Evelyn Knight - Collection 1944-54 (2020)

Evelyn Knight was a nightclub singer who came to the fore as a recording artist in the immediate post-war era as other performers like Dinah Shore and Jo Stafford were signalling the start of the decline of the big bands and the rise of the popularity of solo vocalists. Writer Damon Runyon decribed her in one of his newspaper columns as a lissome blonde lassie with a gentle little voice and a face mother would not mind having brought home to her, and she was one of the artists who was at the forefront of TV variety shows during these years. This great-value 52-track 2-CD set comprises selected A & B sides from her releases on Decca over the decade or so which comprised her primary recording career before she largely withdrw from the business after rock n roll changed the pop scene so dramatically. It features her twelve career hits, including the No. 1s A Little Bird Told Me and Powder Your Face With Sunshine, and the Top 10 hits Dance With A Dolly, Chickery Chick and Brush Those Tears From Your Eyes, and includes duets with Dick Haymes, Bing Crosby, Hoagy Carmichael, Foster Carling and Red Foley. Its a substantial and enjoyable cross-section of her work and a musical window onto the era which was sometimes called the golden age of popular music.