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This is another in our series of collections devoted to the great innovative bandleaders of the early age of commercial recording in the 1920s and ‘30s. Their orchestras were primarily dance bands, performing the new music coming from Broadway and Tin Pan Alley when many future Great American Songbook standards were being composed and recorded for the first time, but also playing some ‘hot’ jazz-influenced music along the way. Clarinetist and pianist Nat Shilkret’s orchestra recorded for Victor, as is clear from his orchestra’s name, and he had more hits than we could fit on a 2-CD set, so this 47-track collection comprises as many of those hits as we could accommodate, omitting a couple of which we could not locate usable copies, and those that made the lowest positions. It includes hits not only as the Victor Orchestra, but also under the names The International Novelty Orchestra, The Troubadours and The Virginians. It features the No. 1 “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”, and the Top 3 hits “All Alone Monday”, “Hallelujah!”, “Diane”, “The Sidewalks of New York”, “Jeannine (I Dream Of Lilac Time)”, “You Were Meant For Me”, “Pagan Love Song” and “Chant of The Jungle”. It has performances by featured vocalists Elliott Shaw, Johnny Marvin, Franklyn Bauer, Scrappy Lambert, Frank Munn, Lewis James, Paul Small and others. It’s an evocative collection that captures the unique style and spirit of the times.
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