AMG Review of Dance Date

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

This half-hour budget disc offers no information about the source of the recordings. From the good sound quality and the selection, however, one can hazard a guess that these are transcriptions recorded for radio in the 1950s, well after Charlie Spivak's heyday as a bandleader. Nevertheless, his distinctive trumpet tone, sweeter than Harry James', remains appealing and serves as the focal point of the arrangements. None of Spivak's hits are included, but there are good instrumental treatments of a number of 1940s standards. There isn't much to the album -- even the songwriting credits are sometimes wrong ("Manhattan," of course, is by Rodgers & Hart, not Bosworth/Engleman) -- but then it doesn't cost much, either, and with so little Spivak available on CD, fans may forgive the shortcomings.