Track Listing

1. Give Me The Moonlight, Give Me The Girl
2. The Old Piano Roll Blues - Frankie Vaughan, Nat Temple and His Orchestra
3. Tweedlee Dee
4. Happy Go Lucky
5. Seventeen
6. My Boy Flat Top
7. Green Door
8. The Garden Of Eden
9. These Dangerous Years
10. Man On Fire
11. Wanderin' Eyes
12. Gotta Have Something In The Bank Frank - Frankie Vaughan, Kaye Sisters
13. Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
14. Can't Get Along Without You
15. We Are Not Alone
16. Kewpie Doll
17. Judy
18. Come Softly To Me - Frankie Vaughan, Kaye Sisters
19. The Heart Of The Man
20. Walkin' Tall
21. M'Lord
22. Tower Of Strength - Frankie Vaughan, Ivor Raymonde, Orchestra
23. Don't Stop Twist
24. Loop De Loop
25. Hello Dolly
26. Cabaret

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51461 in Music
• Released on: 1998-02-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 58 minutes

Customer Reviews

Britain's top male star of the 50s
Back in Britain of the 1950s, Frankie Vaughan's high-kicking, top-hatted routine of "give me the moonlight, give me the girl" was instantly recognisable to the public. This CD starts with this song and finishes with Cabaret, which was his final 45rpm release for the Philips label he was signed to for most of the 50s and 60s. Before and after, he had periods at EMI's HMV and Columbia.

The CD was apparently released to celebrate his 70th birthday in 1998. The CD came about thanks to DJ Willie Morgan and he compiled and annotated the sleevenotes - which are fantastic. You get a nice bio of his career in showbusiness, and a track-by-track commentary. I love this feature, great idea. It tells you the stories behind all the songs.

His first actual record release was track two on this compilation, The Old Piano Roll Blues, on Decca. Now, I thought Spectrum was allowed to be licensed old Decca recordings, so why does this one sound like it's dubbed from a 78? It's a good song anyway.

Track three is Tweedle Dee, the a-side of Frank's first Philips record, in 1955. Give Me The Moonlight was the flipside, at Frank's request. His rendition of Tweedle Dee is good and competes with the best of them. As was the tradition at the time, it was covered by many top artistes. Give Me The Moonlight is a classic and should have had top billing really. But, Tweedle Dee was a top 20 hit.

It then continues his hits, in consecutive order. Sadly it misses out a fair few of his minor chartings. One or two of these have never been on CD, sadly; and the rest were only available on the now out-of-print World of Frankie Vaughan CD. The most annoying omission is Wonderful Things - you get the flipside Judy instead because it was an American hit, quite a feat in those days. Judy is a better track really but this is a British compilation so can we have the British hits please! Quite why they couldn't have filled up the CD to it's 80-minute capacity I don't know. If they're gonna have 26, which is quite generous, give us some more!

Thankfully you do get all the major hits. There are some great songs here, and you can say what you like about British stars covering American songs (there are a few American covers here, done well I hasten to add) but at least stars like Frankie Vaughan and Shirley Bassey, both on Philips, recorded a wide variety of material. Included in his hits are showtunes, novelties, ballads and even rock n roll! The best ones are probably Give Me The Moonlight, Green Door, Garden of Eden (his first chart-topper), Man on Fire, Got-ta Have Something In The Bank, Frank (with the Kaye Sisters) and Tower of Strength (another #1 hit), in my opinion.

The sound quality is pretty good, throughout; aside from that Decca song they appear to have used masters for the rest. As a compilation of Frankie's 50s and 60s hits, you could do a lot worse. This is essential for any fan of 50s pop music, or indeed any pop music: at one time, Frankie Vaughan was Britain's top male star.

Surprise delight
If you are the kind of pop / rock fan who likes to have a fairly extensive collection of hit records and has a pretty eclectic taste, Frankie Vaughan is not to be missed and this is an excellent compilation - one of the best fifties artists compilations I've come across. Vaughan was a dynamic, high energy singer from the school of Johnnie Ray, Frankie Laine and Guy Mitchell ( all 3 of which were released in the UK on Vaughan's lable Phillips). All these singers were essentially MOR singers from a pre rock and roll era, whose energy, verve and eclecticism are comparable to R&R singers. The pre R&R fifties (1950-1955) was a vintage era for technically excellent vocalists and the art of recording them. His interpretation of Green Door is about the best UK record of 1955. Most of the 26 songs here are memorable and there is very little filler. Vaughan had 16 top 20 hits across 3 labels ( 2 on Decca 54-55, 4 on columbia 65-68 and 10 on Phillips, compiled here. The anonymous, murky dance track Loop-De-Loop struck me as one of the worst tracks here but it actually gave him a very unlikely no 5 in 1963! Tower Of Strength, a no 1 from 1961 is a frenetic version of a Bacharah-David song - one of the more forgotten No1's of the 60's. A vintage period started in 1955 Seventeen, My Boy Flat Top, Green Door, Garden of Eden all hot up-tempo records with a truly explosive rat-pack style horn section, some of the best tracks being made in the UK at the time, with a cross-over appeal to both teenage and more mature audiences.
The sleeve notes are also excellent.
Vaughan had a superb voice, as good as any US singer and it is a pity he has become completely overlooked (in fact virtually all popular music from 50-54 is totally neglected as are most MOR acts from 55-62, ignoring many terrific, inventive and highly enjoyable records.

Give me the moonlight
Frankie's success owes as much to his skills as an entertainer as it does to his music, but the music was of a high quality as this collection shows.

The set opens with Frankie's signature song (Give me the moonlight) and includes all of his UK top ten hits (and several lesser hits) from the fifties and early sixties. It does not include There must be a way (a UK top ten hit), So tired or Nevertheless, three hits recorded for another label in the late sixties, but if you're only going to buy one collection of Frankie's music, this is the one to choose.

Frankie's UK top ten hits prior to 1967 were Green door (covered by Crystal Gayle in the seventies, the song became an eighties UK hit for Shaking Stevens), Garden of Eden (a number one hit for Frankie), the double-sided Man on fire / Wandering eyes, Gotta have something in the band Frank (with the Kaye sisters), Kisses sweeter than wine, Kewpie doll, Come softly to me (with the Kaye sisters), The heart of a man, Tower of strength (Frankie's second and last UK number one hit) and Loop-de-loop. Frankie's first UK hit, Istanbul, just missed the top ten, as did the double-sided Can't get along without you / We are not alone. All these classic songs are included here.

Frankie also had some success as an actor but as far as his music is concerned, the tracks on this collection are what he will be mostly remembered for.