This solid collection may strike June Christy fans as a little ironic because rather than stock her albums with standards the way that most of her peers did, the West Coast jazz vocalist was known for unearthing new and obscure songs. It's not that Christy neglected standards (in fact she recorded dozens of them over her 12-year run with Capitol Records), it's just that one gets the feeling that when she sang something like "I'm Glad There Is You" it was because she had something fresh or unique to bring to it. And she does put her own personal and idiosyncratic stamp on 20 of the songs here while two tunes haven't been recorded enough to become standards (the undeservedly obscure "Cry Like the Wind" and the swing-era novelty "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon"). So, when you add the song selection to the fact that this disc features the vocalist in orchestral, small-group jazz and big-band settings, the disc not only offers a much more complete portrait of the artist than the title suggests, but this is also one of the strongest entries in EMI's Sings the Standards series.

Up until he suffered a stroke at age 70 in 1996, singer Mel Tormé continued to improve with age and seemed to have inexhaustible energy. This four-CD set from Rhino does a fine job of covering Tormé's pre-Concord output, although the omission of his Concord work of 1986-1995 is unfortunate for that catalog contains many of Tormé's most exciting recordings. In general, the earlier selections (some of which were with his vocal group the Mel-Tones) feature Tormé on hip (for the period) swing tunes and ballads. Things greatly improve once the singer reaches the year 1975 and there are enough high points throughout the set to justify its purchase by Tormé's many fans. Three previously unreleased selections (best is "Walkin' Shoes" with Shorty Rogers in 1962) are a plus and the colorful 84-page booklet is quite definitive.

Matt Monro was a regular feature of the British singles charts between 1960 and 1965, after which he had only one other UK hit (And you smiled, a top thirty entry in 1973, not released on an original album, only on compilations). Despite the lack of hits, Matt's music remained popular with adult audiences. So there are none of Matt's own hits on the two albums presented here, but you'll find plenty of familiar (and not-so-familiar) songs via Matt's covers of pop songs from the sixties and early seventies, as well as older songs from the Great American Songbook.

Astrud Gilberto's entry in the nicely appointed Verve Jazz Masters compilation series shows exactly why the Brazilian singer is deserving of such an accolade. In her '60s heyday, Gilberto was often derided by jazz purists for her vibrato-less "desafinado" (deliberately slightly off-pitch) singing style and deadpan, childlike voice. But the diminutive bossa nova star has since been a huge influence on dozens of jazz and pop singers. VERVE JAZZ MASTERS is less of a greatest hits package than it is a smartly balanced retrospective of many of Gilberto's best performances. Her biggest hits, "Call Me" and "Summer Samba," are not included, and her signature tune, "The Girl From Ipanema," is only represented by a live take from a 1964 Carnegie Hall concert. The collection places equal emphasis on Gilberto's bossa nova-style interpretations of jazz standards and on her signature Portuguese-language sambas.

Long before he'd evolved into a fully-fledged cult figure, Joe Meek was the UK's first fully independent record producer. This unique 2CD set traces his career from his earliest sessions, as a sound balance engineer in the mid-'50s, to his emergence as a major songwriter and hit maker in the early '60s. It includes many of Meek's biggest records, including five UK # 1s by, Anne Shelton, Lonnie Donegan, Frankie Vaughan, Emile Ford and John Leyton, plus several other major million selling hits! Indeed, more than half of the sixty sides included herein were significant UK hits. This set also includes several collectors' rarities, previously unavailable on CD, most notably Gary Miller's unfeasibly-rare 'Moby Dick'. John Fraser's 'Golden Cage' and Geoff Goddard's 'Girl Bride'. If you are looking for what is by far the most interesting Joe Meek-related compilation for years then this is it!

Unbearably handsome opera-pop quartet Il Divo deliver another amorous collection of European housecleaning ballads with Ancora, an album so riddled with Cupid's arrows that it requires its own storage unit. Once again, David Miller, Sébastien Izambard, Urs Buhler, and Carlos Marin bring the love in Spanish, English, and Italian, emoting over classical and opera standards, as well as some notable contemporary compositions. They fawn over Celine Dion – who can barely contain her own affections – on "Isabel," and make Mariah Carey's "Hero" sound like the rolling of credits over a Jerry Bruckheimer action/tragedy blockbuster, all the while maintaining the perfect pitch and impeccable showmanship that are their stock-in-trade.

There's one thing Michael Ball fans can't stop raving about: his voice. And after some questionable song selections on previous albums that didn't do "the voice" justice, Musicals covers the classics – tunes from Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Sunset Boulevard, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Cats all make an appearance. As if to further highlight his vocal talents, Ball tackles some songs normally sung by female characters, such as "I Dreamed a Dream" and "With One Look." Purists may object, but Ball's smooth and subtle vocals work just as well here. The mellow "Losing My Mind" is one of the better songs, while the cheesy sax in "Last Night of the World" makes it only tolerable.

This is an essential package! Whoever put this together obviously knew what they were doing, and all is placed in chronological order. Discs 1-3 are a terrific compilation of material from the MGM years, consisting of commercial recordings of soundtrack materal. If no recording was commercially released, the original soundtrack is used-great for such numbers as "Hoe Down" with Mickey Rooney! But the last disc makes this package essential-here is a pristine soundboard recording of Judy's final performance at the Palace Theater, MYC-2/24/52! She was concluding a 19-week engagement, and the atmosphere is electric. Fantastic stuff!

Seventeen-track anthology focuses mostly on their popular 1963-66 recordings, including "Deep Purple," "Whispering," "Stardust," "All Strung Out," several lower-charting items, and some LP tracks. They milked the "Deep Purple" formula too many times, but this is enjoyably frothy pop, and "All Strung Out" is a genuinely soulful, accurate approximation of Phil Spector's work with the Righteous Brothers. The disc also includes Stevens's 1959 solo single "Teach Me Tiger," a bizarre cover of "I Love How You Love Me" (with battling bagpipes and fuzzy guitars), and one undistinguished track each from 1985 and 1996.

In 1999, Collectors' Choice released Voices in Latin/The Freshman Year, which contained two complete albums – Voices in Latin (1958, originally released on Capitol) and The Freshman Year (1961, originally released on Capitol) – by the Four Freshmen on one compact disc.