A nice little package, one that brings together three American releases of music by London's legendary Georgie Fame! First up is the classic Yeh Yeh – a brilliant mix of jazz, soul, and R&B – all filtered through a mod sort of London freshness, as early proof that the city could always take some great things from our own musical roots, and feed it back to us with a whole new flavor! Georgie Fame's no copycat here, though – and the sound is instantly Fame-like – a style that's really not the sort that any Americans were doing at the time, and certainly never this well. Hard-burning Hammond colors most of the tunes here – played with a tightly vamping quality – but it's Georgie's charmingly crackling vocals that really win us over! Titles include "Gimme That Wine", "Pink Champagne", "Monkeying Around", "I Love The Life I Live", "Point Of No Return", "Preach & Teach", "Get On The Right Track Baby", and the hit "Yeh Yeh". Next is Get Away – a great little album from Georgie Fame – with a hard raw soul sound that shows what a big crossover potential he had with the UK soul market – so much so that this batch of material was issued in the US as well! The album's got some wonderful arrangements – quite raw, with some nice organ, and plenty of heavy vocals from Georgie in a strong blue eyed soul mode. Titles include "Sitting In The Park", "Get Away", "Sweet Thing", "Ride Your Pony", "The In Crowd", "Last Night", and "Music Talk". Hall Of Fame is a bit of a best-of – a record that features some singles, and some album tracks – the latter of which aren't included here, as they'd be duplicated. The remaining material is Fame at his raw early best – working in a great soulful style, with plenty of jazzy charms – on cuts that include "Outrage", "Lil Darlin", "Sunny", "In The Meantime", "Something", "Do Re Mi", and Fame's own "Like We Used To Be". CD also features 9 more bonus tracks, some live recordings – titles that include "Bend A Little", "Telegram", "It Ain't Right", "Don't Make Promises", "Many Happy Returns", "I'm In Love With You", "Shop Around", "Green Onions", and "Do The Dog". CD

Some of our favorite work ever from the mighty Georgie Fame – key tracks from his years on CBS – when he was really moving past straight jazz, into a whole great style of his own! First up is the full album Georgie Does His Thing With Strings – a set that has Georgie Fame singing with a host of string-heavy backings from the great Keith Mansfield! Given Mansfield's roots in the sound library scene, the style here is never as sleepy or hokey as you might expect from the "strings" in the title – but there is a moodier, mellower approach than you'd hear on other Fame albums – a style that's partially aimed at older jazz vocal modes, but which also echoes with sounds of the Scott Walker generation – a newly mature mode that's a really great fit for Georgie's unique style of singing, and which exposes yet another amazing side of his seemingly limitless talents! There's always a nice sense of warmth and wit going on – one that keeps these tunes from just being the usual sort of standard vocal fare of the period – and Mansfield's backings have a lean quality that often pulses with a very gentle groove at the bottom. Titles include "Who's Kissing You Blues", "Girl Talk", "This Guy's In Love With You", "A House Is Not A Home", "Woe Is Me", "Need Your Love So Bad", and "Guess Who I Saw Today". Next is the rare Knock On Wood EP – with four songs that include the title track, plus "Close The Door", "All I'm Asking", and "Didn't Want To Have To Do It". THEN – the CD adds in 21 more bonus tracks – almost all non-album single cuts by Fame from the late 60s and start of the 70s – most of which have never been reissued, and are a flurry of mad soul, clever vocals, and lots of hip instrumental twists – all delivered with that undeniable Georgie Fame charm. Titles include "Down Along The Cover", "Seventh Son", "No Thanks", "Try My World", "Bidin My Time", "For Your Pleasure", "Kentucky Child", "Peaceful", "Entertaining Mr Sloan", "Someday Man", and "The Movie Star Song". CD

