Calendar Girl/Your Number Please

It's common practice for the British wing of EMI to release their back catalog of vocal jazz and easy listening albums of the '50s and '60s on budget-priced two-for-one compact discs. These CDs aren't aimed at the American market, but the discs are widely available throughout North America, often at the same budget price. This is good news for fans of Julie London, who until recently has been neglected in the digital age. EMI usually couples albums together that have a musical theme (travel, ballads, Latin drums, etc.), but here they've chosen to collate two of London's more sensual album covers under one plastic CD slipcover. Thankfully, the cheesecake photos of London are only the icing on the cake and the music on each of the original albums is well worth owning, even if they have less jazz content than the best of her releases. Calendar Girl is a concept album involving love lost and found for each month of the year, while Your Number Please... is a tribute to such male singers as Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme. Each of the original out of print albums is expensive and hard to find, so it's a collector's treat to have them readily available again -- and with all the original artwork and liner notes included. Fans of Julie London's icily sexy but emotionally downbeat style will be thrilled by this collection. ~ Nick Dedina