Evelyn Knight was a nightclub singer who came to the fore as a recording artist in the immediate post-war era as other performers like Dinah Shore and Jo Stafford were signalling the start of the decline of the big bands and the rise of the popularity of solo vocalists. Writer Damon Runyon described her in one of his newspaper columns as “a lissom blonde lassie with a gentle little voice and a face mother would not mind having brought home to her”, and she was one of the artists who was at the forefront of TV variety shows during these years.

We have selected A & B sides from her releases on Decca over the decade or so which comprised her primary recording career before she largely withdrew from the business after rock ‘n’ roll changed the pop scene so dramatically. It features her twelve career hits, including the No. 1s “A Little Bird Told Me” and “Powder Your Face With Sunshine”, and the Top 10 hits “Dance With A Dolly”, “Chickery Chick” and “Brush Those Tears From Your Eyes”, and includes duets with Dick Haymes, Bing Crosby, Hoagy Carmichael, Foster Carling and Red Foley. It’s a substantial and enjoyable sample of her work and a musical window onto the era which was sometimes called the golden age of popular music.

REVIEWS

“As with so many of the fine singers from the immediate post war period up to the rock revolution, Evelyn Knight has become largely forgotten so sets like this are invaluable in bringing her name to the fore once again. Evelyn Knight was clearly a very accomplished singer capable of handling all kinds of material but the public seemingly preferred her upbeat novelty songs so the commercial imperative was to keep to that style. It is good to be reminded of another of the lesser lights of the post war music scene, and as with the Mindy Carson set, likely to be the definitive Evelyn Knight collection. No praise is too high for the Acrobat label in making so much of this music available. Their catalogue is so impressive and each month seems to bring new treasures, so long may it continue.”   –  Gerry Stonestreet (In Tune Issue 343)