3 am Kisses

On December 3, 1963, at age 62, when most folks are thinking about retirement, Louis Armstrong recorded the sprightly "Hello, Dolly!," the title song for a Broadway show. Thus began a six year-long series of recordings that brought arguably most important 20th Century musician back into the limelight and, in fact, gave him his greatest recording successes ever.

Part of the ongoing PLAYLIST series of budget-priced single artist anthologies in minimal eco-friendly packaging, PLAYLIST: THE VERY BEST OF MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER is a solid overview of the country-folk singer-songwriter's career. All of Carpenter's best known songs are here in these 14 tracks, from the Cajun stomp of "Down at the Twist and Shout" to the jangly pop-rockers "I Take My Chances" and "He Thinks He'll Keep Her." The package also includes a CD-ROM data track that contains complete liner notes and photos.