Throughout Steve Morse’s memorable career he has written music that draws on hard rock, country, British fusion and baroque classical. Angelfire, the debut album from his latest project of the same name, finds Morse applying his gifts to yet another genre: acoustic vocal music.

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!

Three CD collection from the legendary crooner. Though his commercial peak was in the '60s and '70s, Williams has continued to stay busy over the decades by touring, recording and headlining his own Moon River Theater in Branson, MO. He also remains popular in the UK and Europe, where he has frequently toured over the years. This triple disc set features 60 classics including 'Moon River', 'Can't Get Used To Losing You' and many more tracks including a dozen Christmas favorites.

Marilyn Monroe was not much of a recording artist per se, but she sang in many of her motion pictures. This European two-CD set presents dialogue and musical performances drawn directly from the soundtracks to the movie musicals Ladies of the Chorus, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The River of No Return, and There's No Business Like Show Business. She also sings briefly in non-musicals Niagra, Bus Stop, and The Prince and the Showgirl, plays "Chopsticks" in The Seven Year Itch, and exchanges witticisms with Groucho Marx in Love Happy; and there are a few stray non-movie song recordings. The second half of the second disc is taken up by miscellaneous recordings, not all of them musical, including a TV commercial, the presentation of several awards (she says, "Thank you"), radio sketches with Edgar Bergen and Jack Benny, and Monroe's appearances in Korea (singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend") and at the 1962 birthday party for President Kennedy at which she sang "Happy Birthday".

The voices of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong are among the most personal and beautiful that the history of music has given us, transcending eras, genres and languages. In this wonderful 6-CD box we can find the legacy of this immortal duet including all their key tracks and also some rarities that connoisseurs will surely appreciate. With remastered sound and beautiful cover art, The Complete Anthology is the definitive album of Ella & Louis, which should be on every music collection.

English soul-influenced pop singer and actress who mixed modern dance grooves with vintage-style R&B. Collection includes: 'Affection' (1989); 'Real Love' (1991); 'So Natural' (1993).

"The Concert Sinatra" is one of Frank Sinatra's best records of the early '60s, an album that successfully rearranges a selection of show tunes, primarily those composed by Richard Rodgers, for the concert stage. Nelson Riddle arranged and conducted one of the largest orchestras that had ever supported Frank Sinatra, and his work is light and delicate. Despite the large number of musicians, the music is never overbearing instead, it is grand and sweeping, providing appropriately epic settings for songs like "Lost in the Stars," "You'll Never Walk Alone," and the stunning "Soliloquy." Sinatra is given the opportunity to demonstrate his full emotional range, from the melodrama of "Ol' Man River" to the tender romanticism of "Bewitched," which helps make The Concert Sinatra one of his most fulfilling albums of the era.

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.

Much can be said about the late Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.'s flagship vocalists during the 2000s. The British press and tabloids seemed to focus on her rowdy behavior, heavy consumption of alcohol, and tragic end, but fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humor, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals. Her platinum-selling breakthrough album, Frank (2003), elicited comparisons ranging from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill. Interestingly enough, despite her strong accent and vernacular, one can often hear aspects of each of those singers' vocal repertoires in Winehouse's own voice. Nonetheless, her allure had always been her songwriting – almost always deeply personal but best known for its profanity and brutal candor.

Smokey-voiced chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux's third CD is a lovely collection of after-hours ruminations and should confirm her rise to fame. Credit producer Larry Klein for doing a bang-up job with the album's sound: the elegant, pared-down arrangements are all brushed drums, acoustic guitars, and cool organ licks. But of course it's Peyroux's voice that brings it all home–preferably one where the shades are drawn, embers are smoldering in the fireplace, and the white wine is kept dry. Two-thirds of the songs are well-chosen covers, including a duet with k.d. lang on Joni Mitchell's "River"; a relaxed version of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," from Midnight Cowboy; a delicately lilting samba take on Leonard Cohen and Anjani Thomas's title track; Serge Gainsbourg's "La Javanaise," performed in the original French; and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," from Modern Times. The four originals, all coauthored by Peyroux, easily keep up with such august company, especially "I'm All Right"–written with Klein and Walter Becker, it captures the easy sophistication of Becker's regular band, Steely Dan. Fans of Norah Jones (whose collaborator Jesse Harris cowrote three of the songs) should gobble up this album, but Peyroux is no mere imitator: She's her own, very real thing.

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.

Linda Eder's second album was in effect a follow-up to the 1992 studio cast album of composer Frank Wildhorn's The Scarlet Pimpernel, even repeating a track, "I'll Forget You," from that release. Wildhorn co-produced And So Much More with the singer and wrote or co-wrote eight of its 13 tracks. Eder and Wildhorn conceived of her as a personality singer in the tradition of Barbra Streisand (her vocal timbre inescapably recalled Streisand, but so did her phrasing, which meant the similarity was intended), and the songs tended to be lush, dramatic ballads that gave her plenty of opportunity to emote. For a change of pace, Wildhorn threw in a couple of neo-swing exercises.

Linda Eder's third album demonstrated her growth as a singer; for the first time on one of her records, you could listen through whole songs without being reminded of Barbra Streisand. She remained largely dependent for her material on composer Frank Wildhorn, but at least on this occasion, for the most part, Wildhorn worked on a consistent set of songs with the same lyricist, Jack Murphy; they came up with a varied collection not dominated by generic romantic ballads, though there were a few, especially toward the end. (There were also Wildhorn songs from his musicals Jekyll and Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and The Civil War.)

The best of crooner John Gary is collected on this 20-cut anthology, which runs the gamut from show tunes to romantic ballads and country favorites over the course of songs including "My Foolish Heart," "Once Upon a Time" and "If Ever I Would Leave You." ~ AllMusic Review by Jason Ankeny

Celebrating Vince Hill's 55th Anniversary as a solo singer, the Coventry born singer/songwriter has released over 300 recordings since he began this career and sold in excess of 10 million records in the UK alone. This all-new compilation contains Vince's complete Warner Music-owned Greatest Hits including his 1967 million selling single "Edelweiss" and Top 15 hits "Take Me To Your Heart Again (La Vie En Rose)" and "Look Around (And You'll Find Me There)" alongside highlights from other rare A&B side singles and original studio albums of the time. Also featured are the original film soundtrack songs Vince recorded for motion pictures 'The Railway Children', 'Cast A Giant Shadow' and 'The Long Duel'. All of the recordings have been Digitally Re-mastered from the Original Analogue Master Tapes. The CD album also includes an 8-page booklet with personal message from Vince Hill and detailed track information.