The Complete Hits 1920-38

Isham Jones was a saxophonist and bandleader, born in 1894 in Ohio, who grew up In Saginaw, Michigan, and started his career as a bandleader and songwriter in Chicago during WWI. His orchestra became one of the most popular and successful dance bands of the 1920s and ‘30s, coming early to the recording scene during the early years of post-war euphoria and having an extraordinary string of huge hits in the first half of the decade which established his profile and reputation, writing several of those with lyricist Gus Kahn.  This 73-track 3-CD collection comprises all 73 of his US hits, all achieved during the inter-war years through to 1938, with releases on the Brunswick, Victor, Decca and Vocalion through that era. It features all eight of his No. 1s with “Wabash Blues”, “On The Alamo”, “Swingin’ Down the Lane”, “Spain”, “It Had To Be You” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams”, “Remember” and “Star Dust”, all on Brunswick through to 1930. It includes performances by his featured vocalists over the years, Frank Munn, Alfie Evans, Keller Sisters, Billy Scott, Dave Franks, Rita Smith, Joe Martin and Eddie Stone.  He was one of the bandleaders whose music drew on jazz idioms, but who achieved huge popularity in the middle ground of the US public, and this is collection encapsulates the music that made him such a formidable force in popular music between the wars.