Ralph Flanagan was a pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader, who worked with the orchestras of Charlie Barnet, Boyd Raeburn, Hal McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Alvino Rey and Blue Barron before launching his own band in the late 1940s, based very much on the sound of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, being signed to RCA by Glenn Miller’s former A&R man. Performing a range of straight orchestral and swinging jazz pieces, along with the hot songs of the day sung by his featured vocalist Harry Prime and his vocal group The Singing Winds, he had a string of over twenty hits between 1949 and 1953, including his signature Top 10 composition “Hot Toddy”. This great-value 51-track 2-CD set comprises selected A & B sides on the Rainbow, Bluebird and RCA-Victor labels during this era. It features all his 21 career chart entries , including the Top 10 hits “Don’t Cry Joe (Let Her Go, Let Her Go)”, Rag Mop”, “Nevertheless”, “Harbour Lights”, “Slow Poke”, “I Should Care” and “Hot Toddy”. His music was very much of its era, typifying a particular strand of the pop scene of the post-war decade, and this collection offers an enjoyable selection of his work.
