Here is one of the countless Julie London compilations that all seem to contain the same tracks. Perhaps that is because during her five-year reign of the pop charts from 1958-1963, Julie London was in a class by herself. Her sultry, smoky pop-jazz vocal was the inspiration for countless singers, most of them of the French persuasion, Françoise Hardy among them. This set by Disky is an odd one, not for its content, but for its cover. On the front of A Touch of Class is a color photograph of Julie London in front of a grand piano. But the shot is odd in that it is not the young bombshell staring back at the viewer/listener, but an older, more mature woman who is still obviously very beautiful, but not the woman who recorded these songs. It gives the impression, in fact, that the cuts here might be re-recordings of her classics. One has to pop the shrink-wrap and look inside for the years to know that these are indeed the originals. Since "Cry Me a River" is the obligatory opener for any London set, this one fits that bill, but moving chronologically, it slips to "Saddle in the Wind," "Love Must Be Catchin'," and "Broken-Hearted Melody," offering in four selections a more well-rounded picture of the singer than most collections do. Among these 21 tracks are other tunes that are only tangentially associated with the singer, such as "Say Wonderful Things," her phenomenal version of Sandra Dee's "End of the World," and the cocksure "The Good Life." When all is said and done, the remastering job isn't necessarily what it should be, but it's far from dodgy, and given its breadth and price, this one can hardly be beat. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
