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Wonderful collection of Harold Arlen songs!

Giradman | 02/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Harold Arlen (1905-1986) was an American-Jewish composer of 20th century popular music of his times, writing over 500 songs w/ some of the best lyricists of the times, such as Johnny Mercer & Yip Harburg; with the latter, Arlen wrote the music for the 'Wizard of Oz'. This Verve offering is a compilation of some of his most famous songs performed by various singers (Ella Fitzgerald being the only repeater; of course, in her famous 'Songbooks' collection, she devotes a disc to Arlen). The choices and recordings are excellent and presumably 'remastered' from the Verve vault for this compilation. If you desire one disc of Harold's music, then this is certainly a good choice - a minor complaint is that the company could have easily added another half dozen songs.



Arlen was a wonderful performer in his own right (his father was a Cantor in Buffalo, NY - Harold's birthplace) - examples can be found on the outstanding biographical DVD of him called Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Harold Arlen. If you're not familiar w/ American popular music from the first half of the 20th century, then there are plenty of other composers to explore!"

O.K., Kids. Raise your hands if you've heard of this guy?

Thomas Burgess | San Francisco | 12/13/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The wonderful thing about The Burgenius (well, one of them) is that as a child he was exposed to real culture. Then came rock and/or roll, and he went down hill fast, but much of the culture remained into adulthood. Harold Arlen is one of the great composers of American music. This is a wonderful compilation of timeless songs that have enriched the lives of people for generations; before Generation Gauche. True, it's not the Butthole Surfers, but what is? Give your ears a break and your brain something to work with. Buy this, put it on your Ipod; you can tell people you're listening to Green Day...no, don't do that! No one should be encouraged to listen to Green Day, under any circumstances. Tell them it's Flipper. That alone will impress anyone. I don't listen to Flpper myself...hey, why am I writing about Flipper? Tell them it's Bukowski. Now run along and look up Charles Bukowski, you cultural trash bins."