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Title The Golden Years Of Al Jolson Subtitle 60 Classic Tracks Artist Al Jolson Format: Three CD Box Set Cat. No.: SOHOCD037 Barcode: 698458153722 Playing Time: 2 hours 39 Minutes

Al Jolson was the ‘Greatest Entertainer In The World' for four decades, enjoying sold-out concerts, blockbuster movies and million-selling records. This collection features the best-known recordings of a true showbusiness legend.

Track List CD1 1 When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along 2 I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover / Baby Face 3 There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder 3 Liza (All The Clouds'll Roll Away) 4 Sonny Boy 5 Swanee 6 By The Light Of The Silvery Moon 7 Give My Regards To Broadway 8 Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo'bye) 9 Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody 10 April Showers 11 My Mammy 12 I Wish I Had A Girl 13 Pretty Baby 14 Is It True What They Say About Dixie? 15 I'm Just Wild About Harry 16 Waiting For The Robert E. Lee 17 Me And My Gal 18 Some Enchanted Evening 19 I'm Crying Just For You 20 California Here I Come CD2 1 When You Were Sweet Sixteen 2 Back In Your Own Backyard 3 Chinatown, My Chinatown 4 (Just One Way To Say) I Love You 5 No Sad Songs For Me 6 Paris Wakes Up And Smiles 7 Dirty Hands, Dirty Face 8 Hallelujah! I'm A Bum 9 The Spaniard That Blighted My Life 10 About A Quarter To Nine 11 Are You Lonesome Tonight? 12 Here Am I (Broken Hearted) 13 I'm Sitting On Top Of The World 14 Ma Blushin' Rosie 15 You Made Me Love You 16 Avalon 17 Want A Girl (Just Like The Girl That Married Dear Old Dad) 18 Let Me Sing And I'm Happy 19 Alexander's Ragtime Band (with Bing Crosby) 20 Golden Gate CD3 1 If I Only Had A Match 2 The Anniversary Song 4 Tonight's My Night With Baby 5 After You've Gone 6 Little Pal 7 I Only Have Eyes For You 8 My Mother's Rosary 9 God's Country 10 Let's Go West Again 11 In Our House 12 It All Depends On You 13 Four Walls 14 Blue River 15 Carolina In The Morning 16 I'm In Seventh Heaven 17 Down In The Sheltering Palms 18 Mother Of Mine, I Still Have You 19 At Peace With The World 20 You Are Too Beautiful         Sleevenotes   It is often said that Bing Crosby was, in the 1930s, the first major singer to exploit the then new technology of the microphone, which enabled him to 'croon' songs, connecting with his audience in a more intimate way than had previously been possible. He was followed of course by Frank Sinatra, and every subsequent popular singer up to the present day. However, if the story of 'modern' popular singing started with Bing, who or what came before him? Al Jolson did. In the first third of the 20th century, Al Jolson was the biggest star in show business. Over fifty years after his death, it's easy not to realise just how big and popular a star he was. Billed as 'The Greatest Entertainer In The World' Al was earning $10,000 dollars a week before the First World War, and almost overwhelming audiences with his charisma, confidence, energy and dramatic performance style. As we mentioned earlier, anyone who performed live back then had to project their voices incredibly well, and that brash, loud singing style, with lashings of emotional vibrato, can sound overbearing and melodramatic to modern ears, but early last century it was de rigueur and Al Jolson was its greatest exponent. His story is that of a superstar of entertainment but it is also a classic example of the 'American Dream' come true. Al Jolson was born Asa Joelson on May 26, 1885, in Seredzius, Lithuania, Eastern Europe. His father Morris was a rabbi and a cantor and so Asa started singing early, alongside his elder brother Harry and two elder sisters. Like many poor European Jewish families, in 1894 they set off for America in search of a new, happier, and hopefully more prosperous, life and eventually set up home in Washington D.C.. However, tragedy struck after only one year, when Asa's mother Naiomi died. Asa was only 10. When he later sang 'My Mammy', the wrought emotion of it can't have been purely part of the act. Rabbi Morris Joelson found it difficult to control the two boys on his own and eventually, Harry and Asa ran away together and made it to the bright lights of Broadway, hitching rides in railroad boxcars and sleeping rough before eventually arriving in Manhattan. The boys got to work in various ways including singing for nickels on the street, and then, incredibly, Asa got a lucky break, being spotted by a producer looking for Jewish children to appear in a play called Children Of The Ghetto. Yes, it was a very small part and he only performed in it for three nights, but the fact was that, in 1899, after only a couple of years in New York, and at the age of thirteen, Asa Joelson was on Broadway. After this first appearance