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| Various Artists |
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| Dean Martin: Ain’t That A Kick In The Head; Wayne Newton: Danke Schöen; Sammy Davis Jr.: Luck Be A Lady; plus Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin, more. |
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| 1 "We Have a New Roller!" |
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| 2 This Could Be the Start of Something Big - Lee, Peggy |
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| 3 Ain't That a Kick in the Head - Martin, Dean |
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| 4 Hey, Boy! Hey, Girl! - Prima, Louis |
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| 5 Luck Be a Lady - Davis, Sammy Jr. |
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| 6 A Game of Poker - Riddle, Nelson |
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| 7 Are You Havin' Any Fun - Bennett, Tony |
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| 8 I'm Shooting High - Cole, Nat King |
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| 9 Danke Schoen - Newton, Wayne |
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| 10 Lucky Day - Garland, Judy |
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| 11 Seven Out - Butera, Sam And The Witnesses |
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| 12 Who's Got the Action? - Martin, Dean |
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| 13 Big Spender - Lee, Peggy |
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| 14 Jump, Jive, an' Wail - Prima, Louis |
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| 15 I'm Gonna Live Till I Die - Davis, Sammy Jr. |
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| 16 Desert Song - May, Billy & His Orchestra |
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| 17 The Late, Late Show - Cole, Nat King |
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| 18 Charade - Darin, Bobby |
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| 19 The Best Is Yet to Come - Wilson, Nancy [1] |
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Album Review
According to Oscar B. Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas, the city celebrated its 100th birthday on May 15, 2005, reflecting the passage of a century since the day "our first residents purchased 100 acres in a land auction near what is now the heart of downtown Las Vegas." For about the first 45 of those 100 years, the town was, as Goodman admits, a "sleepy railroad stopover," but the 55 years since have seen it "transformed...into the entertainment capital of the world." Nowhere in his brief liner notes to this album, part of Capitol Records' "Las Vegas Centennial Collection", does Goodman use the word "gambling," but the selections on the disc, beginning with the spiel of an unnamed croupier ("'We Have A New Roller!'"), leave little to doubt regarding the real source of Las Vegas' renown. "Luck Be A Lady," "A Game Of Poker," "I'M Shooting High," "Lucky Day," "Seven Out," and "Who'S Got The Action?" are song titles that suggest the city's main business, and "This Could Be The Start Of Something Big," "Are You Havin' Any Fun?," "Big Spender," "Jump, Jive, An' Wail," and "The Best Is Yet To Come" give a good sense of the giddy, anticipatory mood of the gambler. Capitol, founded in 1942 as a haven for big-band singers, has an excellent archive of the kind of tuxedoed and gowned performers who sang and played such songs in the main rooms of the casino hotels on the Strip in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, and most of them are here: vocalists Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr. (curiously, in tracks licensed from other labels), Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Wayne Newton, and Nancy Wilson, plus such bandleaders as Billy May and Nelson Riddle. (Tony Bennett, accompanied by Count Basie, turns up in a track originally cut for Roulette Records and since acquired by Capitol parent EMI.) The big missing name here, of course, is Frank Sinatra, whose contract generally keeps him off compilations. But the songs and performers give a good account of the uptempo, post-World War II, post-swing sounds of the Vegas showrooms, including punchy horn charts, peppy singing, and lyrics that slyly encourage patrons to head back to the gaming rooms. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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