Frankie Laine made a commercial comeback with the gold-selling "Moonlight Gambler" during the winter of 1956-1957, his first Top Ten hit since 1953. With the further impetus being the success of the then-recent
Johnny Mathis compilation,
Johnny's Greatest Hits (the first-ever "greatest-hits" album), Columbia Records assembled
Frankie Laine's Greatest Hits, a 12-track album leading off with "Moonlight Gambler" and also featuring
Laine's biggest hits of the early '50s on Columbia, "Jezebel," "Rose, Rose, I Love You," "Jealousy (Jalousie)," "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)," and "I Believe." The label eschewed
Laine's duet hits with
Jo Stafford,
Doris Day, and
Jim Boyd, and also ignored some Top Ten hits in favor of re-recordings of two of the singer's biggest hits during his Mercury Records period, "That's My Desire" and "That Lucky Old Sun," in addition to a couple of lesser hits and a couple of non-hits. ~ William Ruhlmann