Various: The Victory Collection: The Smithsonian Remembers When America Went To War - Disc 1 of 3 CD Track Listing

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Various The Victory Collection: The Smithsonian Remembers When America Went To War - Disc 1 of 3 (1995)
Originally Released May 23, 1995\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: This three-CD set is a well-conceived and executed collection of songs, spoken-word entertainment, interviews, and newscast transcriptions from 1941 through 1945, devoted to aspects of World War II and what life was like in the United States during the war. The three discs are divided up in broad thematic terms -- the first disc is the most entertaining, a selection of songs that are alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) angry, funny, and sardonic, from the defiant, topical pop/country-based work of Carson Robison ("It's Just a Matter of Time," "Plain Talk") to Jazz Gillum's "Wartime Blues" and "One Letter Home," which tell about the war as perceived by the Black community in Chicago. As topical songs, neither of those has the power of, say, "Key to the Highway," but they're still powerful performances -- and Big Bill Broonzy is playing guitar on both. Bluesmen Doctor Clayton ("Pearl Harbor Blues") and (John Lee) Sonny Boy Williamson ("Win the War Blues"), New Orleans trumpet player and jazz-band leader Wingy Manone ("Stop the War, The Cats Are Killing Themselves" -- the hottest jazz number here), parodist Spike Jones ("Little Bo Peep Has Lost Her Jeep"), Fats Waller ("That's What the Well-Dressed Man In Harlem Will Wear," from Irving Berlin's This Is the Army), Glenn Miller ("Pistol Packin' Mama"), Tony Pastor ("Obey Your Air Raid Warden"), the Four Clefs ("The V-Day Stomp"), and a lot more Carson Robison (who made a second career out of his morale-boosting, anti-Hitler anti-Japanese repertory) fill up Disc One. There's also one genuine oddity, a three-minute spoken-word track called "News of the World" by veteran Hollywood double-talk specialist Cliff Nazarro, which has its moment but isn't a quarter as funny as some of Nazarro's on-screen work in pictures like World Premiere. Disc Two is weighted toward softer, more directly sentimental pop sounds, such as "This Is Worth Fighting For" by Shep Fields (sung by Ken Curtis, later of the Sons of the Pioneers and the cast of Gunsmoke), "Counting the Days" and "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings" by Dinah Shore, Kate Smith's "God Bless America," and "Dear Mom" by Sammy Kaye. Country music, such as it is, is represented by Elton Britt's tremendously popular "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere," "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima" by the Sons of the Pioneers, and "The Last Page of Mein Kampf" by Texas Jim Robertson and the Pandhandle Ranchers. Also included, seemingly for no other reason than that it was available, is Al Goodman and His Orchestra's five-minute recording of Miklos Rozsa's "Spellbound," which the notes admit is only here because the film and the music were popular in 1945. As the set is limited to material in the RCA archive, we get Vaughn Monroe's version of "Rum and Coca Cola," not the Andrews Sisters' hit (owned by MCA). Disc Three, really the heart of the collection, is made up of news reports and radio transcriptions of speeches by Franklin Roosevelt, dating between September 3, 1939, when war was declared against Germany by England and France over Germany's invasion of Poland, intercut with the recorded recollections of reporters such as Ben Grauer, celebrities such as Margaret Whiting, and ordinary citizens as well, plus radio programs (Fibber McGee & Molly, etc.) and some silly-sounding dramatic re-creations. The greatest amount of time and depth is given over to recollections of the Irving Berlin stage musical This Is the Army -- the Jimmy Durante plug for the movie is very funny in its own right. This section comes off well, because it segues into a series of short talks by participants about the importance of songs to the G.I., and even the use (seldom talked about today) of American popular songs as a weapon against the morale of German soldiers. This 50-minute disc is heavily indexed, but the index points are not labeled or otherwise identified. The booklet is reasonably informative and well annotated, and it's refreshing to read an annotator conceding that they know little about an artist (Cliff Nazarro, in this case). The collection isn't as strong as it might have been, because the music is limited to RCA's holdings -- on their best boxes, the Smithsonian has the budget to license from numerous labels -- but it's as good as we're likely to see. -- Bruce Eder\n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nBruce Talbot (Compilation), Producer\n
This misc cd contains 23 tracks and runs 67min 43sec.
Freedb: 6b0fdd17
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