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Reviews (2)
09 February 2009
Essential for her fans.
Jessie Matthews was certainly one of the best and most interesting dancers in movies. She also had a fine and distinctive singing voice and was a great comic actress wih a charming personality and screen presence that always made her a complete joy to watch. And it should be no surprise to read that in the eyes of this fan, Jessie Matthews was also one of the great beauties of the screen.
There have been other fine compilations of her recordings on LP and CD, but "A Centenary Celebration" is the most comprehensive one I've seen. It includes many selections that are not often found on other releases. Some of these are her first recordings from 1926 on Columbia with The Prince of Wales Orchestra and from 1927 on Brunswick accompanied by Leslie Hutchinson on piano. All the expected hits from her movies are here, as well as some previously unissued material from the 1950's through the 1970's. Some selections described as "Previously unissued in sound format only" are actually just audio recordings of songs from some of her films. Some listeners may feel it is a bit misleading to list these as previously unissued, as most loyal fans would already possess copies of the films. But still, it is nice to have them included. And if some songs are from a particularly rare one of Jessie's films, such as "Life is Nothing without Music" (1947) it is especially nice to have them. There are other rare tracks included such as Jessie's recordings of selections from "Wild Rose", her 1942 London revival of Jerome Kern's "Sally".
The 2-CD set includes an insert containing complete discography information for all selections, plus a brief summary of her career, which nicely puts all the included recordings into their appropriate place in her chronology, whether it be film, stage production or recording session. One might wish the insert was larger and more substantial, with more information and pictures, but that is a small concern regarding this excellent CD set.
Highly recommended!
--- Richard Finegan
18 February 2009
Wild, wacky, weird and wonderful
If you liked the 1962 hit instrumental "Telstar" by The Tornadoes, purchased the 45, flipped it over and enjoyed the B-side "Jungle Fever", and wanted to hear more, so bought their album, liked it so much you still wanted to hear more and tracked down their other 45's (I eventually acquired all five of The Tornadoes' American 45's on the London label) and after all this time still want more this CD compilation is for you.
Here we have 60 tracks from producer Joe Meek's various groups, dated between 1959 and 1965. They all have Meek's unmistakable production sound, in fact so much so that after a while most listeners may not be able to, or indeed care to keep track of the actual groups' identities. They are all unique and unusual Joe Meek productions, almost all instrumentals.
Many rarities are included, such as rare stereo versions and even six previously unreleased selections. It would take years and a fortune to track down all these songs on their original 45's, so this collection is well worth the price.
The packaging includes an informative insert filled with fascinating historical and discographical information. All recording dates are here, along with original record label info. Also included are pictures, original 45 label and picture sleeve reproductions, ads and reviews. Detailed information on Joe Meek and his legendary eccentric but brilliant production, writing, arranging and engineering is provided, and makes great reading while listening to this wonderful collection.
Very highly recommended for fans of 1960's instrumentals who want something different from the standard fare on oldies radio stations.
---- Richard Finegan