Reviewed by Phil Thomson

This is possibly the most eclectic list of Radio 2 type material you are ever likely to come across back-to-back. In a mystifying mix, the compilers have thrown together Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers ("Jesus Gave Me Water") with Aled Jones ("Morning Has Broken"), Foster & Allen ("At The End Of The Day") and Eddie Fisher ("Count Your Blessings"); oh, not forgetting Susan McCann - who? ("How Great Though Art") - then up pops The Glasgow Orpheus Choir ("All Through The Night") and to cap it all on the first disc, the legendary Wink Martindale monologue "Deck Of Cards". And there's Elvis and Jim Reeves and Mario Lanza and many others too. It really bounces around and I'm not entirely sure why it exists other than for an albeit huge market, the blue-rinse brigade. Yes, on the second disc it introduces you to Joe Longthorne singing a pub-style version of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", the black jubilee harmonizers Golden Gate Quartet ("Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho"), Irish country's Philomena Begley ("Why Me Lord?") and somebody called Judy Boucher giving her all in Engelbert Humperdinck's "Please Release Me" - but I swear that's what you'll be asking by the time you are even a quarter way through the listen. In their own right, I guess each one of the 40 songs has made its mark in one way or another, either through the artist singing them, or through the writer's gift. But soothing? Uplifting? It's quite a claim. Best if you potter around, pick on a title you are curious about, have a warm memory of - or want to practise your karaoke.

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