His Original & Greatest Hits

To many people Phil Harris's fame started and ended with his role as the voice of Baloo the bear in Disney's Jungle Book. However this masterstroke of casting happened at the end of a singing career which started in the 1920s. This selection, which does cover his best and most popular work pre-Disney, dates from the 1940s, and many of the tracks will be familiar to anyone who remembers listening to radio programmes such as Children's Favourites then and through to the early 60s. Although by no means children's songs, they are for the most part songs that tell a story or gently satirise popular American culture of the time, and sung in a narrative style (the nearest comparison I can think of would be Rex Harrison without the English accent!). Considering their age the recordings are remarkably clear, having been carefully cleaned up and transferred to CD. An excellent hours-worth of nostalgia that you don't hear very much of these days