VA - Verve - The Sound Of America - The Singles Collection (2013)

This impressive box set, released to coincide with the publication of Richard Havers' book Verve: The Sound of America (Thames & Hudson) tells the story of Verve records from the perspective of 100 singles released by the label from ‘Perdido Part 1 & Part 2’ to Diane Krall's ‘The Look of Love’, a single released exclusively to radio stations in 2001. The box set is presented in similar design format to the book, and comprises five volumes in chronological order from a wide range of Verve artists. Since the history of Verve is usually contemplated in terms of the Long Playing record, it is a bit of an eye opener to see the nature and extent of singles releases by Verve artists. The well-produced booklet includes full discographical information that includes a section ‘Verve Singles on the Charts’ and it is surprising how many times Verve singles featured of the Billboard Best Selling Pop Singles chart. For example, Count Basie's ‘April in Paris’ stayed on the chart for 13 weeks, peaking at 28; Johnny Hodges' ‘Castle Rock’ also made it to 28 while Stan Getz's ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ made it to No.5. Ella Fitzgerald and Jimmy Smith appeared on the chart more than any other artist and of all of Ella's singles, the Grammy winning ‘Mack the Knife’ was probably her finest hour, while Jimmy Smith's definitive version of ‘Organ Grinder's Swing’ was probably his best performance. Released in 1965 at the height of the ‘British Invasion’ it made it to a plucky 92 on the chart. It is hard to imagine in today's world such out and out jazz performances by the likes of Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins or Dizzy Gillespie being released as singles, but they were. Much easier to understand is the more commercially orientated fare by the likes of Louis Armstrong, ‘Nobody's Known the Trouble I've Seen’, Anita O'Day's ‘Rock and Roll Waltz’ or Ella Fitzgerald's ‘Ringo Beat’. Verve did make it to Number 2 on the Billboard chart with Ricky Nelson's ‘A Teenage Romance’ (guitar performed by Barney Kessel) but that is not included in this set, a fascinating perspective on a time when jazz releases actually figured on the pop chart. How times have changed.