I think Tony's had more "Greatest Hits" collections that anyone ever. This one is the first. You can kinda see his evolution from belter to more of a controlled capital-S "Singer" if you listen to them in chronological order.
Review by William Ruhlmann
Tony Bennett's first hits collection chronicles his initial seven years as a recording artist, during which he frequently was found in the singles charts. Among this album's 12 selections, nine are chart songs: "Because of You" (number one for ten weeks, 1951), "Cold, Cold Heart" (number one for six weeks, 1951), "Rags to Riches" (number one for eight weeks, 1953), "Stranger in Paradise" (number two in 1954), "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" (number seven, 1954), "Just in Time" (number 46, 1956), "In the Middle of an Island" (number nine, 1957), "Ca, C'est L'amour" (number 22, 1957), and "Young and Warm and Wonderful" (number 23, 1958). Also featured is Bennett's non-charting debut single, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," a tango complete with castanets that first gained him notice. In retrospect, early Bennett is not Bennett at his best -- the song selection and arrangements are often so idiosyncratic and gimmicky they border on being novelty material, and the artist often over-sings in a mock-operatic style. But his intonation is always clear, his confidence always apparent. And there remains a historical interest -- this is Tony Bennett as pop idol, and he carries it off.
01 - Stranger In Paradise.flac
02 - Cold Cold Heart.flac
03 - Because Of You.flac
04 - Rags To Riches.flac
05 - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.flac
06 - Young And Warm And Wonderful.flac
07 - In The Middle Of An Island.flac
08 - Ca C'est L'amour.flac
09 - Just In Time.flac
10 - There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight.flac
11 - Anywhere I Wander.flac
12 - Sing You Sinners.flac
All info from here: http://www.steve-albin.com/Artists/Bennett/index.html
04/04/1951 CO 45194 Because Of You (Arthur Hammerstein, Dudley Wilkinson)
05/31/1951 CO 45833 Cold, Cold Heart (Hank Williams)
*+ 08/26/1952 CO 48153 Anywhere I Wander (Frank Loesser)
03/17/1953 CO 48927 Rags To Riches (Richard Adler, Jerry Ross)
10/13/1953 CO 49845 Stranger In Paradise (Bob Wright, Chet Forrest, A. Borodin)
* 12/04/1953 CO 50410 There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight (Unknown)
12/15/1955 CO 54247 Sing You Sinners (Sam Coslow)
(originally recorded in 1950, this is the "hit" version)
02:28 09/13/1956 CO 56606 Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (Harry Warren, Al Dubin)
Recorded THREE times before -- as a demo, as a "hit" (available on the box set), and then again, then this one
02:46 09/19/1956 CO 56628 Just In Time (Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne)
02:18 06/19/1957 CO 57975 In The Middle Of An Island (Unknown)
* 09/19/1957 CO 59855 Ca, C'est L'amour (Cole Porter)
* 04/09/1958 RHCO 40755 Young And Warm And Wonderful (Unknown)
* = only 12" vinyl appearance in on this set (and the stereo version)
+ = no cd appearance ever
LP > Rega P1 with Ortofon Super 30 > TC-750LC > E-Mu 0202 > Adobe Audition 3 (AA) @ 96kHz 32bit float > Manual click removal in AA > Click Repair set @ 20 > Equalizer (from the ClickRepair guy) used to combine into mono) > AA used to balance L/R, split tracks, fade in/out, and for manual click removal > RX Advanced to resample > RA Advanced to dither MBIT+ > TLH to FLAC and sector align (16bit, pad) > MP3 Tagger to edit tags.
"16bit" = 16bit at 44.1kHz
"24bit" = 24bit at 96kHz
No music was harmed in the making of this vinyl rip.