Multiple Ray Conniff CD sets from around the world

This page features a selection of multiple CD sets from around the world. Please note that this list may not be complete. For “2 on 1” CDs, please click here. (List compiled by Doug Mitchell)

Nov. 25, 2016:

Released in Mexico, a 3 CD set titled LO CLÀSICO DE RAY CONNIFF with 60 tracks. Click on the cover scan on the left for details.

Multiple CD Sets

Released on May 29, 2009: A 3 CD set titled "Classic Album Collection Plus" on the Golden Stars label (GSS 5632). It includes Ray's albums "'s Wonderful!", "'s Marvelous" (stereo), and "'s Awful Nice" (stereo) on discs 1 and 2. Disc 3 features the "Dance the Bop!" album plus bonus tracks. The four albums appear to have the same sound quality as the official CDs from Columbia and Collectables they were released on previously. The bonus tracks are as follows: BEANIE BOY BOOGIE (B.R. BOOGIE)*, SUPER CHIEF*, THREE WAY LOVE**†, CUDDLE UP A LITTLE CLOSER**†, THEME FROM "THE PERRY MASON SHOW"†, and MELODY FOR TWO GUITARS†. Notes: *pre-Columbia recordings for Brunswick, (January 15, 1953) / **Ray Conniff, vocal solo (recorded January 30, 1957). 45rpm singles were used as sources for these bonus tracks, not original masters. The Brunswick recordings sound surprisingly good. All bonus tracks are mono. †=fade-out endings.

“Eight Classic Albums” is the title of a 4 CD set on the “Real Gone Music” label, released in early July 2013. The albums included are as follows: “It’s the Talk of the Town” & “Young at Heart”, “Say It With Music” & “Memories are Made of This”, “Somebody Loves Me” & “’s Continental*”, “So Much in Love” & The Happy Beat”. * “Strange Music” (track No. 6 on “’s Continental” is listed as “Blue Moon”, like on the French edition of the LP in the early 60s (CBS S 62009). It is, however, included.

The 4 CD set (”RECUPERA TUS CLÁSICOS”) shown below is available in Mexico. It features 3 original albums (”’s Continental”, “Memories Are Made of This”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”) and a compilation, titled “Latino”. Tracks on the latter are as follows: Besame Mucho / Tico Tico / Green Eyes / Patricia, It's Patricia / Lisbon Antigua / Kiss Of Fire / Brazil / Volare / La Mer / Malagueña / Lady Of Spain. For enlargement, please click on the cover scan. As “Tico Tico”, “Green Eyes”, “Lisbon Antigua” and “La Mer” are from “’s Continental”, buyers of this set obtain these tracks twice. Doug Mitchell owns the set and wrote, “Thought you might like to see the Lp sleeves of that new 4CD set from Mexico. Far more care was put into the artwork than the sound! The "Lp sleeves" are like those on the other recent boxsets from Mexico. Not quite as nice as the Percy Faith reissues from Japan but nice to see some original artwork included. - The suitcase on the back cover of “'s Continental” was from the Mexican Lp. - Unlike the previous CD reissue, the track order of “Latino” is as it appeared on the original Mexican Lp. They included the back cover photo but not the liner notes. - “Memories” is from the USA Lp. The back cover of the Mexican Lp had no photo (or notes). - "Raindrops" included the b&w back cover photo of Ray and altered song sequence. The sound quality is not good. “Latino” is much different than the previous Mexican reissue.” Thanks a lot, Doug, for this information and warning. For scans of the single CDs, please use the links above. BE WARNED! THE SOUND QUALITY IS AWFUL! This 4 CD set will be marketed in Europe as well, e.g. from Amazon Germany from February 1, 2011. Achtung, Fans in Deutschland: Diese 4 CD-Box wird ab 1. Februar bei Amazon erhältlich sein. Wie oben beschrieben ist die Klangqualität ausgesprochen schlecht.

