This volume of Capitol/EMI's Legends Of The 20th Century profiles Nat King Cole, tracing his work as a jazz pianist and a massively popular singer. Both sides of Cole's talent are explored in this 22-track album, which includes "Nature Boy," "Unforgettable," "When I Fall In Love" and other vocal hits as well as jazz works like "Straighten Up And Fly Right," "When I Take My Sugar To Tea," "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" and "Body And Soul." A fine sampling of highlights from both of Cole's careers.

This Live at the Circle Room date has been issued before, but the bonus material of the same band from a later date makes this an extra special set. For starters, the Circle Room, in the Hotel La Salle in Milwaukee, was the town's premier jazz spot in 1946. The first 17 tracks on this CD come from four performances between September 21 and 25 of that year. Cole, with Oscar Moore and Johnny Miller, had begin his singing career in earnest, and playing in front of a lounge crowd seemed like the most natural thing in the world for him. Indeed, as bottles click, and the periodic murmur of voices in the foreground appear in the mix, the listener will be transported into Cole's magical space. From Ellington's "C Jam Blues," to "I'm in the Mood for Love," "I'm Thru With Love," and "Sweet Georgia Brown," the Cole trio kicks it with grace and elegance.

In 1954, Capitol Records released the 10" LP collection Eight Top Pops, compiling eight songs that had appeared on singles by Nat King Cole during 1952. The first two, "Somewhere Along the Way" and "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," were the biggest hits, both reaching number eight in Billboard. "Because You're Mine," Cole's cover of the Mario Lanza movie song (done in a far more relaxed style than Lanza's, of course), was also a major hit, reaching number 16. "Faith Can Move Mountains" and "The Ruby and the Pearl" were somewhat less successful, but still lodged in the Top 30, as did the B-sides "Funny (Not Much)" and "I'm Never Satisfied." The only one of the eight songs not to earn a chart placing was "A Weaver of Dreams," the B-side of the single "Wine, Women and Song." In 1963, Capitol expanded Eight Top Pops into the 12" LP Top Pops by adding two tracks at the end of either side of the original release. These four songs all came from an EP recorded by Cole in 1954, on which he covered hits by other performers, including Doris Day's "If I Give My Heart to You," the De Castro Singers' "Teach Me Tonight," and Perry Como's "Papa Loves Mambo".

A unique recording by two seasoned jazz vocalists and musicians, Rebecca Becky Kilgore and Nicki Parrott, beautifully showcasing their original style and flair with the American popular songbook.

Capitol Records took This Is Sinatra!, a compilation album, into the Top Ten in early 1957, which probably prompted the label to assemble a similar collection, This Is Nat "King" Cole, later in the year. Consisting of tracks not previously issued on a Cole LP, the disc contains seven recent Billboard singles chart entries among its 12 selections – "Too Young to Go Steady" (which reached number 21), "Forgive My Heart" (13), "Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You" (72), "To the Ends of the Earth" (25), "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life" (57), "Someone You Love" (13), and "Never Let Me Go" (79) – while an eighth song, "That's All," was the B-side of the 1953 Top 20 hit "Lover, Come Back to Me!" "Too Young to Go Steady," which peaked in April 1956, turned out to be all that was really heard of a stage musical intended for Broadway, Strip for Action, with songs by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson, which closed out of town. "I Just Found Out About Love" and "Love Me as Though There Were No Tomorrow," two more songs from that ill-fated show, are among the previously unheard tracks unearthed for this compilation.

Astrud Gilberto's entry in the nicely appointed Verve Jazz Masters compilation series shows exactly why the Brazilian singer is deserving of such an accolade. In her '60s heyday, Gilberto was often derided by jazz purists for her vibrato-less "desafinado" (deliberately slightly off-pitch) singing style and deadpan, childlike voice. But the diminutive bossa nova star has since been a huge influence on dozens of jazz and pop singers. VERVE JAZZ MASTERS is less of a greatest hits package than it is a smartly balanced retrospective of many of Gilberto's best performances. Her biggest hits, "Call Me" and "Summer Samba," are not included, and her signature tune, "The Girl From Ipanema," is only represented by a live take from a 1964 Carnegie Hall concert. The collection places equal emphasis on Gilberto's bossa nova-style interpretations of jazz standards and on her signature Portuguese-language sambas.

