Joe Williams' Finest Hour

Count Basie / Joe Williams

  • AllMusic Rating
    6
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Joe Williams' Finest Hour Review

by Ken Chang

This is basically the budget version of the more comprehensive Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years anthology. While Verve could have easily compiled a better 60 minutes by sticking to Williams' '50s recordings with Count Basie, Joe Williams' Finest Hour shoots for the broader picture, from Williams' pre-Basie big-band work from the late '40s to his swingin'-senior-citizen days of the '80s and '90s. (Still, this is not exactly a retrospective, as there's a 30-year gap between Williams' last Verve session with Basie and the next record he cut for the label, 1987's Every Night). Overall, Finest Hour is a decent sampling of Williams' many stylistic hats -- swinging, scatting, balladeering, and blues-shouting. On half of the tracks, he fronts a big band (either Basie's or Andy Kirk's); on the other half, he sings slow blues or pop ballads (ranging from sublime to syrupy) with a small combo. Not a bad "finest hour," but if you're looking for a finer one, try Blue Note's The Best of Joe Williams.

Track Listing

Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
All Right, O.K., You Win
Mayme Watts / Sidney Wyche
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:05 SpotifyAmazon
2
Teach Me Tonight
Sammy Cahn / Gene DePaul
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:04 SpotifyAmazon
3
Smack Dab in the Middle
Chuck Calhoun
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:38 SpotifyAmazon
4
Roll 'Em Pete
Pete Johnson / Big Joe Turner
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:13 SpotifyAmazon
5
Jimmy's Blues
Jimmy Rushing
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:28 SpotifyAmazon
6
I Want a Little Girl
Murray Mencher / Billy Moll
Count Basie / Joe Williams 02:41 SpotifyAmazon
7
Party Blues
Count Basie / Ella Fitzgerald / Joe Williams
Count Basie / Joe Williams 04:00 SpotifyAmazon
8
Louella
Larry Markes / Justin Stone
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:09 SpotifyAmazon
9
I Don't Like You No More
Cirino Colacrai / Teddy Randazzo
Count Basie / Joe Williams 02:40 SpotifyAmazon
10
The Come Back
L.C. Frasier / Memphis Slim
Count Basie / Joe Williams 05:31 SpotifyAmazon
11
Too Good to Be True
Paul Anderson / Gene McDaniels
Count Basie / Joe Williams 04:23 SpotifyAmazon
12
Ev'ry Day
Sammy Fain / Irving Kahal
Count Basie / Joe Williams 03:46 SpotifyAmazon
13
Winter Wonderland
Felix Bernard / Dick Smith
Count Basie / Joe Williams 04:23 SpotifyAmazon
14
Is You Is or Is You Ain'r My Baby?
Bill Austin / Louis Jordan
Count Basie / Joe Williams 06:14 SpotifyAmazon
15
Now You Tell Me
Doris Fisher / Allan Roberts
Count Basie / Joe Williams 02:57 SpotifyAmazon
16
Every Day I Have the Blues
Peter Chatman
Count Basie / Joe Williams 05:26 SpotifyAmazon
blue highlight denotes track pick
Joe Williams' Finest Hour

Count Basie Discography Browser