The Essential Collection

I recently started to get into the Astaire 30's musicals with Ginger Rogers and was looking for one song "Never Gonna Dance", so I got this collection. As a starter set its very nice, it's also very addictive to listen to! I will comment though that not all is as rosy as the ending of an Astaire-Rogers 30's musical. The recordings sound like they were lifted from the motion pictures themselves and not from released music (and not the remastered movie versions). The remastering sounds weak at best also, so if you can get by those points you will be happy with this set. It's weak points have made me want to get more though so I'll be buying other sets released in America and see what happens (this is an import). I love the songs with his sister Adele! 5 of 5 for the material but 3 of 5 for the remastering and yes I understand some of this is from the 1920's to 1930's, if you listen you will think it could have been presented better.

Loved it! It brought back wonderful memories of a man with class and distinction.

Love Fred Astaire. This CD is a must have for any Fred Astaire fan.

I had this in a cassette tape years ago. We no longer have a player. So glad to find it on cd. It's the best of singing and tapping!!

It's a great reproduction but without Ginger's vocals, it falls a bit flat.

Very good but not as clear to hear

I could close my eyes and envision Fred Astaire swirling around. This music is very upbeat and jazzy, and the recording sounded original to its era. I love Fred Astaire's unique style and grace - which is consistant in all his movies and music. The CD arrived right on-time and was packaged well.

All the wonderful Fred Astaire that one could want.

Well the buts are variable sound quality between the tracks, it is as though several different sound engineers did the digital transfers, there is a lack of consistency, with some tracks in "fake" stereo, mind you, they sound quite good, some tracks are a bit louder than others, some have plenty of bass, some less, some are a bit bright etc. AND NO "NIGHT AND DAY", but you can get it if you try, at youtube for free. Victor Records 241930-A - Recorded In 1932 - Leo Reisman is a good version.Now what is good, almost 80 mins on each CD and great assortment of songs, fantastic value AND CURRENTLY I DON'T KNOW OF A "BETTER" CHOICE, THERE IS NOT A REALLY GOOD CD OUT THERE CURRENTLY AS FAR AS I KNOW THAT HAS ALL THE HITS AND IS REALLY WELL REMASTERED, pity the late great Robert Parker didn't do one, he knew how to make old 78's sound fantastic.Alternatives are: ASIN: B003VKW0X6 which are actual film soundtracks and sound petty terrible, considering it is much more money, digitaly remastered by Turner Entertainments and issued by Sony. It gave me listening fatigue due to poor tone and distortion. ASIN: B00005YUGU 50 tracks on Living Era label, not heard yet, no mp3 samples found. ASIN: B001IO15RO 56 tracks on Retrospective label, I have listened to this and I do not think it is better than the CD under review, some tracks may sound better, many sound less good, but they are a little more consistent and it does include Night and Day UNFORTUNATELY IT IS MORE MONEY. ASIN: B00005LV89 or ASIN: B000008A8L these are most likely the same double CD, not heard yet, no mp3 samples found. PS I HAVE SINCE LISTENED TO THIS, ONLY 36 TRACKS, SO TOO FEW, BUT SOUNDS OK.To sum up, I own the reviewed CD and am very happy with it, but if a superb remastered version is issued I will upgrade, recommended.PPS other CD's to consider are ASIN: B000027YX0 59 tracks on 3 CD's and ASIN: B00002MSZ1 74 tracks on 4 CD's I have not found any samples to listen to, so I have no idea of their quality.

These discs are wonderful, both in the range of great music and songs and the quality of the performances and sound. My main concern before I played the discs was about sound quality; I didn't relish the thought of listening through a haze of hiss and crackles as they are obviously old recordings. However, with a couple of exceptions, the sound is perfectly acceptable (and I played the discs at a relatively high volume level on a top quality sound system); in fact some of the tracks (especially near the start of disc 2) are amazingly good.I was also bowled over by how good a singer Astaire actually was, his versions of some songs are simply wonderful to listen to. It is strange though to listen to some of the tracks in which he tap dances through the music, it made me realise that we live in a different world to the one he recorded (and tapped) in. I think if someone tried to sell a song which consisted of someone tap dancing in it nowadays it would be laughed at; but I suppose that's nostalgia for you!

I was disappointed with the quality of the sound on this CD.I know it wasn't expensive but it wasn't worth buying at all.

Good nostalgic music.excellent Astaire music.

Good