The 3 CD set titled “Original Album Classics” features Ray Conniff’s albums ‘s Wonderful!, ‘s Marvelous and ‘s Awful Nice. Doug Mitchell wrote, “Overall, very well done! Based on the markings, I suspect that the set was created by Legacy for distribution outside the USA. They recreated the original "6 eye" red labels on the discs, replacing the "Columbia" header with "Original Album Classics" but showing both the Columbia and Legacy logos. The box states "Made in the EU" and mine had a sticker on the wrapper stating that the set was Made In England. The mini-Lp sleeves reproduce the mono covers almost perfectly. The back cover photo on 's Awful Nice looks like it came from an Lp with a bit of shelf wear. The back cover of 's Wonderful is from a later pressing and advertises albums such as It's The Talk Of The Town and Hi-Fi Companion (the first pressing advertised albums for other artists; some pressings had no ads at all). 's Marvelous includes the "listening in depth" ad which was on the original 1957 mono pressing. Now for the audio. 's Wonderful and 's Awful Nice are identical to the USA reissues. This is good news; I was afraid they might use the previous UK reissue of 's Awful Nice which had flaws. The sound level on 's Marvelous is a bit higher than on the previous USA reissue and there might be a bit more bass, hard to tell. The tracks are in the correct order but the first beat is still missing on "Where Or When." The marketing department did a nice job on the box; it has far more "shelf appeal" than earlier sets featuring these albums. All in all, I'm happy with the set and would gladly purchase more. My only real complaint is that there are no "extras" - recording dates, locations, producers and other credits that did not typically appear on Lp covers in those days. The box says that full album credits can be found at www.musicmadesimple.info. The site does have credits for a few of the earlier 5-CD sets but nothing for the new 3-CD sets yet.” Release dates vary, e.g. March 28 in the UK, April 8 in the US, and April 22 in Germany.

Four of Ray’s early albums are included in this 2 CD set, which appears to be an “unofficial” release. They are as follows: “Concert in Rhythm, Vol. 1”, “Broadway in Rhythm”, “Concert in Rhythm, Vol. 2” and “Say It With Music”. The set is titled RAY CONNIFF SUS CONCIERTOS EN RITMO 1958-60. Reportedly, there are some flaws, such as missing channels, on this set.

Disc 1: 1. Up, Up And Away / 2. Begin The Beguine (instrumental, mono) / 3. ’s Wonderful (mono) / 4. Brazil 5. Greensleeves (What Child Is This, from “Christmas with Conniff”) / 6. You Do Something To Me / 7. Blue Moon / 8. Tiny Bubbles / 9. Gentle On My Mind / 10. Moon River (instrumental) / 11. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way) / 12. You Make Me Feel So Young / 13. Chanson D'Amour (Song Of Love) / 14. For All We Know (from “Love Affair”) / 15. Early Evening / 16. Moonlight Serenade / 17. Walkin' And Whistlin' (mono) / 18. Love Me Tender / 19. Memories Are Made Of This (instrumental) / 20. The Continental (You Kiss While You're Dancing) Disc: 2: 1. Hello, Dolly! / 2. (When Your Heart's On Fire) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (from “’s Awful Nice”) / 3. Sweet Sue, Just You / 4. Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing (from “Love Affair”) / 5. Mack The Knife / 6. Cheek To Cheek / 7. Stranger In Paradise / 8. (Where Do I Begin) Love Story / 9. Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From "The Godfather") / 10. African Safari / 11. Stardust (mono) / 12. As Time Goes By / 13. It's Impossible / 14. The Way You Look Tonight / 15. It Had To Be You (from “’s Awful Nice”) / 16. Red Roses For A Blue Lady / 17. The Power Of Love / 18. Besame Mucho / 19. Seventeen / 20. Winds Of Change (Main Title, vocal version)) Disc: 3: 1. Music To Watch Girls By / 2. All By Myself (from “Send in the Clowns”) / 3. A Time For Us / 4. Somewhere, My Love (Lara's Theme from "Doctor Zhivago") / 5. Bridge Over Troubled Water / 6. Everybody's Talkin' / 7. I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) / 8. A Banda (mono) / 9. Someone / 10. The Way We Were / 11. A Man Without Love / 12. The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) / 13. This Is My Song / 14. Midnight Lace, parts 1 & 2 / 15. Try To Remember / 16. Invisible Tears / 17. Unchained Melody / 18. Volare / 19. The Look Of Love / 20. With Every Beat Of My Heart (vocal solo by Ray Conniff)

