Doris Day was not only among the most prodigiously talented singers of the 20th century, but among the most resilient -- that's the only way to explain the worth of this eight-CD set, which encompasses
Day's output 20 years after her initial breakthrough to pop stardom. She was obviously no longer on the cutting edge of music in 1960, the year of the earliest material on this set, but she still makes every note count -- indeed, somewhat ironically, she has the toughest time with some of the songs that come from the movies she was making, yet it was those movies that were doing more than anything else to maintain her active stardom. So "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" is a comparative weak point on a CD that includes "Falling" and "The Blue Train." This set has lots of highlights, including the complete contents and outtakes from the finest album of
Day's entire career,
Duet, a jazz outing cut with
André Previn in 1961. But the unexpected highlight is
Day's cover of a novelty song by
Barry Mann and
Cynthia Weil entitled "Let the Little Girl Limbo" (represented in both single-vocal and dual-vocal versions), which constituted
Day's attempt to pull a
Joanie Sommers-type generational shift -- alas, the song went unreleased in either version until this box set. There's well over an album's worth of unreleased outtakes, as well as rehearsal takes and other oddities, on this 197-song compilation, plus a lavishly illustrated hardcover book that shows the singer off as one of those rare pop culture figures to mix glamour and an honest, earthy charm in equal measure, which -- perhaps -- explains some of the longevity of
Day's appeal, beyond her great set of pipes, which are in evidence throughout this collection.