Track Listing

1. (There'll Be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover
2. Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart
3. We'll Meet Again
4. Travellin' Home
5. As Time Goes By
6. Dream
7. Faraway Places
8. Harbour Lights
9. It's A Lovely Day Tomorrow
10. If You Love Me
11. When You Hear Big Ben
12. Yours
13. The Loveliest Night Of The Year
14. Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye
15. Half As Much - Isle Of Innisfree - You Belong To Me
16. Up The Wooden Hill To Bedfordshire
17. When I Grow Too Old To Dream
18. Somewhere Along The Way - Here In My Heart - Let The Rest Of The World Go By
19. I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
20. From The Time You Say Goodbye

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75 in Music
• Released on: 2009-08-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 58 minutes

CD Description
To celebrate seventy years after the end of World War II, this is the very best of Dame Vera Lynn. Twenty beautiful tracks from the original forces sweetheart, including the nations favourite war time songs "We'll Meet Again", "(There'll Be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover" and "As Time Goes By".

Customer Reviews

A WORTHY CHART SUCCESS!
Any compilation claiming to be the "very best of" any artist is likely to be the object of a certain amount of disagreement. This new selection of Vera Lynn recordings is no exception, but at least it is a well-chosen collection from the Dame's wonderful recorded legacy.

No recording dates are provided, but the earliest recording is "Up The Wooden Hill To Bedfordshire" - Vera's first solo record made in 1936. Nowadays there is a tendency to forget that Vera Lynn had already established a successful career prior to her years as the Forces Sweetheart. She was a dance band vocalist with the bands of Charlie Kunz and Ambrose, amongst others, and a popular recording and radio star. However the war years made her a superstar and no musical history of World War 2 is complete without Vera singing "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover". I was born long after the war, but Vera's renditions of these classic songs are incredibly powerful and moving. Another fine song of those dark days (1940) was Irving Berlin's optimistic "There's A Lovely Day Tomorrow" and Vera is backed by Jay Wilbur's Orchestra featuring Arthur Young on the novachord - the world's first synthesizer!

Five of the recordings included here were made in 1952 with vocal backing by "members of H M Forces". Of these, "Yours" and "Auf Weiderseh'n Sweetheart" are definitely amongst Vera's very best, and the latter title was a big hit for her. More than half the tracks on this CD date from the 1950s and have fine orchestral accompaniments conducted by Woolf Philips, Roland Shaw, Eric Rogers and others.

This album will appeal to many purchasers for a variety of reasons. More than anything else it will be enjoyed by those who like to hear lyrics beautifully sung in that clear, powerful and distinctive voice which is unmistakably that of Dame Vera Lynn. It is hardly surprising that this CD is already a chart success as there are few singers these days who are in the same class as this living legend!

Hurrah for Dame Vera
Dame Vera Lynn was not the only singer to make their name in the Second World War but there can be no doubt that she was very important to many. Her East End upbringing meant than many people felt she could understand through the Blitz and for young soldiers she was a " girl next door type ". Her songs of the wartime do have a powerful emotional charge and I know that she was much liked by members of my grandparents' generation .

There can be few more telling reminders of this than a BBC concert a few years back when Katherine Jenkins warbled annoyingly through many of Dame Vera's numbers only for the audience in which many veterans were present to perk up and singalong vigorously when Dame Vera now retired appeared on stage .

This is a good compliation including many of her greats and as today is the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of war it is good to see it in the top 20 as if there is any war that we must never forget - it is that one.

REMEMBERING CHILDHOOD DAYS
I am so pleased that this music is being redone, I was not born when the war was on, but was born in 1947 the baby boom year.

I can always remember the Sunday Mornings, my mother prepairing the lunch time dinner always Beef roasts and yorkshire pudding with lovely creamed rice pudding, and hearing on the radio Home and Away, this was the type of music that was played at the time, every one used to have this one and all the neighbours were cooking roast dinners, the smell on a sunday was absolutly fantastic, an experiance that you do not have this day.So this brings back lots of memories.

As for the war being over and that it should not be kept being brought up, why not? how many of our kin were killed in the war, why should we not want to remember, in years to come the young men of this centery who are still at war, and many who have given their lives for us, should they be forgotten for what they did,Ido not think so, they will be rememberd for years,also the wars.