Emerging as a great pop vocal stylist in 1954, Nat King Cole enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums thereon, but Unforgettable is perhaps the singer at his early peak. With romance as the watchword, Cole slides through some of his most familiar ballads, include the title selection, "Portrait of Jennie," "Mona Lisa," and "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)." There are quite a few lesser known, but attractive songs, plus a small handful of standards ("What'll I Do?" is a keeper) that round out this interesting collection. The very artistic, near surreal three-dimensional white, charcoal black, and royal blue-hued front cover may be the best part of this reissue, as it reflects a time period defined by its simplicity and yet its increasingly technological, superimposed modernity.

Cole Porter was one of a handful of American musical colossi. He had the genius to conjure up improbable rhyming lyrics to catchy melodies delivering not only a single song but as often or not a whole conundrum of numbers collected within the sphere of a show. This collection of 40 songs exemplifies the talent of Cole Porter and is a testament (tribute) to his longevity in musical history. Wit, humour, sophistication, rhythmic and key changes are small change to his ability.Who else could win a challenge to produce 'Miss Otis Regrets' after questioned whether he could write lyrics from the next words he heard? The cast of star celebrities in this collection say it all. Sinatra, Bennett, Crosby, Ella, Billie, Nat, Marlene, Judy to name a few. Also, the bigger bands of not so long ago, Nat Gonella, Jack Hylton, Geraldo. These need preservation orders and what better than endorse the master composer Mr Cole Porter? Add this to your collection.

Astrud Gilberto has never been properly anthologized by Verve Records; although they've released a number of compilations over the years, none of them have been definitive, and most of them have been rather skimpy. 1987's The Silver Collection, originally released only in Europe but later imported to North America, is an idiosyncratic selection. It omits "The Girl From Ipanema," her biggest hit, includes all 11 tracks from her 1965 release The Astrud Gilberto Album, and adds on a selection of singles and album tracks recorded from 1965 to 1970 with no particular logic. All that said, however, it's still one of the best compilations available of this idiosyncratic but brilliant singer's '60s material. Jazz purists turn up their noses at Gilberto, correctly pointing out her near total lack of technical ability. However, the Brazilian songbird's appealingly plain voice, with its deliberately wobbly pitch (the "desafinado" style celebrated in Antonio Carlos Jobim's song of that title), total lack of vibrato, and deadpan phrasing, is a delight for those attuned to its charms.

A much-needed look at an overlooked side of the genius of Quincy Jones – not his jazz work, not his productions for famous soul artists, but instead his huge legacy of soundtrack material – a part of Q's career that really took off in the 60s! By the time he started working in films, Jones had already had a decade under his belt as one of the hippest arrangers, leaders, and composers in jazz – and the film business really respected those talents, and allowed Quincy to bring some really fresh styles into play – modes that really opened up the vibe of American cinema, and also paved the way for the funky styles of the 70s! As that decade approached, Jones left behind the cinema to take on some more higher-profile records of his own – but all the charms of those great albums can be found here at their roots – in this stunning collection of soundtrack material, some of which has never been on CD. The package is way more than just a sampler – and includes an album's worth of material from the films The Pawnbroker, Slender Thread, Mirage, The Deadly Affair, In The Heat Of The Night, In Cold Blood, Walk Don't Run, The Italian Job, Lost Man, and John & Mary – plus two versions of the love theme from The Getaway, and a bonus CD with 18 tracks – titled Q's highlights, and featuring tracks from his Mercury records – plus more by Billy Preston, Arthur Prysock, Bill Cosby, Shirley Horn, Letta Mbulu, Toots Thielemans, and others. Even features the "Sanford & Son" and "Ironside" themes!

