While not considered a trend setting band, Les Brown’s Band of Renown was a respectable swing outfit, best known as a vehicle for some of the day’s best vocalist, notably a lady named Doris Day. This 2 disc, 49 song collection has all of the popular hits and them some, featuring Ms. Day in her earliest and most wholesome years.
The band shows it knew how to cut a rug, as on the clever “Comanche War Dance” and “Love For Sale”, while before Ms. Day, you get vocal choruses from Miriam Shaw on “From Now On” and “I Guess I’ll Have To Dream the Rest” featuring Ralph Young”. There’s also the novelty “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” that was literally a hit during the famous 1941 consecutive game hitting streak of the Yankee Clipper. Ms. Day debuts as a feature on “Three at a Table For Two” and then hits a home run on the classic “Sentimental Journey”, with “My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time” a close second. “Day By Day” is a cheerful refrain by Day, as well as instant nostalgia during “The Christmas Song” from 1946. Day was then replaced by vocals groups such as 4 Hits and A Miss (“Bebop Spoken Here”) and The Modernaires (“Ill Be Hanging Around”) with Johnny Mercer guesting in on “Doodle-Doo Doo”. Jazz and pop holding hands.