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The powers that be at Capitol-EMI haven't been as thorough with their Peggy Lee reissues as they have been with, say, June Christy (a much less commercially successful artist), not to mention Frank Sinatra or Nat "King" Cole. Luckily, in 2009, the DRG label saw fit to put out domestic U.S. reissues of the previously unavailable THE MAN I LOVE and JUMP FOR JOY, from 1957 and 1958 respectively, complete with two bonus tracks each and informative liner notes by JAZZ SINGING author Will Friedwald. THE MAN I LOVE represented the singer's triumphant return to Capitol Records after a hiatus of five years and is considered by some to be her single greatest album. Frank Sinatra himself was instrumental in bringing Lee back home, and his involvement with this important session extended to actually conducting the Nelson Riddle arrangments in addition to being producer. And what arrangments they are! It's no secret that Riddle, who worked extensively with Sinatra and Nat "King" Cole, among others, was the finest popular arranger of his or any other generation. The musical settings on THE MAN I LOVE all aim for something grand, and in some cases, like Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Something Wonderful" or Harold Arlen's "Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe," they are highly dramatic. Of course, this being Peggy Lee, who was a singer of great artistry, none of these performances are overwrought or bathetic. It is uncanny how she inhabits tunes like "Please Be Kind" or "Then I'll Be Tired Of You," much like the great actress she was, revealing one face and then another in 12 self-portraits. Singer, arranger, and conductor outdo themselves on Jerome Kern's "The Folks Who Live On The Hill," which closes the album in one sweeping Aaron Copland-like moment.