Search - Various :: "Clint Eastwood Presents: Johnny Mercer "The Dream's On Me" A Celebration of His Music"

Not bad; not great

Ocarolan | East Coast, USA | 12/05/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Given the number of memorable songs that Mercer wrote, it is inevitable that a single-disk compilation will omit many. Still, I am left to wonder why some of the songs on this disk made the cut when "Satin Doll," "Too Marvelous for Words," "Day In, Day Out," "I Remember You," "One for My Bay (One More for the Road)," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Autumn Leaves," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "Jeepers Creepers," "Moon River," "Charade," "Days of Wine and Roses," and "Summer Wind" did not. Admittedly, there is something to be said for using a compilation like this to provide exposure to some of Mercer's lesser-known songs. In this regard, the inclusion of "Trav'lin Light" (Queen Latifah) "Midnight Sun" (Ella Fitzgerald), and "My Shining Hour" (Barbara Streisand) work well. Far less successful are "I Had Myself a True Love" (Audra McDonald) and "Spring, Spring, Spring" (Jalala). These five tracks reflect, in part, another problem with a compilation of a writer's songs, and that is the choice of artists. Mercer's songs have been recorded by so many artists that selecting the most popular versions is probably a licensing nightmare. That may account for the selection of some of the artists on this disk (for example, Maude Maggart's version of "Skylark" rather than that of k. d. lang or Linda Ronstadt). I doubt, however, that it was a licensing problem that led to the choice of 12-year-old Morgan Eastwood (Clint's daughter) for the title track. Fortunately, it appears that someone recognized that it was better to omit "One for My Baby" than to include a version other than Sinatra's."