Various – America’s Greatest Your Hit Parade Hits 1936 – 4CD

One of Acrobat’s most popular and successful series are the America’s Greatest Hits collections – 4-CD sets featuring the biggest hits from the Billboard charts from 1940, when the Billboard record sales chart was launched, through to 1962. However, before the Billboard chart was first published, the popular US weekly radio show Your Hit Parade, sponsored by Lucky Strike, began producing a chart in 1935, which was sometimes a Top 10, sometimes a Top 15, so we decided to take the America’s Greatest Hits format back into the Your Hit Parade era of the 1930s. This 98-track 4-CD collection comprises every record that featured in the Top 14 of the Your Hit Parade chart during 1936, the first full year of the chart (records were quite long in those days, and there was insufficient space to include the Top 15 entries, although we have squeezed a couple of them in). With growing optimism in the US as President Roosevelt’s New Deal made its impact, it was a very varied music landscape, with the big swing orchestras starting to make their mark, though often with middle-of-the-road vocal performances rather than jazzy pieces, although there’s plenty of hot stuff here too, and the big dance bands who were popular on radio competing with each other as they recorded the future classics of the Great American Songbook that were coming out of Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley, along with some of the top singers of the era. It’s an enjoyable and fascinating musical snapshot of the era, complete with 15,000 word booklet with notes on each track, and full discographical and chart information.

Track Listing:

CD1:
Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 1. A Little Bit Independent -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra:- 2. On Treasure Island -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 3. Red Sails In The Sunset -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 4. Moon Over Miami -   Paul Pendarvis & His Orchestra: 5. Thanks A Million -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 6. Eenie Meeenie Minie Mo -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 7. The Music Goes Round And Round -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 8. With All My Heart -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 9. Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 10. I'm Sittin’ High On A Hilltop -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 11. No Other One -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 12. Alone -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 13. Lights Out -   Richard Himber & His Ritz-Carlton Orchestra: 14. If I Should Lose You -   Jan Garber Orchestra (The Idol Of The Air Lanes): 15. I Feel Like A Feather In The Breeze -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 16. The Broken Record -   Al Bowlly With Ray Noble & His Orch.: 17. Dinner For One, Please, James -   Tommy Dorsey & His Clambake Seven: 18. (If I Had) Rhythm In My Nursery Rhymes -   Wingy Manone & His Orchestra: 19. Please Believe Me -   Jan Garber Orchestra (The Idol Of The Air Lanes): 20. I'm Shootin' High - 21. A Beautiful Lady In Blue -   Richard Himber & His Ritz-Carlton Orchestra: 22. Cling To Me -   Fred Astaire: 23. I'm Building Up To An Awful Let-Down -   Richard Himber & His Ritz-Carlton Orchestra: 24. You Hit The Spot -

CD2:
Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 1. Alone At A Table For Two -   Boswell Sisters: 2. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 3. It's Been So Long -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 4. Sing An Old-Fashioned Song (To A Young Sophisticated Lady) -   Tommy Dorsey & His Clambake Seven: 5. A Little Rendezvous In Honolulu -   Paul Whiteman &His Orchestra: 6. Wah-Hoo -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 7. West Wind -   Fred Astaire: 8. Let Yourself Go -   9. Let's Face The Music And Dance -   10. I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 11. Goody Goody -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 12. Lost -   Paul Whiteman: 13. What's The Name Of That Song -   Bob Howard Orch.: 14. Wake Up And Sing -   Bing Crosby: 15. The Touch Of Your Lips -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 16. You Started Me Dreaming -   Leo Reisman & His Orchestra: 17. Yours Truly Is Truly Yours -   Jan Garber Orchestra (The Idol Of The Air Lanes): 18. A Melody From The Sky -   Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: 19. Love Is Like A Cigarette -   Richard Himber & His Ritz-Carlton Orchestra: 20. Tormented -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 21. You -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 22. All My Life -   Jimmy Dorsey: 23. Is It True What They Say About Dixie -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 24. I Don't Want To Make History (I Just Want To Make Love) -

CD3:
Bing Crosby: 1. Robins And Roses -   Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees: 2. There's Always A Happy Ending -   Henry King & His Orchestra: 3. Would You -   Lud Gluskin & His Continental Orchestra: 4. She Shall Have Music -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 5. It's A Sin To Tell A Lie -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 6. The Glory Of Love -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 7. There's A Small Hotel -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 8. You Can't Pull The Wool Over My Eyes -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 9. Take My Heart -   Connie Boswell: 10. On The Beach At Bali Bali -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 11. These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 12. Let's Sing Again -   13. Cross Patch -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 14. Stompin' At The Savoy -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 15. When I'm With You -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 16. No Regrets -   Leo Reisman & His Orchestra: 17. Afterglow -   Johnny Green & His Orchestra: 18. A Rendezvous With A Dream -   Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orch.: 19. Did I Remember -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 20. A Star Fell Out Of Heaven -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 21. You're Not The Klind -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 22. Me And The Moon -   Ted Weems & His Orchestra: 23. Knock Knock Who’s There -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 24. Bye Bye Baby -   Fletcher Henderson & His Orch.: 25. Until Today -

CD4:
Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds Of Joy: 1. Until The Real Thing Comes Along -   Ruby Newman & His Orchestra: 2. Sing Baby Sing -   Bing Crosby with Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 3. I'm An Old Cow-Hand (From The Rio Grande) -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 4. When Did You Leave Heaven -   Bing Crosby with Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 5. I Can't Escape From You -   Bing Crosby: 6. Empty Saddles -   Fred Astaire: 7. The Way You Look Tonight -   8. A Fine Romance -   Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra: 9. Who Loves You -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 10. When A Lady Meets A Gentleman Down South -   11. You Turned The Tables On Me -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 12. I'll Sing You A Thousand Love Songs -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 13. Close To Me -   Bing Crosby: 14. South Sea Island Magic -   Kay Kyser & His Orchestra: 15. Did You Mean It -   Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra: 16. Organ Grinder’s Swing -   Russ Morgan: 17. Midnight Blue -   Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orch.: 18. In The Chapel In The Moonlight -   Bing Crosby: 19. Pennies From Heaven -   Tempo King & His Kings Of Tempo: 20. To Mary With Love -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 21. Here's Love In Your Eyes -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 22. I'm In A Dancing Mood -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 23. It's De-Lovely -   Ray Noble & His Orchestra: 24. I've Got You Under My Skin -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 25. When My Dream Boat Comes Home -