"AL JOLSON: FROM BROADWAY TO HOLLYWOOD -- Rarest Performances Curated by Chip Deffaa".... Here are 35 performances by the World's Greatest Entertainer, including some that have never before been released. You'll hear many of Jolson's most requested numbers (like "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye," "April Showers," "Sonny Boy," "About a Quarter to Nine," "California Here I Come," and "Rockabye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"), but these are not the studio recordings that have often been released; these are much rarer live performances. And Jolson also offers masterful renditions of "Summertime," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Baby Face," "At Sundown," "Marcheta," "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," "At Long Last Love," and "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," among others.
Curated and introduced by noted Jolson expert Chip Deffaa, this new CD is a companion to other CDs that Deffaa has produced, such as "Al Jolson Sings Irving Berlin," "Al Jolson's Broadway," "Al Jolson: King of Broadway," "Chip Deffaa's Broadway and Vaudeville Legends," "Fanny Brice: Rare and Unreleased Recordings," "Fanny Brice: The Real Funny Girl," and "George M. Cohan: Rare Performances." (And each CD in this series is unique; no tracks are duplicated from one CD to another.) This limited collector's edition (with guest stars Jimmy Durante and Eddie Cantor) is a must for any Jolson buff. The late George Burns told producer Chip Deffaa that Jolson's live performances often surpassed his studio recordings--and this collection provides ample proof of that!