• Track Listing

Guy Lombardo was a hugely successful bandleader, violinist and conductor whose orchestra played the "sweet" style of dance band and easy listening music which appealed to the broad spectrum of middle America during the 1930s through the '40s and into the early '50s during what is sometimes called the golden age of popular music. He was so extraordinarily successful over a period spanning more than a quarter of a century that his tally of hit records - over 200 - is so long that we have decided to spread the recordings over two 4-CD sets, of which this is Volume 1. This great-value 103-track CD comprises most of his recordings for the Victor and Decca labels during the second era of his hit-making career which were credited with a Top 20 chart position in Joel Whitburn's "Pop Memories" or Elston Brooks' "The Weekly Top Ten Tunes For The Last Fifty Years" books, the Your Hit Parade chart, or, after 1940, any of the Billboard charts. It includes hits with Hildegarde, The Andrews Sisters and Gloria de Haven, and among his own featured vocalsist are Carmen Lombardo, Larry Owen, Fred Higman, Kenny Gardner, Billy Leach, Tony Craig, Stuart Foster, Jimmy Brown, Don Rodney, Bill Flanagan and Kenny Martin. It features 15 No. 1s, including "Stars Fell On Alabama", "What's The Reason (I'm Not Pleasin' You)", "Red Sails In The Sunset", "Lost", "September In The Rain", "A Sail Boat In The Moonlight", "So Rare", "Penny Serenade", "Managua-Nicaragua" and "The Third Man Theme". Along with the companion set "The Guy Lombardo Hits Collection Vol. 1 1927-37" (Acrobat ACQCD7139) it represents a comprehensive and enjoyable overview of his hit-making career.