As Time Goes By

This compilation was assembled by the British budget label Prism Leisure, taking advantage of the 50-year copyright limit on recordings in Europe to transfer old records onto a CD without the bother of paying the original copyright holders for licensing. (In the U.S., the tracks remain in copyright, yet this import was readily available domestically upon release.) A couple of big Tony Martin hits lead things off; both "Rumors Are Flying" and "To Each His Own" reached the Top Ten for him. But the rest of the disc focuses on the singer's interpretations of well-known songs instead of his popular recordings. Thus, listeners get to hear "That Old Black Magic," "Make Believe," "Why Do I Love You?" (the latter two from Show Boat), "Tea for Two," "As Time Goes By," "All the Things You Are," "Stardust," "Body and Soul," and "The Last Time I Saw Paris," among other songs, all rendered in Martin's smooth, soaring tenor. The tracks date back as far as his first recordings for Brunswick Records in 1938 ("You Couldn't Be Cuter," "Now It Can Be Told") and as late as 1947. The cutoff date comes before Martin's period of greatest popularity as a recording artist; he really hit his peak in 1950-1951. But his assured delivery makes this music much more than juvenilia.