DISC ONE
Love Is The Sweetest Thing • Time On My Hands • Lady Of Spain • Lazy Day • Hang Out The Stars In Indiana • Sweet And Lovely • Got A Date With An Angel • Guilty • Hold My Hand • I Was True • By The Fireside • We’ve Got The Moon And Sixpence • Sailin’ On The Robert E. Lee • I Can’t Write The Words • Lying In The Hay • Maybe It’s Because I Love You Too Much • The Old Spinning-Wheel • Roll Up The Carpet • Love Locked Out • Night And Day • My Hat’s On The Side Of My Head • Close Your Eyes • You Ought To See Sally On Sunday • I’ll String Along With You • Over My Shoulder • The Very Thought Of You

DISC TWO
When You’ve Got A Little Springtime In Your Heart • I Never Had A Chance • Judy • The Isle Of Capri • Blue Moon • My Melancholy Baby • Paris In The Spring • Top Hat, White Tie And Tails • Dinner For One Please, James • The Touch Of Your Lips • Easy To Love • I’ve Got You Under My Skin • Where The Lazy River Goes By • Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen • Marie Moonlight On The Highway • Sweet As A Song • Mama, I Wanna Make Rhythm • Music, Maestro, Please! • Penny Serenade • Two Sleepy People • Dreaming • It Was A Lover And His Lass • When That Man Is Dead And Gone (With Jimmy Mesene) • Goodnight, Sweetheart

The perfect 2 CD compendium of all the most famous songs of Al Bowlly, “the voice of the Thirties” – nostalgia at its most potent.

Mozambique-born singer and guitarist Al Bowlly (1899-1941) became Britain’s supreme band vocalist – indeed his voice evokes, as no other, the very spirit of the 30s. He had a rich, smooth, dark voice, which he used with feeling and intelligence, matching the dark, handsomely masculine looks that so affected his female admirers. He was a prolific recording artist, singing with such top bands of the day as Ray Noble, Lew Stone, Carroll Gibbons and Geraldo (Rust’s discography runs to 37 pages!). Since his war-time death he has become a cult figure.

Ray Noble’s No.1 song Love Is The Sweetest Thing – the epitome of 30s romance – gives the title to Retrospective’s definitive collection of Al’s 51 finest. 34 tracks are fronting the Ray Noble orchestra, with whom he toured America 1934/6. Although most famous in Britain, Al notched up many hits in the States, and 19 are included here, among them Ray Noble’s other No.1, The Very Thought Of You, plus The Touch Of Your Lips and Love Locked Out. Other ‘chart-toppers’ include The Old Spinning-Wheel (No.1), The Isle Of Capri (No.1), Paris In The Spring (No.1), I’ve Got You Under My Skin (No.3), Top Hat, White Tie And Tails (No.4), Lady Of Spain (No.5), Hold My Hand (No.5), Sailin’ On The Robert E. Lee (No.5) and Blue Moon (No.5). Most of Al’s other main bands are represented, plus tracks with pianists Monia Liter (The Very Thought Of You) and Violet “Ena Sharples” Carson (Sweet As A Song). The whole anthology ends poignantly with his final recording, with fellow singing guitarist Jimmy Mesene, When That Man Is Dead And Gone (!), before closing with, of course, Ray Noble’s Goodnight, Sweetheart.