Avid presents 25 classic British dance band sides recorded by
Jack Hylton and his orchestra in London and Berlin between July 1927 and December 1939 . The earliest of these, "Me and My Jane in a Plane," was utilized in a rather precarious publicity stunt when the band performed it aboard a low-flying aircraft that circled Blackpool Tower while littering the crowded beachfront with sheet music. "Chinatown, My Chinatown" and "Limehouse Blues" are relics of Tin Pan Alley's peculiarly ignorant fascination with the Ethnic "Other." Sung by
Dolly Elsie, "Boom!" is an Anglicized cover of
Charles Trenet's still-popular novelty hit "Boum!"
Hylton was well-received in Europe between the two World Wars; this compilation contains three recordings made in Berlin: "Wir Wollen Tun, Als Ob Wir Freunde Wären"; "Ich Bin So Scharf Auf Erika" sung by
Siegfried Arno, and "Herr Lehmann, Herr Lehmann, Was Macht Die Frau Gemahlin in Marienbad?" sung by Marcel Wittrisch.