The perfect companion (and maybe a superior) volume to Collectables' Linda, a ten-song budget-priced collection and a little hard to find or order, but worth tracking down. Beginning with "Speak to Me With Your Eyes" and the exquisite "Sweet Music," this handy little set covers the highlights of Clark's early career. His big early hit ("Spring Is Here") isn't represented, but there isn't a bad song here -- "sweet" music (as opposed to swing), well played and beautifully sung. The remastering is astonishingly good, considering that the sources are more than 60 years old, with fine detail on the rhythm sections as well as the lead players and soloists of such outfits as Lou Gluskin & His Continental Orchestra, Nat Brandywine & His Stork Club Orchestra, and even Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra. The Hodges track, "A Sailboat In the Moonlight," is easily the best song here, and it's a crying shame -- if Clark had gotten to cut more material with jazz legends like Hodges, even in a pop vein, he'd likely be better remembered today and those records sought after. Reissue producer Dan Rivard and engineer Ken Robertson have outdone themselves here, in any case. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
