- Artist: Matt Monro
- Rating:
- Release Date: April 27, 1999
- Total Time: 94:41
- Type: Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Vocal Music
Review
Despite its title, this two-CD European compilation isn't quite a best-of. Matt Monro scored 14 chart entries in the U.K. between 1960 and 1973 (several of them got into the American charts, too), of which five "Yesterday," "Walk Away," "My Kind of Girl," "When Love Comes Along," and "From Russia with Love" -- are included. Another well-exposed Monro performance was his rendition of "Born Free," which was heard in the film, and that's here as well. That leaves 24 tracks, most of them recorded in the 1960s, with a few '70s recordings thrown in, sequenced in no discernible order. Monro takes on many standards -- "Unchained Melody," "Georgia on My Mind," "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Autumn Leaves," "Ebb Tide," "Fly Me to the Moon," etc. -- and handles them well in his smooth, affectless voice. The rap on Monro was always that he was a Sinatra imitator, but here, when he tackles Sinatra signature songs like "My Way" and "Strangers in the Night," the differences are apparent. Monro is stylistically closer to Vic Damone and Jack Jones, singers who hide emotion behind technique, while the Chairman of the Board always let his feelings out. (Incidentally, by now one is struck not so much by Monro's similarity to his predecessors and contemporaries as by his influence on later singers, especially David Bowie.) Monro is unfailingly pleasant to listen to, and this is a generous collection, though it falls between the stools of being a hits compilation or a thorough overview of the singer's work. Rather, it's a seemingly random collection of 30 of his recordings; inevitably, there are some wonderful performances, but the selection doesn't make any particular sense. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music GuideTracks
CD 1
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Look for Small Pleasures | Matt Monro | (2:30) | |
| Born Free (Lyrics) | John Barry, Don Black | Matt Monro | (2:49) |
| Unchained Melody | Alex North, Hy Zaret | Matt Monro | (3:13) |
| Yesterday | John Lennon, Paul McCartney | Matt Monro | (2:50) |
| Love Is a Many Splendored Thing | Sammy Fain, Paul Francis Webster | Matt Monro | (2:48) |
| Georgia on My Mind | Hoagy Carmichael, |
Matt Monro | (4:31) |
| Walk Away | Don Black, Udo Jürgens | Matt Monro | (3:07) |
| Strangers in the Night | Bert Kaempfert, |
Matt Monro | (2:29) |
| With These Hands | Benny Davis, |
Matt Monro | (2:52) |
| My Kind of Girl | Leslie Bricusse | Matt Monro | (2:56) |
| When Love Comes Along | Matt Monro | (2:21) | |
| The Shadow of Your Smile | Johnny Mandel, Paul Francis Webster | Matt Monro | (3:39) |
| Sweet Lorraine | Mitchell Parish, |
Matt Monro | (2:40) |
| Autumn Leaves | Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prévert, Joseph Kosma | Matt Monro | (4:25) |
| From Russia With Love (Lyrics) | Lionel Bart, John Barry | Matt Monro | (2:34) |
CD 2
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| My Way | Paul Anka, |
Matt Monro | (4:13) |
| Answer Me | Carl Sigman, |
Matt Monro | (2:52) |
| For All We Know | Fred Karlin, |
Matt Monro | (3:21) |
| Fly Me to the Moon | Bart Howard | Matt Monro | (3:11) |
| The Party's Over | Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne | Matt Monro | (4:06) |
| If You Go Away (No Me Dejes) | Jacques Brel | Matt Monro | (3:08) |
| Maria | Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim | Matt Monro | (4:12) |
| How Little We Know (Lyrics) | Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer | Matt Monro | (2:15) |
| Ebb Tide | Robert Maxwell, Carl Sigman | Matt Monro | (3:48) |
| Didn't We | Jimmy Webb | Matt Monro | (3:50) |
| Why Not Now | Matt Monro | (2:27) | |
| Come Sta | Matt Monro | (2:51) | |
| Sunrise, Sunset | Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Bock | Matt Monro | (2:57) |
| Hello, Dolly! | Jerry Herman | Matt Monro | (2:28) |
| The Green Leaves of Summer | Dimitri Tiomkin, Paul Francis Webster | Matt Monro | (3:18) |
