Before Jan Peerce began his illustrious career as an operatic tenor he appeared frequently on the popular radio shows of the day, singing mostly show songs and numbers from current films, interspersed with the occasional aria or Neapolitan Song. This 2-CD set contains 39 tracks recorded between l934 and 1939. The ones that might interest classical music lovers are "Torna a Sorriento", "O sole mio", "Macushla" (an Irish song made famous by tenor John McCormack, here sung with fuller tone--and in a higher key than McCormack), "Ah, sweet mystery of life" by Victor Herbert, and "La donna e mobile". The rest is fluff--some of it quite appalling, most of it sentimental, but all of it sung with fresh tone, energy, fine diction, and great musicality--in other words, all of Peerce's excellent attributes. What we hear is a clear tenor voice, able to shade and color, with ringing high notes. We also get, after the second version of "La donna e mobile", Peerce explaining to the announcer that he smokes Lucky Strikes (and has for 12 years) and that they are always gentle on his throat! That alone may be worth the price of these CDs unless you really do have a fondness for this sort of gummy music. I plan never to listen to it again but will listen instead to Peerce's opera recordings, many of which are led by Arturo Toscanini, who championed his career.

--Robert Levine