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Bert Kaempfert (1923-1980) may best be remembered today for his brief association with The Beatles or as the composer of "Strangers in the Night," "L.O.V.E.," and "Spanish Eyes."  Kaempfert, who died in 1980, would have turned 100 last October.  Decca is celebrating his life, legacy, and centennial year with a major new 24-CD box set coming on January 19.

The Bert Kaempfert Decca Collection collects 24 of the German composer-bandleader's American LPs originally released in the 1960s and 1970s, including the worldwide CD debut of Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert, plus over 40 bonus tracks.  Kaempfert's recording home was Polydor Records, but as that catalogue has been extensively addressed on numerous reissues around the world, the U.S. Decca releases were chosen for this box.  (The repertoire does overlap, as the European albums were the basis of the American releases.)  Still, longtime collectors may have the U.S. albums courtesy of Taragon Records; the sadly-now-defunct label reissued and expanded most of Kaempfert's Decca albums on CD in the mid- to late 1990s.  If you missed out on that long out-of-print series, this appears to be convenient, (almost) one-stop shopping.

The Bert Kaempfert Decca Collection contains the following two dozen albums - all filled with lush, richly melodic instrumentals - originally issued between 1959 and 1970, each in a replica paper sleeve with original Decca front and back covers:

• April In Portugal (Decca DL 8881/DL 78881, 1959)
• Wonderland By Night (Decca DL 4101/DL 74101, 1960)
• The Wonderland Of Bert Kaempfert (Decca DL 4117/DL 74117, 1961)
• Dancing In Wonderland (Decca DL 4161/DL 74161, 1961)
• With A Sound In My Heart (Decca DL 4228/DL 74228, 1962)
• Afrikaan Beat (Decca DL 4273/DL 74273, 1962)
• That Happy Feeling (Decca DL 4305/DL 74305, 1962)
• Living It Up! (Decca DL 4374/DL 74374, 1963)
• Lights Out, Sweet Dreams (Decca DL 4265/DL 74265, 1963)
• Christmas Wonderland (Decca DL 4441/DL 74441, 1963)
• That Latin Feeling (Decca DL 4490/DL 74490, 1964)
• Blue Midnight (Decca DL 4569/DL 74569, 1965)
• The Magic Music Of Far Away Places (Decca DL 4616/DL 74616, 1965)
• Three O'Clock In The Morning (Decca DL 4670/DL 74670, 1965)
• Bye Bye Blues (Decca DL 4693/DL 74693, 1966)
• A Man Could Get Killed: Original Soundtrack (Decca DL 4750/DL 74750, 1966)
• Strangers In The Night (Decca DL 4795/DL 74795, 1966)
• Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert (Coral CRL 57499/ CRL 757499, 1967)
• Hold Me (Decca DL 4860/DL 74860, 1967)
• The World We Knew & Other Fabulous Instrumentals (Decca DL 4925/DL 74925, 1967)
• Love That Bert Kaempfert (Decca DL 4986/DL 74986, 1968)
• My Way Of Life (Decca DL 5059/DL 75059, 1968)
• Warm And Wonderful (Decca DL 5089/DL 75089, 1969)
• The Kaempfert Touch (Decca DL 75175, 1970)

Bert Kaempfert rose to prominence in his native Germany as a bandleader, arranger, and producer, and attained his first taste of American success in 1960 when his orchestra's recording of Klaus-Günter Neumann's "Wonderland by Night" was licensed to the U.S. Decca label.  It topped the Billboard Hot 100 and even made the top five of the R&B survey.  He would chart ten more songs through 1966, both with his own compositions and those of others.  In 1961, working in an executive capacity at the German Polydor label, Kaempfert made musical history when he signed a little-known band named The Beatles to their first recording contract--not with Polydor, but with his own Bert Kaempfert Produktion.  Always a keen talent-spotter both of songwriters and performers, he noted in 1964, "It was obvious to me that they were enormously talented, but nobody--including the boys themselves--knew how to use that talent or where it would lead them."  Kaempfert's own international profile, however, continued to grow when artists including Frank Sinatra, Matt Monro, Jack Jones, and Elvis Presley all began recording his songs.  His "A Swingin' Safari" became familiar as the theme to the first iteration of The Match Game, and Kaempfert's soft and shimmering "mood music," often emphasizing the trumpet, also paved the way for the U.S. success of Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass.

Curiously, the 1969 album Traces of Love - sequentially in the catalogue between Warm and Wonderful and The Kaempfert Touch - has been omitted from this set, as have Kaempfert's subsequent albums for Decca and its successor, MCA.

A "detailed, illustrated" book is promised to be included within the cube-styled package.  The sweet sounds of The Bert Kaempfert Decca Collection are due on January 19!  It's available for pre-order now at Amazon U.S. (not yet available) / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada! Please note that as an Amazon associate, The Second Disc earns a small percentage of sales through the provided links.