Mood to be Wooed - Classic Crooners - Page 6

19 Chris Connor: Jazz Date/Chris Craft (Rhino - 1956-'58). Though not a strong or tone-perfect singer and limited in range, Connor is enticingly vampy and slightly attitudinal, like the femme fatale you'd like to get to know better. Two of her best Atlantic albums on one disc.

20 Frankie Laine: Setting the Standard (Jasmine - 1947-'48). Two CDs of free-flowing transcriptions. Laine purrs and yowls more than he croons, and both the bulk of his material and the way he approaches it seem rather retro at mid-century, but Laine's user-friendly by pop standards.