Margaret Whiting - The Complete Capitol Hits Of Margaret Whiting (1999/2019)

Executive producer Gordon Anderson took a simple approach to constructing this two-disc compilation, which mail-order company Collectors' Choice Music licensed from Capitol Records. Referring to chart researcher Joel Whitburn's reference books, especially Pop Memories 1890-1954, Anderson simply chose all 45 songs that were pop hits for Margaret Whiting along with three of the ones she scored earlier as the vocalist for big bands on Capitol between 1943 and 1956, her tenure with the label, and sequenced them chronologically by recording date. (The only exception is "But Beautiful," presented in what seems to be a previously unreleased alternate take, though "Broken Down Merry-Go-Round" contains the irritating false start also found on Whiting's Capitol Collector's Series compilation.) A few of Whiting's big-band hits are missing, as is one of her country chart duets with Jimmy Wakely, but the album largely lives up to its title, and it is the most comprehensive retrospective on Whiting ever assembled. It traces her career from teenage band singer to one of the most successful vocalists of the late '40s to a popular singer of novelty and country-oriented material. That may not be the whole story on Whiting, who was topping the easy-listening charts a decade after the last song on this album was recorded, and who was still performing and recording more than three decades after that, but it effectively covers her period of greatest popularity, surrounding her biggest hits "Now Is the Hour (Maori Farewell Song)," "A Tree in the Meadow," "Far Away Places," "Baby, It's Cold Outside," and "Slipping Around" with her many other hits of the same era.