Billy Vaughn - Theme from a Summer Place/Theme from the Sundowners (CD)

All Music Guide

This reissue set by Collectables places two theme recordings from 1960 on the same discmovie themes namely. Sundowners and A Summer Place are just two of the film cues and theme songs on this 24 cut collection, the third issued by Collectables in 2006. To say these two offerings are drenched in strings would be a vast understatement. Everything here is so utterly sweet its saccharine. But there are some weird and wonderful moments like Vaughn's boogie woogie take on "O Solo Mio," and the big band with guitars and strings loaded for stun on "Walk Don't Run.," and even the autoharp in the front on the theme from "Three Penny Opera." If you are a Vaughn fan, you already know he was capable of some of the strangest arrangements around. This will no doubt be of great interest to those wishing to collect the catalogue on CD, to the casual listener or hipster looking for space age bachelor pad music, there are plenty of other places to star.

- Thom Jurek, All Music Guide