Glenn Miller - The Golden Years: 1938-1942

UK budget-priced 4 CD compilation for the big band legend. Featuring 98 tracks including all his most popular tunes of the period. Includes 44 page booklet with his story, discography, session details & many rare photos. The CDs are Moonlight Serenade, In The Mood, Blueberry Hill & Chattanooga Choo Choo. Standard jewel cases houdes in a slip-box. 2001 release. Album Description

Excellent sound quality and great selections

I've only recently "discovered" that I like Big Band music. We Boomers grew up loving our rock 'n roll and mostly thought of the Glenn Miller Band and others like it as relics of our parents' days in the Depression and World War II. After rap came to the forefront of popular "music", I listened to Classical music exclusively and got very comfortable with the music of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and many others.

Through a series of odd coincidences I tuned in several times to an AM radio station here in Colorado Springs that plays a lot of orchestral and band music from the 30's through the early 60's. To my surprise, I found myself listening to all this stuff from Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and others.

Lo and behold, I was completely captivated by this delightful music. It's so, well, civilized! It's joyous, lovely, whole-hearted American music from a time when we were truly at our best as a nation. Moreover, it's masterfully constructed, and, in this collection, performed as well as I could have hoped for.

The search began for a good GM collection that "had it all", and I spent a lot of time here on Amazon browsing literally dozens of offerings, listening to samples for hours, and reading many fine, informative reviews. I knew that there was a great variance of opinion about the quality of the audio transfers, and not a few people were very upset about the noise of scratches, pops, and thin, "tinny" reproduction along with an overall loss of full fidelity.

This research by a complete neophyte in the subject material led me to the conclusion that I definitely wanted a collection that had the 18 songs I wanted most, including many of those the band is so well known for. This 4-CD set was the only one that had them, except for one much larger set that costs quite a lot. I got mine through MovieMars, one of the Amazon dealers, and everything was perfect.

This set is ideal in every way. It has superb audio quality with none of the distractions that evidently exist in some other collections. Here, the sound envelope is fully reproduced: you can hear the bass viols clearly without any "muddiness"; the reed instruments are sharp and bright without being shrill and tinny; the brass is clear and mellow, but also bold; the vocals are warm and round with the singers' resonance.

Well, that's the recommendation of an admitted newcomer to all this. Don't wait too long to decide on this collection because I've seen that the availabilities and prices for it fluctuate quite a lot.


November 1, 2007

Best yet

This is the best collection of Glenn Miller! It doesn't sound "tinny" like so many remastered CDs. The only one you need. May 14, 2007

I love this stuff!

I think I was born in the wrong time! I love this old stuff. March 22, 2007

A wonderful musical document

This box-set is an wonderful musical document, and an exceptional value for the money. The 40-page booklet of bio, session & discography info makes for pleasant reading while listening. I'm going to enjoy this for a long time. The only minor disappointment was that the compiler was unable to find room for "St. Louis Blues March", a personal favorite & memorable selection from Hollywood's The Glenn Miller Story (1953) -- an excellent film, the DVD of which is also available here on Amazon. March 12, 2007

Greatest Collection Ever!

If you love Big Band, This set is a must have.! Definitely worth the money! March 12, 2007

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