Ink Spots - The Hits Collection 1939-51 (2023)

The Ink Spots, along with the Mills Brothers, were one of the leading early doowop vocal groups during the decades spanning WWII, bringing together the influences of barber-shop quartets, gospel and jazz to create a sound and style that appealed to the mainstream pop market. Employing a distinctive guitar introduction, and using the top and bottom technique that contrasted the high tenor lead vocal of Bill Kenny with the bass voice of Orville Jones delivering a spoken verse, they developed a successful formula that was all their own, and between 1939 and 1951 they had around 50 hits in the various incarnations of the charts. In fact they had too many hits for us to be able to include all of them in this great-value 48-track 2-CD collection, which features all their Top 30 pop hits and all their Top 10 R&B hits, plus a few more, including those with Ella Fitzgerald. It features the No. 1s Address Unknown, We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me), I'm Making Believe, Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, The Gypsy, and To Each His Own plus the R&B No.1s I Can't Stand Losing You and Don't Get Around Much Anymore. It's a concentrated presentation of their very best recordings, featuring their highly individual treatments of some of the finest songs of the era, and it's a marvellous showcase for their unique style of music.