Various – America’s Greatest Your Hit Parade Hits 1937 – 3CD

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 74-track 3-CD collection comprises every record that featured in the Your Hit Parade chart during 1937, the first full year of the chart, apart from one of which we could not find a copy. There were many fewer records that made the chart in 1937 compared to 1936, so it all fits onto a 3-CD set.

It was a very varied music landscape, with the big swing orchestras with the big swing orchestras like Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman making their mark, though often with middle-of-the-road vocal performances rather than jazzy pieces, although there’s plenty of hot stuff here too.

Along with them are the big dance bands who were popular on radio, including g Guy Lombardo, Shep Fields and Eddy Duchin, 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, plus some of the top singers of the era, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire among them.

It’s an enjoyable and fascinating musical snapshot of the era, complete with a 12,000 word booklet with notes on each track, and full discographical and chart information.

Track Listing:

CD1:
Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra: 1. In The Chapel In The Moonlight -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 2. It's De-Lovely -   Ray Noble & His Orchestra vocal Al Bowlly: 3. I've Got You Under My Skin -   Bing Crosby: 4. Pennies From Heaven -   Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra: 5. I'll Sing You A Thousand Love Songs -   Tommy Dorsey Orchestra: 6. I'm In A Dancing Mood -   Jan Garber & His Orchestra: 7. The Night Is Young And You Are So Beautiful -   Ray Noble & His Orchestra vocal Al Bowlly: 8. Easy To Love -   Vocal chorus by Bob Hannon: 9. With Plenty Of Money And You (Oh! Baby, What I Couldn’t Do) -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 10. Goodnight My Love -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 11. When My Dreamboat Comes Home -   Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra: 12. There's Something In The Air -   Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra: 13. Trust In Me -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 14. This Year’s Kisses -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians: 15. Boo Hoo -   Abe Lyman & His Californians: 16. Little Old Lady -   Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy: 17. What Will I Tell My Heart -   Ray Noble & His Orchestra: 18. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm -   Fats Waller And His Rhythm: 19. You're Laughing At Me -   Mantovani & His Tipica Orchestra: 20. Serenade In The Night -   Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra: 21. Moonlight And Shadows -   Music In The Russ Morgan Manner: 22. When The Poppies Bloom Again -   Bing Crosby:23. Too Marvellous For Words - Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra: 24. Where Are You -  

CD2:
Bing Crosby: 1. Sweet Is The Word For You -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians vocals Carmen Lombardo: 2. September In The Rain -   Billie Holiday With Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra: 3. Carelessly -   Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra:  4. The Love Bug Will Bite You -   Bing Crosby: 5. Never In A Million Years -   Anson Weeks & His Orchestra: 6. How Could You -   Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra: 7. There's A Lull In My Life -   Bing Crosby: 8. Blue Hawaii -   Fred Astaire: 9. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off -   Bing Crosby: 10. Sweet Leilani -   Fred Astaire: 11. They Can't Take That Away From Me -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians vocals Lebert Lombardo: 12. It Looks Like Rain In Cherry Blossom Lane -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians vocals Carmen Lombardo: 13. A Sailboat In The Moonlight -   Music In The Russ Morgan Manner : 14. The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down -   Frances Langford: 15. Was It Rain -   Dolly Dawn & Her Dawn Patrol: 16. The You And Me That Used To Be -   Hal Kemp & His Orchestra: 17. Where Or When -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians vocals Carmen Lombardo: 18. I Know Now -   Horace Heidt & His Brigadiers: 19. Gone With The Wind -   Kay Kyser & His Orchestra: 20. Cause My Baby Says It’s So -   Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians vocals Carmen Lombardo: 21. So Rare -   Bunny Berigan & His Orchestra: 22. The First Time I Saw You -   Ted Fiorito & His Orchestra: 23. Tomorrow Is Another Day -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 24. Satan Takes A Holiday -  

CD3:
Music In The Russ Morgan Manner: 1. Stop You're Breaking My Heart -   Bob Crosby & His Orchestra: 2. Whispers In The Dark -   Tommy Dorsey & His Clambake Seven: 3.My Cabin Of Dreams -   4. Stardust On The Moon -   Benny Goodman & His Orchestra: 5. Afraid To Dream -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 6. Have You Got Any Castles, Baby -   Shep Fields & His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra: 7. That Old Feeling -   Hudson-De Lange Orchestra: 8. Yours And Mine -   Claude Thornhill & His Orchestra: 9. Harbour Lights -   Bing Crosby: 10. Remember Me -   11. The Moon Got In My Eyes -   Ozzie Nelson & His Orchestra: 12. Roses In December -   Bing Crosby: 13. The One Rose (That's Left In My Heart) -   Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra: 14. You Can't Stop Me From Dreaming -   Dick Robertson Orchestra: 15. Blossoms On Broadway -   Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees: 16. Vieni, Vieni -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 17. You And I Know -   Russ Morgan & His Orchestra: 18. Farewell, My Love -   Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra: 19. If It's The Last Thing I Do -   20. Once In A While -   Bing Crosby: 21. I Still Love To Kiss You Goodnight -   Fred Astaire: 22. Nice Work if You Can Get It -   Bunny Berigan & His Orchestra: 23. Ebb Tide -   Bing Crosby: 24. There's A Goldmine In The Sky -   Swing & Sway with Sammy Kaye: 25. Rosalie -   Larry Clinton & His Orchestra with Bea Wain: 26. True Confessions -