A pair of late 60s Columbia classics from Tony Bennett – back to back on a single CD! First up is Tony Makes It Happen – a very jazzy album, with a group that features Joe Wilder and Joe Newman on trumpets, Urbie Green on trombone, Joe Soldo on flute, and orchestrations from Marion Evans – all of whom really bring out those unique qualities that set Bennett apart from so many other singers in his generation! Where a Vic Damone might have used his inherent richness to push things over the top, the maturing Tony is a master of restraint – still able to run the full gamut of his amazing range, but set up with these beautiful arrangements that bring some adult understanding to the tunes, in a beautifully subtle vibe. Titles include "What Makes It Happen", "I Don't Know Why", "Can't Get Out Of This Mood", "She's Funny That Way", "A Beautiful Friendship", and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore". Next is Yesterday I Heard The Rain – fantastically mature work from Tony Bennett – a record that follows in that great direction the singer was taking in the 60s – delivering sophisticated vocals that didn't care much for the charts, but which really stand the test of time as the years go by! As on some of Tony's best from the period, arrangements are by Torrie Zito – whose careful orchestrations always let Bennett's vocals soar out in the lead, while also hitting some occasional flourishes that bring just the slight touch of drama to the music – but never in the over the top styles of some of his contemporary! Space is the key here – lots of space between the words and the notes – which makes even simpler songs sound pretty darn amazing. Titles include "Sweet Georgie Fame", "Fool Of Fools", "Only The Young", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Yesterday I Heard The Rain", and a surprisingly great version of "Hushabye Mountain". CD

There's few folks who know the British mod scene better than Eddie Piller – as the DJ and head of Acid Jazz records has done plenty in recent decades to both give exposure to older British groups who never got their due, and also help some contemporary mod combos get the exposure they deserve! Yet here, Eddie's going way back to the roots – to present a set of tracks that really gets at the full scope of musical genius that exploded on the British scene in the mid 60s – not music that us Americans were digging in the Brit Invasion, but grittier groups who were drawing heavily from soul, jazz, and R&B – and really setting the scene for all the musical changes that were beginning to take place in England. At some level, this might be the first moment where British groups really started to diverge from American rockers – something you can definitely hear in the way the rhythms, vocals, and instrumentation come together – superbly directed through Piller's great choice of material. 4CD set features a massive 100 tracks in all – with work from Sharon Tandy, The Eyes, Carnaby, The Creation, Birds, Fleur De Lys, Syndicats, Wynder K Frog, Bluesology, Love Affair, PP Arnold, Apostolic Intervention, Alan Bown Set, The Quik, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Georgie Fame, Small Faces, High Numbers, Artwoods, Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band, Richard Kent Style, Dusty Springfield, The Organisers, Tony & Tandy, and Jimmy James & The Vagabonds. Sleeve notes from mod author Paul Anderson – in a cool book-styled package with photos as well! CD

A really well-done set from the solo stretch of Andy Fairweather-Low – music that's a lot more down to earth than the sounds created by his earlier group – at a level that mixes roots rock performance with maybe just a slight touch of sharper production – all handled beautifully in the studio by producer Glyn Johns! There's definitely some elements here that mark that shift to more rural inspirations on the British scene in the early 70s – but those are offset by more than enough well-crafted guitar solos, and contributions from a hip lineup of guests that includes Georgie Fame, Jimmy Jewel, Gerry Rafferty, and Kenney Jones. Titles include "Jump Up & Turn Around", "Halfway To Everything", "8 Ton Crazy", "Grease It Up", "Wide Eyed & Legless", and "Inner City Highwayman". CD

A great batch of songs by legendary New Orleans R&B and soul producer Dave Bartholomew – recorded by a sprawling line-up of soul, pop, R&B and rockers – another revelatory set in the Ace Records series of songwriter compilations! The numbers here stretch back to the 50s and continue up to the end of the 60s/start of the 70s – with Bartholomew-penned tunes done here by Fats Domino, Shirley & Lee, Elvis Presley, Johnny Burnette, Brenda Lee, Georgie Fame, Bobby Charles, Tami Lynn, Bobby Mitchell, Dave Bartholomew himself and many more! 25 tracks in all: "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino, "Ain't Gonna Do It" by The Pelicans, "Blue Monday" by Georgie Fame & The Blue Fames, "Sick And Tired" by Neville Grant, "One Night Of Sin" by Tami Lynn, "The Big Beat" bh The Del Vikings, "The Monkey" by Dave Bartholomew and many more. CD