Crooner Tony Martin was one of the coterie of male vocalist like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Al Martino and others who dominated the pop charts during the post-war decade (although, unlike those mentioned, he was not of Italian descent). He started his professional career as a Hollywood bit-part actor in movies like “Follow The Fleet” in 1936, before becoming a big-band singer, having his first hits, including several with the Ray Noble Orchestra, in the late 30s and early 40s, before a break while he served in WWII, then joined the Mercury label in 1946. He became a regular hit-maker right through until his music was overtaken by the rock ‘n’ roll and teen pop explosion of the late’50s. The consistency of his success can be measured by the fact that this excellent value 50-track 2-CD set consists entirely of hits which he had in the Billboard and Cashbox charts – for reasons of space we could not include them all, but there are only a few which had to be omitted, so this represents a pretty thorough trawl across his most successful recordings. It naturally includes what are probably his best-known hits – “Stranger In Paradise” and “Walk Hand In Hand”, along with other Top 5 biggies like “Tonight We Love”, “To Each His Own” “There’s No Tomorrow”, “I Get Ideas” and “Here”. He was very much a star who encapsulated the musical zeitgeist of his time, and this will be a must for lovers of ’40s and ’50s nostalgia