This volume of From the Vault highlights early Capitol Records hits by the ladies of the tower, so to speak. Individual talents such as
Jo Stafford,
Anita O'Day, and
Peggy Lee began to emerge from many top orchestras and soon became Vine Street divas in their own right. The timing for this incipient wave of girl power couldn't have been better -- since WW II was preoccupying many of the country's top male vocalists. The extensive selection of musical genres on the label didn't hurt either. Among the most popular of these were show tunes.
Jo Stafford led her fellow female artists scoring Top Ten hits with songs from both stage and screen.
Vine Street Divas includes two
Stafford classics -- "Long Ago (And Far Away)" from the film Cover Girl, as well as "Some Enchanted Evening" from the stage adaptation of South Pacific. Among the other soundtrack or cast recordings featured on this compilation are
Ella Mae Morse's "Shoo-Shoo Baby" from the motion picture Three Cheers for the Boys," and
Betty Hutton's classic "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" as featured in The Stork Club. This volume has cleverly gathered rare and hard to find early recordings by ladies who quickly gained international acclaim -- such as
Anita O'Day ("And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine,")
June Christy ("It's Been a Long, Long Time"), and
Margaret Whiting -- who is featured with no less than three different orchestras on this collection.
Vine Street Divas is accompanied by a ten-page liner notes booklet containing vintage memorabilia, photos, and other previously unpublished eye candy. Plus, to fill in the details is an essay by musician and music historian,
Billy Vera. Initial pressings -- limited to 10,000 -- are cleverly packaged in a digipack designed to replicate the 78 rpm records and sleeves of the era. ~ Lindsay Planer