Here is the finest double-CD available of one the greatest of all jazz singers. Washingtonian Mildred Rinker (1907-1951) took her first married name to become, as “Mildred Bailey”, the first truly great white jazz singer. In every way she was a big star; she was built on a huge scale, and she outsold all other jazz ladies of the 30s apart from Billie Holiday. Mildred Bailey was known as “The Rockin’ Chair Lady” after her great success with Hoagy Carmichael’s classic, and that provides the title for Retrospective’s tribute. Here are quite simply the 52 finest recordings she made, spanning from her first-ever disc in 1929 (What Kind O’ Man Is You?), through her golden years of the 30s to her full 1947 version of one of her key songs All Of Me.

1. Rockin' Chair

2. What Kind O' Man Is You?

3. Blues In My Heart

4. When It's Sleepy Time Down South

5. Georgia On My Mind

6. Home

7. Harlem Lullaby

8. Lazy Bones

9. Heat Wave

10. Junk Man

11. Ol' Pappy

12. Someday, Sweetheart

13. Willow Tree

14. Honeysuckle Rose

15. Squeeze Me

16. Downhearted Blues

17. A Porter's Love Song To A Chambermaid

18. More Than You Know

19. Smoke Dreams

20. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

21. Trust In Me

22. Where Are You?

23. Never In A Million Years

24. There's A Lull In My Life

25. The Moon Got In My Eyes

1. It's The Natural Thing To Do

2. Bob White, Watcha Gonna Swing Tonight?

3. Thanks For The Memory

4. Lover, Come Back To Me

5. Weekend Of A Private Secretary

6. Please Be Kind

7. Don't Be That Way

8. Says My Heart

9. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart

10. My Melancholy Baby

11. The Lonesome Road

12. So Help Me If I Don't Love You

13. Small Fry

14. My Reverie

15. Old Folks

16. Have You Forgotten So Soon?

17. St. Louis Blues

18. Begin The Beguine

19. ’Tain't What You Do, It's The Way That Cha Do It

20. Gulf Coast Blues

21. Prisoner Of Love

22. Darn That Dream

23. Peace, Brother!

24. Don't Take Your Love From Me

25. Me And The Blues

26. At Sundown

27. All Of Me