Amazon.com
Ray Charles's entry in Rhino's Love Songs series--joining volumes by Aretha
Franklin and Otis
Redding--is as stellar and idiosyncratic as the man himself. It collects recordings
from the '50s to the '90s, with slyly offbeat choices such as "Gee, Baby...Read more
Amazon.com
Like a mink draped over mahogany, Diana Krall's luxuriously supple alto adorns the vintage
songs of romance and longing found on Love Scenes with a palpable aura of glamour
and late-night cool. Her ostensibly effortless command of phrasing and...Read more
Amazon.com
From his childhood on the family farm in rural Tuscany to the worldwide stage, Andrea
Bocelli has achieved phenomenal success. His singing is only partially the point, and his
fame owes much more to the aura of romance and the romantic archetype...Read more
Amazon.com essential recording
Never mind that Van Morrison is one of the most indelible songwriters of the 2Oth
century--take each album on its own terms. On 1968's seminal Astral Weeks, a
twentysomething Van Morrison can be found belting his gospelly, bluesy vocals in just
as...Read more
Gramophone Jazz Good CD
Guide
Originally marketed as two separate releases, the landmark My Funny Valentine and Four and
More, this new compilation of the entire 1964 Carnegie Hall concert is almost pure
pleasure. The one caveat is Columbia's decision not to re-sequence the...Read more
Amazon.com
RCA was never at a loss repackaging Elvis Presley material even during the King's
lifetime--and it's only accelerated since his death. This 1985 compilation of '50s and
'60s ballads, both bluesy and soft, comes from a period when the label was...Read more
Amazon.com
This is the young, fragile-sounding Sinatra in a collection of 14 ballads recorded during
his 1943-52 tenure at Columbia. He sounds at times still under the spell of Bing
Crosby, as on the striking title cut, which comes closest to capturing the...Read more
Amazon.com
One of the most-own soul albums, Greatest Hits is fattened with five extra tracks
in this reissue. Al Green brought the Memphis Sound into the '70s by slightly softening
it, melding smooth funkiness with his miraculous voice and innate sensitivity:...Read more
Amazon.com
The greatest expression of Burt Bacharach's composing and arranging talents is the
marvelous string of productions he made with Dionne
Warwick and lyricist Hal David for a decade or so starting in 1962. Many of their
triumphs are included in this...Read more
Amazon.com essential recording
This set's first disc is a sparkling upgrade of Gaye's final album. Hardly as frivolous as
the artist claimed in the David Ritz-penned biography Divided Soul,
1982's Midnight Love finds an assured-sounding Gaye melding with smooth,
rhythmically dense...Read more
Amazon.com Love Scene is culled mostly from baby-boomer box-office hits (Phenomenon,
The Commitments,
The Big
Chill). Not surprisingly, the disc consists of boomer-friendly music, with the
predictable mishmash of styles and eras that gratifies a boomer's need...Read more
Mood Music 
