AMG Review of Love Songs

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

For this 29-minute, ten-track budget collection of vintage recordings by Robert Goulet, compilation producer Dan Rivard has, without announcing it, done a favor for Goulet fans. The big-voiced singer made a series of albums for Columbia Records in the 1960s, and he also cut a number of songs that appeared only on 45 rpm singles. Rivard has snuck in a few of those non-LP tracks on this disc, starting with the leadoff number, "Don't Be Afraid of Romance," an obscure Irving Berlin composition from Berlin's final Broadway musical, 1962's #Mr. President. Another Broadway obscurity from a Goulet non-LP B-side is Jerry Herman's "My Best Girl" from #Mame. "Once I Had a Heart," a 1966 B-side-only recording, is from the pens of Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper, the Tin Pan Alley team responsible for '50s novelty hits like "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" and "Nuttin' for Christmas" (as well as another Goulet recording, "Summer Sounds"). And then there's "Come Back to Me, My Love," which Goulet actually took into the Top Five of the Easy Listening charts. The album isn't all forgotten gems; Goulet also essays such memorable tunes as "My Cup Runneth Over" and "These Foolish Things," culled from mid-'60s LPs. But for Goulet fans, this cheapy album is a must for putting on CD some of his otherwise lost and forgotten 45s.