The third volume of the German History label's 15-CD box set The History of Pop Radio covers the first three full years of the Depression, a period when the dance-band music of the 1920s gave way to the era of the crooners. Those radio-trained voices are much in evidence here, with
Rudy Vallée,
Bing Crosby, and
Russ Columbo taking their turns before the microphone. Vocal groups are also prominent, with
the Rhythm Boys (albeit unbilled in the album's credits), the Waring Girls, and the popular German group
the Comedian Harmonists putting in appearances. Consistent with other volumes, this one mixes some of the era's biggest hits (
Vallée's "Stein-Song," bandleader
Leo Reisman's "Night and Day," here credited to vocalist
Fred Astaire) with well-remembered standards from the era (
Marlene Dietrich's signature song, "Falling in Love Again,"
Mildred Bailey's signature song, "Rockin' Chair") and some oddities. Though the word "radio" appears in the title, the tracks, their sources unidentified, do not seem to be radio broadcasts, but either studio or soundtrack recordings. In particular, three successive songs -- "Happy Feet," "Ragamuffin Romeo," and "So the Bluebirds and the Blackbirds" -- are from the 1930 film King of Jazz, which starred
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra. Even when the tracks themselves are not obviously drawn from soundtracks, the selections lean toward film stars, among them
Astaire,
Crosby,
Dietrich,
Vallée,
Gene Autry,
Fanny Brice, and
Maurice Chevalier. The sound quality ranges from good to excellent, with the better-sounding tracks -- in particular "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" and "We're in the Money" -- having such high fidelity you can't help wondering if the compilers transferred them from other CDs rather than the vinyl records that seem to have been the primary source for the material. ~ William Ruhlmann