Forty-two songs cut between November 1940 and August 1946, and the perfect companion to Bear Family's It's Magic box set - anyone who's been even tempted to own that will have to get this more modestly priced precursor to that material. Day's period singing with Les Brown is, today, regarded with a degree of love and affection reserved for Ella Fitzgerald's era with Chick Webb, or Frank Sinatra's work with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Yet Sony Music's own releases devoted to Doris Day and Les Brown spread the music around to several different CDs, and suffered from sound that, today, seems substandard. These newly remastered tracks, offered in chronological order, including one previously unissued song ("Are You Still in Love with Me"), not only display a far richer, warmer sound, but have been presented with the kind of care that is normally reserved for the best parts of a label's catalog - which these sides definitely are. Day's voice during this period (she was 16 when she cut her first sides with Brown) was an astonishingly expressive instrument. Anyone who thinks that 42 songs is more than they want simply hasn't heard her darkly emotive rendition of "When the Music Plays On," or the playful "Three at a Table with You," her jaunty "Broomstreet," or her gossamer enunciation (highlighted by some lovely high notes) on "Between Friends" - the arrangements and the performances have the texture of the most finely spun silk. The hits are here, of course, but there's hardly a song on hand that doesn't deserve a hearing 50-odd years later. The notes by Joseph Laredo are also lively and informative.

Tracklist:

CD1:

01. (I Ain't Hep to That Step But I'll) Dig It (3:19)
02. Let's Be Buddies (3:07)
03. While the Music Plays On (3:07)
04. Three at a Table for Two (2:50)
05. Between Friends (3:07)
06. Broomstreet (3:09)
07. Barbara Allen (2:54)
08. Celery Stalks at Midnight (3:01)
09. Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy) (3:13)
10. Easy as Pie (3:15)
11. Booglie Wooglie Piggy (3:03)
12. Beau Night in Hotchkiss Corners (3:26)
13. Alexander the Swoose (Half Swan-Half Goose) (3:08)
14. Made Up My Mind (3:09)
15. Keep Cool, Fool (2:56)
16. Sentimental Journey (3:12)
17. My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time (3:20)
18. He's Home for a Little While (3:13)
19. 'Tain't Me (3:18)
20. I'll Always Be with You (3:07)
21. A Red Kiss on a Blue Letter (3:08)

CD2:

01. Till the End of Time (3:02)
02. He'll Have to Cross the Atlantic (To Get to the Pacific) (3:05)
03. I'd Rather Be with You (3:14)
04. Come to Baby, Do! (3:06)
05. Aren't You Glad You're You? (3:06)
06. The Last Time I Saw You (3:28)
07. We'll Be Together Again (3:20)
08. You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart) (3:06)
09. In the Moon Mist (3:10)
10. Day by Day (3:08)
11. (Ah Yes) There's Good Blues Tonight (3:09)
12. All Through the Day (3:18)
13. The Deevil, Devil, Divil (3:12)
14. I Got the Sun in the Morning (2:36)
15. My Number One Dream Came True (2:59)
16. The Whole World Is Singing My Song (3:17)
17. Are You Still in Love with Me? (3:08)
18. Sooner or Later (3:14)
19. You Should Have Told Me (3:18)
20. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) (3:06)
21. It Could Happen to You (3:18)