The Casa Loma Orchestra, a co-operative enterprise led for most of it's existence by saxophonist Glen Gray, was one of the most popular and successful of the "sweet" orchestras who rose to fame during the 1930s. They played middle-of-the-road dance music and the latest songs of the day, often from Broadway and Hollywood as well as Tin Pan Alley, although their music was very much rooted in the hot orchestral jazz of the 1920s, which was particularly reflected in their early recordings. During a career which lasted into the 1960s, the orchestra enjoyed a stellar period of chart success as they racked up no less than 60 hits between 1931 and 1945, including five No. 1s. This 68-track 3-CD set comprises selected A and B sides from their releases on the Okeh, Brunswick, Victor and Decca labels during this time, and features all those sixty hits, among them the No. 1s "Blue Moon", "When I Grow Too Old To Dream", "Heaven Can Wait", "Sunrise Serenade" and "My Heart Tells Me". There are some noted names among the band's featured vocalists whose performances are included here, that list comprising Pee Wee Hunt, Kenny Sargent, Mildred Bailey, Lee Wiley, Clyde Burke, Louis Armstrong, LeBrun Sisters, Eugenie Baird and Fats Daniel. Including as it does some of the first commercial recordings of standards of the Great American Songbook, it's not only a fine musical tribute to the Casa Loma orchestra but an evocative window on the music of the era.
20 The House Is Haunted (By the Echo of Your Last Goodbye)
21 Limehouse Blues
22 Spellbound
23 I Never Had a Chance
- Disc 2 -
1 Moon Glow
2 Pardon My Southern Accent
3 Two Cigarettes in the Dark
4 Learning
5 Out in the Cold Again
6 You're a Builder Upper
7 The Object of My Affection
8 Blue Moon
9 When I Grow Too Old to Dream
10 The Night Is Young
11 Fare Thee Well, Annabelle
12 Lookie, Lookie Here Comes Cookie
13 My Heart Is An Open Book
14 With All My Heart
15 I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
16 Never in a Million Years
17 Smoke Rings
18 I've Got My Heart Set on You
19 Sweet As a Song
20 I See Your Face Before Me
21 You Go to My Head
22 I Cried for You
23 You Never Know
- Disc 3 -
1 Song of India
2 Gotta Get Some Shut Eye
3 This Night (Will Be My Souvenir)
4 Heaven Can Wait
5 Sunrise Serenade
6 Tears from My Inkwell
7 Rockin' Chair
8 If I Had My Way
9 Tumbling Tumbleweeds
10 Yours Is My Heart Alone
11 A Lover's Lullaby
12 No Name Jive
13 One Dozen Roses
14 Don't Do It, Darling
15 Don't Get Around Much Anymore
16 Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie
17 My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart)
18 My Shining Hour
19 Suddenly It's Spring
20 Don't Take Your Love from Me
21 Gotta Be This or That
22 Blue Rhapsody
The Casa Loma Orchestra, a co-operative enterprise led for most of it's existence by saxophonist Glen Gray, was one of the most popular and successful of the "sweet" orchestras who rose to fame during the 1930s. They played middle-of-the-road dance music and the latest songs of the day, often from Broadway and Hollywood as well as Tin Pan Alley, although their music was very much rooted in the hot orchestral jazz of the 1920s, which was particularly reflected in their early recordings. During a career which lasted into the 1960s, the orchestra enjoyed a stellar period of chart success as they racked up no less than 60 hits between 1931 and 1945, including five No. 1s. This 68-track 3-CD set comprises selected A and B sides from their releases on the Okeh, Brunswick, Victor and Decca labels during this time, and features all those sixty hits, among them the No. 1s "Blue Moon", "When I Grow Too Old To Dream", "Heaven Can Wait", "Sunrise Serenade" and "My Heart Tells Me". There are some noted names among the band's featured vocalists whose performances are included here, that list comprising Pee Wee Hunt, Kenny Sargent, Mildred Bailey, Lee Wiley, Clyde Burke, Louis Armstrong, LeBrun Sisters, Eugenie Baird and Fats Daniel. Including as it does some of the first commercial recordings of standards of the Great American Songbook, it's not only a fine musical tribute to the Casa Loma orchestra but an evocative window on the music of the era.