Forty-two songs cut between November 1940 and August 1946, and the perfect companion to Bear Family's It's Magic box set – anyone who's been even tempted to own that will have to get this more modestly priced precursor to that material. Day's period singing with Les Brown is, today, regarded with a degree of love and affection reserved for Ella Fitzgerald's era with Chick Webb, or Frank Sinatra's work with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Yet Sony Music's own releases devoted to Doris Day and Les Brown spread the music around to several different CDs, and suffered from sound that, today, seems substandard. These newly remastered tracks, offered in chronological order, including one previously unissued song ("Are You Still in Love with Me"), not only display a far richer, warmer sound, but have been presented with the kind of care that is normally reserved for the best parts of a label's catalog – which these sides definitely are. Day's voice during this period (she was 16 when she cut her first sides with Brown) was an astonishingly expressive instrument.

This is an essential package! Whoever put this together obviously knew what they were doing, and all is placed in chronological order. Discs 1-3 are a terrific compilation of material from the MGM years, consisting of commercial recordings of soundtrack materal. If no recording was commercially released, the original soundtrack is used-great for such numbers as "Hoe Down" with Mickey Rooney! But the last disc makes this package essential-here is a pristine soundboard recording of Judy's final performance at the Palace Theater, MYC-2/24/52! She was concluding a 19-week engagement, and the atmosphere is electric. Fantastic stuff!

For decades, Joe Mooney's only Atlantic LP, Joe Mooney's Songs, was out of print - and if a collector was able to find a rare copy at a vinyl swap meet, he/she knew that the thing to do was grab it at once. Then, in 1999, the album finally became available on CD when Koch Jazz reissued it as Lush Life. An intimate session that finds Mooney on vocals and organ, Lee Robinson on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums, Lush Life shows just how charismatic a singer Mooney could be. Some of Mooney's admirers compared his casual, smooth, relaxed style of singing to that of Nat King Cole, and while that isn't a bad comparison, Mooney's highly accessible versions of "Lush Life," "My One and Only Love," "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," and other standards point to the fact that he was most certainly his own man…

These rare treasures take you all across Billie's career-from '35, the year she debuted at the Apollo and first charted, to '59, the year she died. The stunning early performances include a 20-year-old Billie with Ellington in '35 and a 1937 radio broadcast from the Savoy Hotel in NY with the Basie Orchestra; you'll also hear rare rehearsal tapes, her Monterey '58 performance, songs on The Eddie Condon Show, The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show, an impromptu recording of Billie and friends singing My Yiddish Mamma, and more with Art Tatum, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and more! Includes 129 tracks: Swing Brother Swing; Fine and Mellow; I'll Get By; Billie's Blues; All of Me; Lover Man; Them There Eyes; You're My Thrill; I Cover the Waterfront; Porgy; Tenderly; God Bless the Child; My Man; Moanin' Low; Ghost of a Chance, and more.

A British pop singer known for her rich, remarkably bluesy voice, Alison Moyet sang in the short-lived, hit alternative dance group Yazoo before returning to the top of the U.K. album chart with her 1984 solo debut, Alf. It included "Invisible," her only Top 40 hit in the U.S. She went on to become a steady presence on the U.K. charts, however, with each of her studio albums reaching at least the Top 30. Sticking with a primarily synth-driven adult pop for her first few albums, she eventually experimented with lusher arrangements, including strings on 2002's Hometime, and took on standards with 2004's Voice. Released in 2013, The Minutes marked a return to club-minded electronics while keeping her sound distinctly contemporary. In 2017, Moyet's ninth studio album, Other, was accompanied by her first extensive world tour in 30 years. Collection includes all studio albums at the moment: Alf (1984); Raindancing (1987); Hoodoo (1991) EU and Japanese press; Essex (1994); Hometime (2002); Voice (2004); Voice (2004) 2CD Deluxe Edition 2015; The Turn (2007); The Minutes (2013); Other (2017).