Album Review:
There'll Always Be an England
- Release Date: 1992
- Genre: Vocal Music
- Label: ASV/Living Era
- Total Time: 65:41
- Artist: Various Artists
- Flags: Collection (various artists)
- Rating:
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Review
In the early hours of September of 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced to the country and the world that barely 21 years after the end of what had been known -- until then -- as the World War, England was forced to go to war again. The first war had virtually wiped out a generation of young (and not so young) Britishers, and the people might understandably have been bitter, confused, and angry, but they were equally determined to win this war, once and for all, and rose to the occasion magnificently. It's commemorated on this ASV release, which does what that vintage reissue label does best, assembling a 22-song compilation of morale-building and patriotic recordings from year 1939, almost all of them dating between the day war was declared and the close of the year. From the title track -- by Joe Loss & His Orchestra with Monte Ray singing -- to the comical "We're Gonna Hang Out the Washing" by Elsie & Doris Waters, listeners get a veritable hit parade of British talent at work in all aspects of entertainment, of which the most interesting is a medley entitled "Songs the Tommies Sing" by Lew Stone & His Orchestra with vocal by Sam Browne. Browne also turns up fronting Ambrose and his orchestra on "Adolf," and Flanagan & Allen are represented several times over. And, of course, Vera Lynn is here with "Wishing." The best and strangest track here is the curio "F.D.R. Jones" by Flanagan & Allen -- a "race" number originating in the United States, it's done in a modest faux-racial manner here but breezily enough that it's not really offensive, and manages to acknowledge both American popular culture and a salute to the American president, who was to be a vital secret ally of the British cause for the next 23 months until the U.S. entry into the war, when neutrality could be shed on the American side of the Atlantic. "The Handsome Territorial" by Nat Gonella & His Georgians and -- to a lesser degree -- "They Can't Black Out the Moon" by Harry Roy & His Orchestra are two fine straight jazz tracks thrown into the midst of the more pop-oriented sounds that mostly make up this CD. The sound is excellent, even by ASV's usual standards -- the only track that is less than pristine is "Goodnight Children Everywhere" by Joe Loss, with vocal by Chuck Henderson, which has some surface noise in its source that comes through -- and the myriad emotions conjured by the CD can be quite overpowering in the concentrated dose of emotion contained herein. Peter Gammond's annotation spells out a lot of the context. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | iTunes | Composers | Performers | Time |
| There'll Always Be an England | Hughie Charles, Ross Parker | Monte Rey | (3:08) | |
| Wishing (Will Make It So) | Buddy DeSylva | Vera Lynn | (3:23) | |
| We Must All Stick Together | Ralph Butler | Geraldo & His Orchestra, Cyril Grantham | (3:05) | |
| Songs the Tommies Sing: Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty/Put Me ... | Judge | Sam Browne | (2:57) | |
| Adolf | Sam Browne, Ambrose | (3:04) | ||
| F.D.R. Jones | Chesney Allen, Bud Flanagan | (3:11) | ||
| (We're Gonna Hang Out) The Washing on the Siegfried Line | (3:01) | |||
| The Handsome Territorial | Nat Gonella, The Georgians | (3:02) | ||
| Till the Lights of London Shine Again | Thomas Connor, Edward Pola | Chick Henderson | (3:17) | |
| They Can't Black Out the Moon | Harry Roy, Wendy Clare | (3:15) | ||
| Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major | Billy Cotton, Alan Breeze | (2:51) | ||
| We'll Meet Again | Hughie Charles, Ross Parker | Chick Henderson | (3:11) | |
| If a Grey-Haired Lady Says "How's Your Father?" | Flanagan & Allen | (2:52) | ||
| Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye) | Ross Parker | Jack Hylton Orchestra | (2:24) | |
| Goodnight Children Everywhere | Harry Phillips, Gabriel Rogers | Chick Henderson | (3:18) | |
| Wings Over the Navy | Alan Breeze, Billy Cotton & His Band | (2:49) | ||
| Run, Rabbit, Run! | Ralph Butler, Noel Gay | Flanagan & Allen | (2:48) | |
| I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus | (3:05) | |||
| (It's Just Too Bad For) Nasty Uncle Adolf | Ross Parker | Ambrose Orchestra, Jack Cooper | (3:07) | |
| Somewhere in France with You | Michael Carr | Chick Henderson | (2:56) | |
| A Mother's Prayer at Twilight | Vera Lynn | (3:02) | ||
| Rhymes of the Times | Ross Parker | Ambrose Orchestra, Max Bacon, Jack Cooper | (3:05) |
