HELEN MERRILL - The Complete Helen Merrill on Mercury (1954-1958) 4CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This four-LP box set, whose contents have been partly reissued on CD, has all of singer Helen Merrill's output for Mercury; only two selections for the Roost label in 1953 precede these definitive recordings. Merrill, whose warm voice was always both distinctive and flexible, could hold her own with the best jazz musicians of the era. Best known of her recordings are her classic collaborations with Clifford Brown on seven selections arranged by Quincy Jones (including "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" and "Falling in Love With Love"), but almost as significant was a notable album on which she employed the little-known Gil Evans as arranger, a year before he teamed up with Miles Davis for Miles Ahead. Other Mercury dates include work with the Johnny Richards Orchestra, arranger Hal Mooney, flutist Bobby Jaspar, and pianist Bill Evans. Highlights include "Glad to Be Unhappy," "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," "Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home," "Where Flamingos Fly," and "The Things We Did Last Summer," but all 62 selections are well worth hearing. Highly recommended. Scott Yanow  
Tracklist 1 :
1     Alone Together 3:14
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz    
2     Alone Together 3:12
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz    
3     Glad to Be Unhappy 2:49
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers    
4     This Is My Night to Cry 3:10
Phil Medley / Bill Sandford    
5     How's the World Treating You 0:03
Chet Atkins / Boudleaux Bryant    
6     How's the World Treating You 2:58
Chet Atkins / Boudleaux Bryant    
7     Don't Explain 5:13
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.    
8     Born to Be Blue 5:13     
Mel Tormé / Robert Wells    
9     You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To 4:18
Cole Porter    
10     'S Wonderful 3:12
George Gershwin    
11     Yesterdays 6:02
Otto Harbach / Jerome Kern    
12     Falling in Love With Love 3:53     
Richard Rodgers    
13     What's New 4:57
Johnny Burke / Robert Haggart
Tracklist 2 :
1     You Won't Forget Me 3:07
Kermit Goell / Fred Spielman
2     Lilac Wine 4:23
James Shelton    
3     Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year 3:49
Frank Loesser    
4     Beautiful Love 3:13
Haven Gillespie / Wayne King / Egbert VanAlstyne / Victor Young
5     Just You Just Me 3:35
John W. Green / Raymond Klages    
6     When I Fall in Love 3:21
Edward Heyman / Victor Young    
7     End of a Love Affair 3:24
Edward C. Redding    
8     Mountain High, Valley Low 2:59
Bernie Hanighen    
9     Anything Goes 3:05
Cole Porter    
10     Comes Love 2:59
Lew Brown / Sam H. Stept / Charles Tobias
11     I'm Afraid the Masquerade Is Over 4:01
Herbert Magidson / Allie Wrubel    
12     Wait Till You See Him 3:23
Richard Rodgers    
13     He Was Too Good to Me 3:02
Richard Rodgers    
14     I've Never Seen 3:33
Dorcas Cochran / Don Marcotte    
15     I'm a Fool to Want You 4:07     
Joel Herron / Frank Sinatra / Jack Wolf
16     Troubled Waters 3:14
Sam Coslow / Arthur Johnston
Tracklist 3 :
1     Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home 4:12
Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer    
2     Where Flamingos Fly 2:46
John Brooks / Harold Courlander / Elthea Peale
3     I'm Just a Lucky So and So 3:09
Mack David / Duke Ellington    
4     A New Town Is a Blue Town 3:12
Richard Adler / Jerry Ross    
5     By Myself 3:23
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz    
6     People Will Say We're in Love 2:34
Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers    
7     You're Lucky to Me 3:26
James Hubert Blake    
8     Dream of You 2:55
Jimmie Lunceford / Edward Moran / Sy Oliver
9     Blue Guitar 2:52
Lawrence Coleman    
10     Listen 2:40
Jean Broussolle / Gilbert Bécaud    
11     I'll Be Around 2:46
Alec Wilder    
12     Soft as Spring 3:14
Cole Porter    
13     If I Forget You 3:20
Irving Caesar    
14     After You 3:03
Cole Porter    
15     It's a Lazy Afternoon 3:07
John Latouche / Jerome Moross
Tracklist 4 :
1     If You Go 3:10
Michel Emer    
2     If Love Were All 3:07
Noël Coward    
3     If Love Were All 3:05
Noël Coward    
4     Easy Come, Easy Go 3:43
John W. Green / Edward Heyman    
5     The Things We Did Last Summer 3:06
Jule Styne    
6     Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair 2:52
Traditional    
7     I See Your Face Before Me 2:39
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz    
8     I Remember You 2:08
Victor Schertzinger    
9     Softly as in the Morning Sunrise 3:18
Oscar Hammerstein II / Sigmund Romberg
10     Bye Bye Blackbird 2:56
Ray Henderson    
11     This Time the Dreams on Me 2:18
Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer    
12     Dearly Beloved 2:05
Jerome Kern    
13     Summertime 3:28
George Gershwin / Dorothy Heyward    
14     Let Me Love You 2:49
Bart Howard    
15     When the Sun Comes Out 4:49
Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler    
16     All of You 3:29
Cole Porter
17     The Nearness of You 4:05
Cole Porter    
18     Just Imagine 3:21
Lew Brown / Buddy DeSylva / Ray Henderson
All Credits