising Cole Porter" (as Lena said in her spoken introduction (on the record album only)) to the live Porter Medley contained here is both surprising AND SUBLIME, ending with (the BEST VERSION EVER?!) of "It's Alright With Me."
Track Listing
DISC 1:
1. Stormy Weather
2. Good-For-Nothin' Joe
3. I An't Got Nothin' But the Blues
4. Where or When [From Babes in Arms]
5. How Long Has This Been Going On
6. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) [From The Sky's the Limit]
7. What Is This Thing Called Love?
8. Love Me or Leave Me
9. Let Me Love You
10. Mad About the Boy
11. From This Moment On [From Out of This World]
12. Love Is the Thing
13. If You Can Dream [From Meet Me in Las Vegas]
14. It's Love [From Wonderful Town]
15. Summertime [From Porgy and Bess]
16. New Fangled Tango [From Happy Hunting]
17. That Old Feeling
18. Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home [From St. Louis Woman]
19. Mood Indigo/I'm Beginning To See the Light
20. How's Your Romance/After You/Love of My Life/It's All Right with Me
DISC 2:
1. Just One of Those Things
2. Honeysuckle Rose
3. Ain't It De Truth [From Jamaica]
4. Give Me Love [From I, Mobster]
5. Someone to Watch Over Me
6. Push de Button [From Jamaica]
7. Speak Low [From One Touch of Venus]
8. Rules of the Road, The
9. You Don't Have to Know the Language
10. Napoleon [From Jamaica]
11. At Long Last Love
12. Concentrate on You
13. Take It Slow, Joe [From Jamaica]
14. Ride on a Rainbow/Never Never Land/I Said No/Some People, A
15. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
16. Man I Love, The
17. Watch What Happens [From The Umbrellas of Cherbourg]
18. I Will Wait for You [From The Umbrellas of Cherbourg]
19. Stormy Weather