Street Party Love Songs

In Britain in 1953, street parties were held across the isles to celebrate the Queen’s Coronation. Along with sounds of shouting kids and parents toasting the day, the music of the day swept the air. 24 such tracks have their place today during any indoor or outdoor party, and are all slower songs to help the sweets go down as you sway with a family member or with a friend.

Crooners include Perry Como, Vic Damone, Billy Eckstine and Nat King Cole, whose sweet voices gave pomp to a royal occasion sixty years ago. Doris Day, Jo Stafford and Rosemary Clooney make up the female contingent, creating a set which is a mix of voices of kings and queens of popular song. As Nat King Cole put it in one of his great standards, included here in all its brilliantly-orchestrated glory, they are “unforgettable”.

Love is the arching theme of this set of songs, be it Eddie Fisher comparing his advances to being “outside of heaven”, The Four Aces declaring as one “I’m Yours”, or Mario Lanza crooning for a girl to “Be My Love”, that mystical emotion is prevalent throughout these songs which are all sixty years old. Unlike Frankie Laine, let us hope you will not be put into a mood of “Jealousy” by the talent on show.

For a great swayalong try “No Other Love”, Jo Stafford’s song as rich as a cream cake such as you would find at a street party, which deals with everlasting love that goes beyond the burning of the stars. Just as much of Britain has been enamoured with Queen Elizabeth for sixty years, so listeners to this compilation should listen to these songs on repeat until the next celebratory street party, after the Diamond Jubilee parties of 2012. Long to reign over us, in sight and sound…