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Johnny Mercer, born in Savannah, Georgia, was a prolific and highly successful songwriter, contributing dozens of hits to the Great American Songbook, often as a lyricist, although his background was very different from most of his peers from New York’s Jewish immigrant community. He was one of the co-founders of Capitol Records in 1942. He was also a singer, recording largely of course for Capitol, and recording mostly with the Pied Pipers vocal group and The Paul Weston Orchestra. This 50-track 2-CD collection features all his 29 career hits as an artist, plus other selected A & B sides from early Decca releases, and then from his Capitol singles during the 1940s. Among his hits were the No. 1s Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive”, “Candy”, and “Personality”.Along with The Pied Pipers and Paul Weston, it features performances with Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, The Benny Goodman Orchestra, The King Cole Trio, Freddie Slack’s Orchestra, and Wingy Manone’s Dixieland Band. He was an influential and multi-talented personality, and this collection highlights what was maybe the lesser known side of his extraordinary contribution to pop music over the years.
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