Dick Long

Since Dick Haymes, like most of the popular artists of his era (the 1940s), has been the victim of endless low-budget, low-quality European compilations taking advantage of the continent's 50-year copyright limitation, it is refreshing to report that this collection by British label Half Moon consists of recordings licensed from Universal/MCA, copyright holder of Haymes' original Decca recordings. What that means, first, is that the sound quality is noticeably better than what you have to put up with on the fly-by-night competitors. Haymes' 45 singles chart entries on Decca between 1943-1951 are too numerous to be contained on one CD, and this 23-track disc with a 69-minute running time is inevitably missing some hits (notably the Top Fives "The Old Master Painter" and "Maybe It's Because"). But most of Haymes' big solo hits for Decca are included, along with a few of his hit duets with Helen Forrest, and the album can be recommended as providing the highlights of the singer's most popular period.

Dick Jensen - Dick Jensen (1973) {2013 Remastered - Big Break Records CDBBR 0202}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 191 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 68 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 85 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 2012 Philadelphia International Records / Sony Music / Big Break Records / Cherry Red Records | CDBBR 0202
Soul / Pop / Easy Listening

DICK JENSEN is arguable the greatest music entertainer to hail from the Pacific paradise islands of Hawaii. Immersing himself on native Hawaiian sounds and the Pop, Soul, Country and Rock music he heard on radio, it wasn’t long before this Blue-Eyed Soul vocalist began to catch attention across the music world. After spending the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s wowing crowds from Las Vegas to Mexico City and his native Hawaii, where he supported The Rolling Stones on their 1966 US tour (his exuberant dance moves were likened to James Brown and Jackie Wilson), and releasing a number of well received records on various labels Jensen found himself signed to the legendary Philadelphia International Records in 1972.

Bernard Herrmann, born in New York in 1911 to Russian immigrants, is best known today as a composer of film music. Most notably he worked with Alfred Hitchcock on classic productions such as North by Northwest, Vertigo, and Psycho, as well as on Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. But despite his strong ties to Hollywood, Herrmann always thought of himself as a composer who worked in film, and never as a ‘mere’ film composer.