Frankie Laine - Frankie Laine's Greatest Hits [Columbia] (CD)

All Music Guide

Frankie Laine made a commercial comeback with the gold-selling "Moonlight Gambler" during the winter of 1956-57, his first Top Ten hit since 1953. With the further impetus being the success of the recent Johnny Mathis compilation, Johnny's Greatest Hits (the first ever "greatest hits" album), Columbia Records assembled Frankie Laine's Greatest Hits, a 12-track album leading off with "Moonlight Gambler" and also featuring Laine's biggest hits of the early '50s on Columbia, "Jezebel," "Rose, Rose, I Love You," "Jealousy (Jalousie)," "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)," and "I Believe." The label eschewed Laine's duet hits with Jo Stafford, Doris Day and Jimmy Boyd, and also ignored some Top Ten hits, in favor of rerecordings of two of the singer's biggest hits during his Mercury Records period, "That's My Desire" and "That Lucky Old Sun," a couple of lesser hits and a couple of non-hits. The result was not as good as it could have been, and though the album has remained in the Columbia Recor...ds catalogue for over 40 years, it is long-since due for an overhaul in the CD era. - William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read more Less