Vera Lynn 100 Vera Lynn

• 1 We'll Meet Again 03:30
• 2 Sailing 03:05
• 3 (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover 03:20
• 4 Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye 03:29
• 5 As Time Goes By 03:09
• 6 Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart 02:40
• 7 The Loveliest Night Of The Year 02:33
• 8 When You Wish Upon A Star (From Pinocchio) 02:33
• 9 A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square 03:29
• 10 I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles 03:32
• 11 Close To You 03:40
• 12 Yours 03:17
• Total Runtime 38:17

Info for Vera Lynn 100

Celebrating 100 years of a UK National Treasure with brand new orchestral versions of her most beloved songs. A true icon, Vera Lynn reaches her 100th Birthday on the 20th March 2017. To celebrate this milestone, the newly recorded album, Vera 100, features Vera Lynn’s utterly distinctive original vocals set to completely new re-orchestrated versions of her most beloved songs. This technical wizardry has, for the first time, allowed full orchestral accompaniments to transform not only her most memorable and morale-boosting hits that sustained Britons through the wartime years, but some recently unearthed, rare recordings – all presented in sumptuous, up-to-the-minute sound. Vera’s vocal on the lead track, Sailing, has not been heard for 35 years. The album also features several duet partners including Alfie Boe, Alexander Armstrong, Aled Jones and the RAF Squadronaires.

Vera Lynn, vocals

Vera Lynn
The mere mention of Vera Lynn's name evokes images of London skies filled with a barrage of balloons, and Britons riding out the German blitz in shelters and underground stations. England's sweetheart during the trying times of World War II, Lynn was still in her twenties when she took on that role. She was born Vera Margaret Welch in London's East Ham, to Bertram and Annie Welch, one year before the close of the First World War. She began singing as a girl of seven, also studying dance as a child. She later took her maternal grandmother's maiden name as her stage name, and her natural, unaffected vocal style and charm brought Lynn early success on the radio. At age 18, she was singing with Joe Loss' orchestra, and she'd also begun recording for the Crown label. By the end of the '30s, after stints working for Charlie Kunz's and Bert Ambrose's bands, Lynn got her own radio series. This event coincided with the end of what was known as the "Phony War," that period in which men were being conscripted and sent overseas, re-armament rushed, and nightly blackouts imposed, but no shots fired or bombs dropped. The shooting war started in 1940, and it was around that same time that Lynn became the host of the BBC radio program Sincerely Yours; the show became incredibly popular with overseas servicemen who missed their girlfriends, and her regular songs included such hopeful/heartsick ballads as "White Cliffs of Dover," "We'll Meet Again," "Wishing," and "Yours," which were taken to heart by the British public. Her recordings -- now done for Decca Records, which had absorbed the Crown label some years before -- all sold well, and Lynn also made several films during the war years, appeared in a stage revue, and sang for troops in Asia. Her sentimental brand of pop music was regarded as a huge help to morale, with Lynn herself virtually a national treasure. Within just a few months of the end of the Second World War, Lynn surprised and shocked the public by announcing her retirement. As early as Christmas of 1946 she'd begun a limited return to recording, however, and by the end of 1947 she was working again, touring the variety circuit and taking on another BBC radio program. Decca seized a golden opportunity in 1948 by releasing Vera Lynn material in America during a musicians' strike that had crippled the stateside music industry, and Lynn gained a Top Ten hit that year with "You Can't Be True, Dear." And in 1952, she became the first British artist to hit number one on the American charts when "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" spent nine weeks at the top spot. That same year, Lynn managed an astonishing hat trick back home with the advent of the first singles chart for England -- unveiled in New Musical Express in November of that year -- when her records occupied three of the Top 12 positions. Her first (and only) British number one came two years later, with "My Son My Son," and she gradually moved from radio/variety work to television spots during the '50s in order to round out her schedule, recording increasingly contemporary material during the '60s -- when she left Decca for EMI -- and '70s. She received an OBE from the British crown in 1969, and in 1975 was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Though she performed sparingly during the '80s, she did appear at commemorations for the 40th anniversary of D-Day and the 50th anniversary of the beginning of World War II, and continued to do charity work. In 2005, she also spoke on behalf of veterans of World War II on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of VE Day. And as it turned out, even in the 21st century, 70 years after she'd cut her first records, Lynn's career as a top-selling recording artist was not yet over. In September of 2009, the 92-year-old Lynn became the oldest singer ever to top the British album charts, when a new Decca collection of her World War II recordings, We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn, hit the number one spot, a doubly extraordinary achievement in light of the reissue of the entire Beatles catalog that same month. It was an occasion noted by news services around the world, and spoke volumes about the love that the British hold for the singer and her music. She broke records once again six years later when she turned 100 years old in 2017 and released the 100 album in celebration of her becoming a centenarian. The record featured re-orchestrations of some of her classic songs alongside collaborations with other artists in the vocal genre, such as Aled Jones, Alfie Boe, and Alexander Armstrong. (John Bush & Bruce Eder)

This album contains no booklet.