Doris Brett Annie Stories

This 2012 collection of 69 songs on three discs is truly awesome! All songs were mastered from the original Columbia recordings and sound great. Since this collection spans her career (recordings from the 40's, 50's and 60's), a special kudos must go out to the unlisted balance engineer; a very smooth and even run! Classic track after classic track, like The Very Thought Of You (1950), Dream A Little Dream Of Me (1957), Sentimental Journey (1945), It's Magic (1948) and Happy Talk (1961) to name a few. The first eight tracks on Disc #3 are from her great film role, "Calamity Jane," in which she overwhelmed Howard Keel, who was nobody's idea of a second fiddle.

Not every movie soundtrack has to go as hard as it does. The best soundtracks exist outside of the movie, giving you all the feels without all the *drama.* It's like a specially curated mixtape (aka a playlist, duh) from your favorite movie to you. There's often that one, epic song that the movie's known for—the one that plays over the end credits and sends you out of the movie theater with a smile on your face—but then there are some hidden gems that maybe only got a few lines in the film but are utter bangers in their own right. Movie soundtracks = an underrated way to find new music!

Forty-two songs cut between November 1940 and August 1946, and the perfect companion to Bear Family's It's Magic box set – anyone who's been even tempted to own that will have to get this more modestly priced precursor to that material. Day's period singing with Les Brown is, today, regarded with a degree of love and affection reserved for Ella Fitzgerald's era with Chick Webb, or Frank Sinatra's work with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Yet Sony Music's own releases devoted to Doris Day and Les Brown spread the music around to several different CDs, and suffered from sound that, today, seems substandard. These newly remastered tracks, offered in chronological order, including one previously unissued song ("Are You Still in Love with Me"), not only display a far richer, warmer sound, but have been presented with the kind of care that is normally reserved for the best parts of a label's catalog – which these sides definitely are. Day's voice during this period (she was 16 when she cut her first sides with Brown) was an astonishingly expressive instrument.