And Now...The Anita Kerr Orchestra and Singers Celebrated On New Box Set

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Earlier this year, Cherry Red's él imprint collected Anita Kerr and Rod McKuen's classic "mood music" trilogy The Sea/The Earth/The Sky in one compact box set. Now, él has turned its attention to another set of engaging albums from the vast Anita Kerr discography. The Five Classic Warner Brothers Albums 1966-1968 brings together The Anita Kerr Orchestra's 1966 And Now...The Anita Kerr Orchestra! and The Anita Kerr Singers' four subsequent Warner LPs in one package.

Memphis native Anita Kerr was only in her early twenties when her eight-voice choir achieved a spot on the fabled radio station WSM, home of the Grand Ole Opry. Her weekly broadcasts led to a call to join Red Foley in the recording studio for "Our Lady of Fatima." Foley's tune became a No. 16 Pop hit in 1950, and from there, Anita Kerr's career took off. She was signed by Owen Bradley to Decca Records, and by 1955, Kerr was leading a group on roughly eight recording sessions per week. (It's been surmised that Kerr's singers were heard on 25 percent of the recordings made in Nashville in the latter half of the 1950s! The él imprint has previously collected 33 examples of Kerr's prolific output on We Dig Anita: The Oohs and Aahs of The Nashville Sound. ) In 1956 her slimmed-down vocal quartet won the opportunity to appear regularly on Arthur Godfrey's popular Talent Scouts program on both television and radio. Arranger/singer Kerr - also a gifted pianist, composer and producer - signed with RCA Victor in 1961, but continued to back other artists as well as perform under the guise of groups like The Living Voices and The Mexicali Singers.

Anita joined Warner Bros. in 1966 with And Now...The Anita Kerr Orchestra! Her first "orchestra" album, it still featured the other three members of her quartet (alto B.J. Baker, tenor Gene Merlino, and bass Bob Tebow) even as it showcased her gifts of musical reinvention. The album, produced by Dick Glasser, featured smooth, varied treatments of standards (Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo," the Gershwins and DuBose Heyward's "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York," the immortal "Over the Rainbow"), folk songs (Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land"), and recent pop hits of various stripes (Tony Bennett's "Firefly," Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem").

For 1966's Anita Kerr Singers LP Slightly Baroque, the arranger-conductor-vocalist melded a variety of popular songs with her tight, swinging, jazz-inflected vocal harmonies and classical-inspired string sounds. This eclectic approach wasn't quite "baroque" all around, but nonetheless yielded delightfully unexpected results on the likes of "It's Not Unusual," "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," the Petula Clark hits "Just Say Goodbye" and "My Love," and tunes from Antonio Carlos Jobim and Charles Aznavour. Baroque was followed in 1967 by Bert Kaempfert Turns Us On!, a celebration of the German composer who penned such hits as "L-O-V-E," "Strangers in the Night," "Danke Schoen," and "The World We Knew (Over and Over)," all of which are featured on this tribute. Turns Us On concludes with "For Bert," a Kerr original.

The fourth disc in this set, All You Need is Love, is by far the grooviest affair. Recorded during the Summer of Love, it features the Singers on an array of recent popular songs: The Beatles' title track, "The Look of Love," "How Can I Be Sure," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," and a pair of Addrisi Brothers songs best known via The Association, "Never My Love" and "Autumn Afternoon." The final album here, 1968's Sounds, might be the most wide-ranging. It was also the first produced by Kerr herself rather than Dick Glasser. The Singers bring their layered, intricate blend to originals by Kerr ("Wine in the Wind," "Say You Do," "They Always Ask Me"), lesser-known favorites (The Addrisi Brothers' "Happiness Is" and "I Would Love You," Tony Hatch's "The Two of Us" and Petula Clark's "I've Got Love Going for Me") and a couple of big hits ("Swinging on a Star," "The Beat Goes On").

The five albums collected in this set definitively prove how "easy listening" might be easy on the ear, but is often the product of sophisticated musicianship and top-notch production values. The Five Classic Warner Brothers Albums makes an essential complement to The Sea, The Earth, and The Sky. While all of these albums have been released on CD before, they've fallen out-of-print and often command top dollar. The booklet features no liner notes but does have credits. Each disc in the clamshell case is housed in an individual mini-sleeve replicating the original LP, including the late Stan Cornyn's hip, always-amusing liner notes. Hopefully él will next address Kerr's remaining Warner Bros. collaborations with McKuen for another box set.

Though she continued to record in America for a variety of labels, Anita Kerr moved to Switzerland in the 1970s; she still resides there today at age 88. This collection is a fine reminder of her great contributions to the sound of American popular music. You can order The Five Classic Warner Brothers Albums at the links below!

The Anita Kerr Orchestra and Singers, The Five Classic Warner Brothers Albums 1966-1968 (Cherry Red/él, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: And Now...The Anita Kerr Orchestra! (Warner Bros. WS 1640, 1966)