Search - Fred Astaire :: Top Hat White Tie & Tails

AN INCREDIBLE REMASTER FOR FRED ASTAIRE FANS

Unlucky Frank | Lalaland, CA United States | 10/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love Fred Astaire because is voice was easy, sweet, and natural sounding. Not to mention, the guy could dance his partners into an exhausted heap of limbs. And I know that you love him too. This import recording from ASV is an incredible collection of Fred Astaire's movie musicals dating from 1926 to 1950. I was going to purchase one of the RHINO collections; either FRED ASTAIRE & GINGER ROGERS AT RKO or FRED ASTAIRE AT MGM. But neither of those collections included Astaire's rendition of PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ, which I had to have. After sampling these recordings at CD UNIVERSE and also sampling the RHINO recordings, this package sounded the best of the three. As it turned out, I made a great choice. The remastering here by ASV is SUPERB considering some of these tunes are very old mono recordings. I hate to say this because RHINO puts out such marvelous product, but THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST COLLECTION OF ASTAIRE MOVIE MUSIC AVAILABLE. Especially if you're BUDGET CONSCIOUS.



The Liner Notes are also nice. All 50 songs include the recording dates, the musicals that they're from, and their ranking on the charts when applicable. (I WAS SURPRISED BY HOW MANY OF THESE TUNES WERE CHART TOPPERS IN THEIR DAY. 26 WERE IN THE TOP TEN.)



NUMBER ONE HITS INCLUDE:

1.CHEEK TO CHEEK.

2.I'M PUTTING ALL MY EGGS IN ONE BASKET.

3.THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT.

4.A FINE ROMANCE.

5.THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME.

6.NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT.

7.CHANGE PARTNERS.



THERE ARE A FEW DUETS WITH SISTER ADELE, BING CROSBY, JUDY GARLAND, AND JANE POWELL. TO ME, THIS IS JUST ABOUT PERFECT.



THIS COLLECTION SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. Now, if we could only get some of these classics on DVD.



Fred Astaire re-recorded some classic tunes with Oscar Peterson in 1952 for VERVE. Be sure and check out FRED ASTAIRE'S FINEST HOUR and STEPPIN' OUT: ASTAIRE SINGS. I just put them in my Cart. ENJOY."

A great way to discover the greatest rhythm singer of 1930's

Frita J. Mills | Tokyo, Japan | 01/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Astaire was one of the best rhythm singers of the 30's, as well as the most underrated. Since he was a dancer, he really knew how to syncopate and singing came natually to him. He really gets hot, prooving to be a very underrated jazz singer in the 30's. He sings when he wants to right on the beat, then cuts loose and sings slightly behind,and continues to syncopate all over the place, in other words his singing is equally exciting and rhythmic as his dancing to the trained ear, or a jazz musician, he was a true genious, musically. Most jazz musicians like Astire's singing for those reasons I just mentioned. Also his voice is personable, and masculine(compared to say Rudy Vallee, or Gene Austin). Though he really didn't start as a baritone, but his vocie falls in that range. Another plus is that these songs are from his films, mostly with Ginger, so all the compositions are by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and other great American songwriter, and Astaire introduced more standards then anyone else on earth, accept maybe Ethel Merman.A great cd, especially for jazz lovers to discover."