Eddie Fisher Sings/I'm In The Mood For Love/Christmas With Eddie Fisher. CD

Recorded between 1949 & 1953. Originally released on RCA (3025), RCA (3058) & RCA (3065). Includes liner notes by Robert W. Rice.

By means of this discount-priced compilation, it is possible to trace Eddie Fisher's triumphs on the album charts in 1952, the year of his greatest popularity. (This is not, however, the same thing as tracing his equal success on the singles charts. In the 1950s, record companies usually did not include singles on albums, but treated the two formats as entirely separate entities.) All three of the eight-song, 10" LPs he released in 1952 are combined on this disc. When Fisher began to hit consistently, RCA threw together his first album, Eddie Fisher Sings, mostly out of previously rejected tracks he had cut dating back to 1949. By the time of his second album, I'm in the Mood for Love, the label was aiming seriously at the LP market and had him record new arrangements of old standards. Then, inevitably, came a Christmas album. (The CD concludes with the one-off single "Christmas Eve in My Hometown," which Fisher recorded for the 1953 holiday season.) For the 2002 listener, that makes the collection a curious mixture. Its first third consists of mostly unfamiliar songs sung in a tentative manner, concluding with Fisher's first hit, "Thinking of You." Then, in the middle, the singer takes on evergreens like "I'm in the Mood for Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin" in his patented soaring tenor. Finally, he employs the same approach to a handful of well-known Christmas carols and a few forgotten attempts to join that pantheon. You might call the album as a whole "The Rest of the Early Eddie Fisher." For fans, that will be a treat since these recordings have been out of print for many years, and that's who should be buying this album. ~ William Ruhlmann

"2 LP's On 1 CD" B/W "Christmas With"

Full Title: Eddie Fisher Sings/I'm In The Mood For Love/Christmas With Eddie Fisher.

3 LPs on 1 CD: EDDIE FISHER SINGS (1952)/I'M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (1952)/ CHRISTMAS WITH EDDIE FISHER (1952).

Liner Note Author: Robert Rice.

Unknown Contributor Role: Hugo Winterhalter & His Orchestra.