Johnny Hartman - Smooth & Swinging: The Singles & Albums Collection 1947-58 (CD)

The top bands and accompanists of the day during his career, including Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie and Erroll Garner, and became famous during the 1970s, beyond the scope of this collection, for an album he made with John Coltrane. Unlike his more middle-of-the-road peers in the world of post-war sophisticated pop, he did not make records aimed at the singles charts so is less well-known than artists like Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis and Mel Torme, but was a singer who was highly-regarded by his peers and aficionados. This excellent-value 52-track 2-CD collection comprises material drawn from singles and albums, featuring recordings with the orchestras of Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Carroll, George Williams, Norman Leyden, Perez Prado, Howard Biggs and Frank Hunter, plus the Errol Garner Trio. It includes selected titles from Regent/Savoy album Johnny Hartman Sings, and his albums on the Bethlehem label Songs From The Heart, All Of Me: The Debonair Mr. Hartman and And I Thought About You. He was a fine interpreter of the repertoire of the Great American Songbook, and this collection offers an insight into the talents of a performer who has not has the attention he merits, and is an entertaining showcase for his work.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Midnight in New Orleans
2. When I Dream of You
3. Why Was I Born
4. Why Must I Be Tormented
5. Just A-Wearyin' for You
6. I'll Never Smile Again
7. Just You Just Me
8. A Woman Always Understands
9. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
10. Sometime Remind Me to Tell You
11. I Should Care
12. That Old Black Magic
13. S'posin'
14. Close Your Eyes
15. Goodbye
16. You Go to My Head
17. If Love Is Trouble
18. Remember
19. September in the Rain
20. It's Easy to Remember
21. Home (When Shadows Fall)
22. Nightingale
23. Out of the Night
24. I Ran All the Way Home
25. Lemme Go

Disc: 2

1. I'm Afraid
2. Wheel of Fortune
3. Wild
4. Black Shadow
5. I Feel Like Crying
6. The World Was Mine
7. What Is There to Say
8. Ain't Misbehavin' (I'm Savin' My Love for You)
9. I Fall in Love Too Easily
10. They Didn't Believe Me
11. I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)
12. When Your Lover Has Gone
13. Moonlight in Vermont
14. Blue Skies
15. The Birth of the Blues
16. All of Me
17. Tenderly
18. The Lamp Is Low
19. While We're Young
20. The End of a Love Affair
21. Mam'selle
22. Sunday
23. Alone
24. Long Ago and Far Away
25. After You've Gone
26. How Long Has This Been Going on