Alma Cogan - I Love To Sing / With You In Mind (2003)

This is a more or less straightforward reissue of Alma Cogan's first two albums, from 1958 and 1961, respectively, bolstered by a bonus version of "When I Fall in Love," drawn from the original sessions but left unreleased at the time. The two albums make peculiar bedmates. I Love to Sing finds Cogan still favoring the novelty-style numbers that brought her so much success, a mood that conductor Frank Cordell effortlessly mirrors with his arrangements. By 1961, however, Cogan was looking toward more serious material and, with producer Norman Newell, cut what became one of the first truly classic albums of the new decade. Indeed, a more sensible pairing would have been to run With You in Mind alongside its successor, the similarly Newell-led How About Love; the two albums fit together seamlessly. However, this is the union that listeners would appear to be stuck with -- EMI's The Girl with a Laugh in Her Voice CD box set features exactly the same two LPs on its own first disc.