Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers At RKO: Motion Picture Soundtrack Anthology

Two made-for-each-other CDs featuring 35 tracks (10 unreleased!) from 11 classic RKO musicals spanning 1933-1943, everything from Flying Down to Rio to The Sky's the Limit ! Along the way you'll hear such Astaire-Rogers standards as Night and Day; The Continental; Top Hat; White Tie and Tails; Pick Yourself Up; Let's Call the Whole Thing Off; The Way You Look Tonight , and more from the greatest song-and-dance team ever! A booklet worthy of their production numbers graces the package. During the "talkies'" first decade, Hollywood quickly rivalled Broadway as a major platform for the best pop music, and no franchise underlined this potential better than the Astaire/Rogers musicals released by RKO Pictures. Ironically, that golden age of musicals preceded the introduction of LPs, so it's been left until now for the release of this comprehensive two-CD anthology, which extracts classic vocal performances of classics from Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, among others, slighter but no less charming novelty songs, and brief dialogue excerpts. For fans, it's the mother lode, but even more casual listeners will be reminded of Astaire's deceptively plain yet indelible voice, and Rogers' own warm, engaging style. --Sam Sutherland

Browse Our Catalog.

View More In Tin Pan Alley.