THE CROONERS FROM DAYS OF OLD..........

In the fifties and early sixties, singers and song writers were two different entities. The Beatles of course changed all that when they started writing their own songs. Those who don't write or do anything else but sing are called crooners. In the days of old crooners are a dime a dozen. There are a few that made the grade, although not necessarily a favorite of mine, I do keep CDs of some of them.

NAT KING COLE. THE GREATEST HITS : I don't particularly like Nat King Cole but I do like a few of his songs. 'Pretend', ‘Smile', 'Answer Me', 'Around The World' and 'Quizas, Quizas, Quizas. My brother like him. Unbeknown to even me I must have got these songs stuck at the back of my mind courtesy of him. I bought this CD just for these few songs. And I am quite happy with it. The song that I absolutely love but not on this CD is ' Arrivederci Roma' A beautiful song with a haunting melody. Maybe I will get another Nat King Cole CD for my collection later just for this song. DOP : 1st April 1995.

JOHNNY MATHIS. 20 GREATEST HITS : I don't like Johnny Mathis much. This CD was given to me by my wife's boss who I will mention by name when I come across the next CD of hers. Johnny Mathis have a voice that is too soothing and sugary sweet for me. The first time I heard of him was 'The Twelfth Of Never' and 'Wonderful. Wonderful' which was included in one of the various artists collection records that I've bought. The one song that I genuinely like was ' What Will My Mary Say', a song I first heard in a Cantonese version sung by our very own God Of Song, Sam Hui. Anyway, I have this song in one of the various artists' collection CD, so this CD is not really essential to me. Still, Johnny Mathis is a welcome addition to my CD Collections. DOP : A gift from Susan.

MATT MONRO. BORN FREE. HIS GREATEST HITS : Matt Monro was another crooner from from the old school. The only song I really like from him was 'Walk Away' and maybe 'Portrait Of My Love' which was quite a romantic song that you could sing to your love one. And then of course there was the title song from the second James Bond move 'From Russia With Love'. Other than these three songs, there's not much reasons for me to place this on my CD player more often. DOP : 19th April 1997.

THE VERY BEST OF DEAN MARTIN. 27 ORIGINAL GREATEST HITS : Dean Martin was quite a character. Part of the comedy duo with Jerry Lewis and also one of the original Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Sami Davis Junior and Peter Lawford. He finally branch out as a successful singer  with the song 'That's Amor'. I think he perfected the drunken style of singing and slightly out of tune like no one can. I particularly like 'That's Amour', 'Volare', 'Cha Cha D'Amour' and 'Sway' I remember watching The Dean Martin Show on TV all those years ago. I think I will probably get another Dean Martin CD in the near future. DOP : 4th September 2007.

THE REAL...ANDY WILLIAMS. THE ULTIMATE ANDY WILLIAMS COLLECTION : This 3 CDs Collection I bought don't really bring justice to the beauty of Andy William's voice. I have both his Greatest Hits Volume 1 & 2 on records and that is the definitive Andy Williams Collection at least for me. Getting weary of waiting for that two records to be reissued on CDs, I bought these out of desperation of adding Andy to my collection. Nevertheless, it does contain the whole 'Andy Williams sing Moon River & Other Movie Themes', a CD that I've been wanting to buy anyway. Favorites includes ' Moon Rivers', ’Tonight', May Each Day', etc. And no, as of now, my Andy Williams collection is not complete yet. It will be upgraded. I bought this CD just a few days before he left us. DOP : 25th March 2012.

JULIO IGLESIAS . MY LIFE : THE GREATEST HITS : I've waited 10 years to for this CD to go cheap before I bought it. Almost all his English songs are cover versions and that was the reasons why I waited ten years for this. The only song that I truly love is 'To All The Girls I've Loved Before', his duet with Willy Nelson but I've already have it on his  Willy's Greatest Hits Collection and 'All Of Me'. The rest of the songs well...they are like kind of pleasant without being memorable for me. 'Vincent', 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You', and 'When I Need You'. I much prefer the originals. As for the Spanish songs, well they didn't excite me too much either. So it's good that I bought this on discount. DOP : 8th November 2009.