Dancer, actor, and singer Fred Astaire worked steadily in various entertainment media during nine decades of the 20th century. The most celebrated dancer in the history of film, with appearances in 31 movie musicals between 1933 and 1968 (and a special Academy Award in recognition of his accomplishments in them), Astaire also danced on-stage and on television (garnering two Emmy Awards in the process), and he even treated listening audiences to his accomplished tap dancing on records and on his own radio series. He appeared in another eight non-musical feature films and on numerous television programs, resulting in an Academy Award nomination and a third Emmy Award as an actor. His light tenor voice and smooth, conversational phrasing made him an ideal interpreter for the major songwriters of his era, and he introduced dozens of pop standards, many of them written expressly for him, by such composers as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Burton Lane, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Arthur Schwartz, Harry Warren, and Vincent Youmans.
He may be white and British but Dave Rodigan played a crucial role in spreading the word of British reggae.I recall his shows on Radio london (ignoring Tony Williams) and he educated me in things reggae.
This CD highlights some defining tracks which eventually bought about the term Lover's Rock.Anyone with a slight interest in reggae will recognise the likes of Ruddy Thomes,Horace Andy,Barry Biggs,The Tamlins and Louisa marks.All these artists deserved international hits with the tracks on offer here.Sadly,as always, reggae has not often attracted mainstream airplay unless the record has a gimmicky hook. This set also demonstrates how the likes of Dennis Bovell added British influences on reggae music production and then the likes of Sugar Minnott took them back to Jamaica.
A great choice of cuts and a great intro to Lover's Rock.