Love Songs

This is one of the best compilations of love songs; who knows if it is still around. I bought it one late spring day in New York with several others and took them all to our summer house in Westerly, Rhode Island. We giddily danced and sang with them all summer (and for long afterward). Those were summers of love, liquor, and living it up. Hildegarde's "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup", is number four, but the whole CD is great. There is a delightful series of songs from Gertrude Lawrence that includes a wonderfully entitled piece named, "A Cup of Coffee, A Sandwich, and Me". For the most part it was the first time I had ever heard these songs or of these singers, but--in true fashion--I embarked on a mission to find and collect everything I could on these women. I started prowling second record stores on the Lower East Side and found a treasure of history that opened doors in my mind to the thoughts and feelings of that period. In a time of economic depression and looming war, people turned to fantasies of love and glamour and a "pop" culture was created. Of course, I don't have a turntable anymore; what an anachronism THAT seems to be. But, I do still have all those albums and sometimes take a few out just to read and look at. "Love" seems to have been so much more serious then.