Dennis Day - America's Irish Tenor: The Singles Collection 1946-54 (2021)

The substantial population of Irish immigrants to the USA and their descendants have made a significant contribution to the cultural landscape of their adopted homeland across the decades, maintaining their allegiance to the distinctive music and traditions of Ireland. Dennis Day was born Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty in 1916 to Irish immigrant parents, and although he changed his name to become a singer, he traded off his Irish origins throughout his career, which encompassed being a long-time fixture on the Jack Benny Show on radio, as well being a recording artist, making use of his old-school traditional tenor voice, which was well suited to the middle-of-the-road pop music of the post-war decade. This 49-track 2-CD set comprises selected A & B sides from his releases on RCA-Victor from his debut on record in 1946 through to the mid-‘50s, by which time he had had his final chart entry, and his music was being overtaken by the changes in the pop landscape. It features all his career chart entries, including the Top 10 hits “Mam’selle” and “Christmas In Killarney”, plus the Top 20 hits “Dear Hearts And Gentle People”, “Goodnight Irene”, “Mister And Mrs. Mississippi” and “Never”. Inevitably it includes many songs on which he underlines his Irish roots as well as the current pop and novelty songs of the day, all of them providing a fine showcase for his highly distinctive tenor voice.