Artist	Song
NAT KING COLE TRIO (Hit That Jive Jack: The Earliest Recordings, 1990)	THIS WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH (Higginbotham)
LOUIS ARMSTRONG (Let's Do It: The Best of the Verve Years, 1965)	LET'S DO IT, LET'S FALL IN LOVE (Arlen/Koehler)
BOBBY DARRIN (Hello Young Lovers, 1994)	HELLO YOUNG LOVERS (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
SAMMY DAVIS, JR (Decca Years, 1990)	HEY THERE (Adler/Ross)
AL HIBBLER (The Very Best of Al Hibbler, 1998)	AFTER THE LIGHTS GO DOWN LOW (Belmonte/Lovett)
JIMMY RUSHING & COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA (Count Basie: Complete Decca Recordings (1937-1939), )	SENT FOR YOU YESTERDAY (AND HERE YOU COME TODAY) (Durham/Rushing)
JIMMY RUSHING (Brand New Wagon: Count Basie 1947, 1990)	HEY, PRETTY BABY (Nemo)
JOE WILLIAMS (Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years, 1993)	EVERY NIGHT (Williams)
ARTHUR PRYSOCK (Songs That Made Him Famous, )	I DIDN'T SLEEP A WINK LAST NIGHT (Lee/Biggs/Thomas)
ARTHUR PRYSOCK (Jazz `Round Midnight: Ballads, 1993)	I'M THROUGH WITH LOVE (Livingston/Malneck/Kahn)
BILLY ECKSTINE (Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter, 1986)	AUTUMN LEAVES (Kosma/Mercer/Prevert)
HOAGY CARMICHAEL (Hoagy Sings Carmichael, 1956)	GEORGIA ON MY MIND (Carmichael/Gorrell)
BILL HENDERSON (With the Oscar Peterson Trio, 1963)	I'VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOU (George & Ira Gershwin)
CHET BAKER (I Hear Singing, 1995)	I'VE NEVER BEEN IN LOVE BEFORE (Loesser)
JOHNNY HARTMAN (The Gentle Side of John Coltrane, 1992)	LUSH LIFE (Strayhorn)
JOHNNY HARTMAN (I Just Dropped By To Say Hello, 1988)	IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING (Hillard/Mann)
JON HENDRICKS (At the Trident, Sausalito, California, 1963, 1965)	ONE ROSE (Mahones/Hendricks)
MEL TORME (In Hollywood, 1992)	SEPTEMBER SONG (Anderson/Weill)
MEL TORME (In Hollywood, 1992)	THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC (Mercer/Arlen)
FRED ASTAIRE (Night and Day, 1992)	I CONCENTRATE ON YOU (Cole Porter)
FRANK SINATRA (In the Wee Small Hours, 1955)	WHEN YOUR LOVER HAS GONE (Swan)

Comment:

I have lots of recordings of great women singers doing ballads, you know, the standard Ella, Dinah, Sarah, Billie, Blossom, etc. Where are the boys? The inspiration for this was a CD entitled "Balladeers" which I didn't think was so good, so I expanded on it. The real find here for me was Arthur Pryock, who I didn' know at all. Torme's version of OLD BLACK MAGIC is pretty great. Hoagy's version of GEORGIA is both tender and swinging. And the Frank finisher is a time-honored tear-jerker. Just in time for Valentine's Day ... a really good slow-dancing collection that stays mostly out of the maudlin.

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