Asa's career really got going - in classic showbiz fashion, he anglicised his name to Al Jolson and put in years of work in America's vaudeville theatres, becoming more and more well known as the years passed. He also introduced his 'blackface' persona - a look that was not at all unusual back then and which was an instant success. Of course, nowadays to do such a thing would appear at best strange and at worst, deeply insulting and racist, but a hundred years ago Al Jolson was following a well-trodden showbiz path. Blackface was common in Vaudeville and it is said that even some black performers wore the black makeup and white lips as a result. Al was one of many who performed in that style and simply became its best-known example. It's worth noting that he dropped it in the 1940s, decades before legal racial prejudice ended in the United States. By 1911 he was headlining in New York and by 1920, he was the top entertainer in America. Success wasn't instant in those days via videos or world tours; it came through years of hard work, building audiences by endless touring, performing to them in person for years on end. Interestingly, he was also the first big American star to be open and confident about being Jewish, opening the door for many to follow. Hollywood came calling and the timing was perfect. The movie studios were ready to make films with soundtracks - as opposed to silent ones with local cinema pianists providing the music - and who better to introduce their 'new fangled' system than the current superstar Al Jolson? 'The Jazz Singer', a tale of a Jewish boy with Broadway dreams that are frowned upon by his cantor father (sound familiar?) appeared in 1927 and stunned audiences as they watched and listened to Al singing instant classics such as 'My Mammy' and 'Blue Skies'. This was followed in 1928 by 'The Singing Fool' which became the highest grossing film ever and featured the million-selling hit 'Sonny Boy'. The 1920s had been his absolute peak years and by the turn of the decade, Al Jolson, now in his mid-40s, was the biggest draw in both music and films, earning a million dollars a year. However, no-one can stay at the very top forever, and with audiences tiring of his increasingly uninspired films, and the inevitable arrival of newer stars such as Crosby, Al's career went into a gentle decline. This is when he dropped the blackface makeup to move into a new era, but it didn't work and the downward spiral grew faster. Al was still popular on radio shows but by the late 30s his movie career was ending and he was also quitting stage shows as his voice was no longer up to the demands of daily live performance. Times had changed. America entered World War 2 and Al went out and did his duty entertaining the troops across the world - including England, which he visited in 1942. Once the war was over in 1945, Al was 60 years old - and tired, with a bout of Malaria adding to his weariness after 50 years of treading the boards. The rich old entertainer prepared for a quiet retirement. He always said 'You ain't see nuthin' yet!' but by now we'd seen it all. It was over. Except that, amazingly, it wasn't. By the late '40s, enough time had passed since his heyday for him to be rediscovered, re-assessed and reappreciated. The biographical movie 'The Jolson Story' was released in 1947 with Al himself singing the songs and Larry Parks, who played him in the film, miming along. The film was a huge success, restoring Jolson as the best-loved singer alive. 'Jolson Sings Again' was the smash hit follow up in 1949 and by 1950 at the age of 65, Al was enjoying this Indian summer of his fame. Suddenly however, on October 23 that year in San Francisco, Al Jolson had a heart attack and died, leaving his fourth wife and a young adopted son. From lowly, unhappy beginnings, he had become the biggest star in the world, seen his success fade, but then thankfully lived to see his star shining brightly again. On this collection we enjoy Al performing the songs he is most famous for, from My Mammy and Sonny Boy to Carolina In The Morning and literally dozens more. Starting in 1920 in his early peak years, we then move to his comeback years of 1945-50. Although in his 60s, the voice and the personality were in fantastic shape, as you'll hear. Now, in the early years of the 21st century, an incredible hundred years after he was working his way up the showbiz ladder, few people under 40 have even heard of Al Jolson, but his gargantuan success is there in the history books, like a treasure, kept in the dark, locked away and unseen. We've now brought it out to glow happily in the light once more. When you smile as Al Jolson's exuberant tones flood out of your speakers as if it were the 'roaring twenties' again, we're sure you'll agree it was well worth it.

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