Fran Warren - The Complete Fran Warren with Claude Thornhill

The Complete Fran Warren with Claude Thornhill

By Fran Warren

Very Good Condition

As the title suggests, The Complete Fran Warren With Claude Thornhill collects all 14 tracks that Warren recorded with Thornhill, including her signature song "A Sunday Kind of Love." "Look for the Silver Lining," "I Remember Mama," and "You're Not So Easy to Forget" are some of the other highlights of this digitally remastered compilation, which finds both Warren and Thornhill at the peak of their creative powers. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

A Review:

Only 19 years old when she made these recordings with the Claude Thornhill orchestra, Fran Warren (nee Frances Wolfe) already had been on the road with four other big bands over a three-year period, including the Charlie Barnet and Billy Eckstine groups. It helps explain how a nineteen-year-old Jewish girl from the Bronx developed the skill and maturity to perform as she did on these sides with Thornhill. Hearing these vocals, one briefly thinks of Bea Wain, occasionally of Judy Garland. But neither Wain nor Garland produced the dynamic range and tonal subtleties on display here.

Collectors' Choice Music issued the CD in the year 2000, in the middle of the ten-year span over which Hep Records issued the complete Claude Thornhill recorded legacy - each one of which this reviewer hungrily acquired as it became available. For that reason I passed on this CD at the time. A mistake, as I recently discovered after finally buying it. The excellent transfers - presumably from Columbia masters - showcase the dynamic range, subtlety, and power of Warren's voice and of Thornhill's orchestra better than any other CD in my collection. In liner notes for one of the Hep CDs, Alistair Robertson aptly described Thornhill's recordings - including the vocals - as "overwhelmingly beautiful music." Buy this CD and experience it for yourself.