Chart-Toppers Of The Forties

構成数 : 1
合計収録時間 : 01:16:05
Performers include: Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, Les Brown, The Andrews Sisters, Frankie Carle, Perry Como, Francis Craig, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Harry James, Glenn Miller, Vaughn Monroe, Artie Shaw, Ted Weems. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Contains 25 tracks. This must be the only album that can advertise itself as containing all recordings that spent at least eight weeks each at number one in the charts, if only because records tended to stay at the top of the charts longer in the 1940s than they did subsequently. But British archival label ASV/Living Era's Chart-Toppers of the Forties really does live up to its name, containing the biggest hits of 1940-1947. And what happened to 1948 and 1949? Well, albums like this exist because European copyright law extends only 50 years for recordings, allowing labels like ASV/Living Era to remaster old 78s from major labels like Columbia, Decca, and RCA Victor and create collections like this without licensing and paying royalties. But they would have to have waited a little longer to get the last two years of the decade in. They do have to pay song publishing royalties, but differences in the law in Europe make it more economical to have 25 tracks on a disc than it is in the U.S. All of this must be seen as an end-run around American law, however, since this compilation, which consists entirely of American artists and is keyed to the American charts, is clearly intended for the American market, where it is readily available, even though those major labels claim copyright on this material at home. But then, why should an American fan complain when such a collection would be nearly impossible to assemble stateside? (Note that the recording of "I'll Never Smile Again" credited to Frank Sinatra is the hit version by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra with Sinatra and the Pied Pipers on vocals, and that "Sentimental Journey," credited to Doris Day, is the hit version by Les Brown and His Orchestra with Day on vocals.) ~ William Ruhlmann
録音 : モノラル (Studio)