“The Real... RAY CONNIFF (The Ultimate Ray Conniff Collection)” is the title of a 3 CD set from Sony that was released on March 21, 2014 in Germany / in the UK on April 28, 2014 UK. Tracks are as follows:

“Eight Classic Albums, Vol. 2” is the title of a 4 CD set to be released on May 9, 2014 (UK: May 16). This set features the following albums: (Disc #1:) ’s Wonderful! & Swingin’ For Two (with singer Don Cherry) - both in original mono -, (Disc #2:) ’s Marvelous & ’s Awful Nice*, (Disc #3:) Hollywood in Rhythm & Broadway in Rhythm, and (Disc #4:) Conniff Meets Butterfield & Rhapsody in Rhythm). As for “Eight Classic Albums, Vol. 1”, click here.

“Hit Album Collection” is the title of a 3 CD set which was to be released June 13, 2014. The release date was postponed to June 27. It features the following six albums: (Disc #1:) Concert in Rhythm & Concert in Rhythm, Vol. II (Disc #2:) Broadway in Rhythm & Hollywood in Rhythm (Disc #3:) So Much in Love & Rhapsody in Rhythm The overall sound quality is excellent - with the exception of “Hollywood in Rhythm”. They should not have used the version which e.g. was released in the UK, because on this one the chorus is hardly audible (unlike on the US compact disc). The set does not feature any liner notes but gives information concerning the albums’ top positions in the US pop album charts.

LO ESENCIAL DE RAY CONNIFF (Mexico, Sony BMG 886975234721, released in April 2009) 3 CD / 1 DVD-set shown on the right: box cover

CD #1: Besame Mucho / The Continental / Brazil / Frenesi / The White Cliffs of Dover / The Way You Look Tonight / Say It With Music / Spanish Eyes / Smoke Gets In Your Eyes** / The Poor People of Paris / South of the Border / Lisbon Antigua / Dancing in the Dark / The Young and the Restless (Nadia’s Theme) / This Is My Song / La Vie en Rose / African Safari / I Don’t Know How to Love Him / Volare / Malagueña (poor sound)

CD #2: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing** / Green Eyes / Stranger in Paradise / Memories Are Made of This** / Only You / Ebb Tide / The Most Beautiful Girl / I’ve Got You Under My Skin / Sentimental Journey / Begin the Beguine / Somewhere My Love* / Blue Moon / Sing* / As Time Goes by** / Love Letters in the Sand / Thanks for the Memory / Unchained Melody / Yesterday / Happy Together / Sweet Caroline

CD #3: La Mer** / Tico Tico / Red Roses For a Blue Lady / Three Coins in the Fountain** / Paloma Blanca (poor sound) / Feelings / El Condor Pasa / Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head / Honey (I Miss You) / ‘s Wonderful (1956) / My Way (from "The Essential Ray Conniff") / Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious / Love at First Sight (mono) / The Impossible Dream / Memory* / A Taste of Honey / Warsaw Concerto / Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina* / Rhapsody in Blue / New York, New York*

DVD: The Continental / Brazil / Besame Mucho / Smoke Gets In Your Eyes / Frenesi / Somewhere My Love / No Mismo Verao (Pleno Verano) / Caballo Viejo / El Dia Que Me Quieras / El Africano / Amor / Ven Con el Alma Desnuda / Paloma Blanca / New York, New York Note: All video clips previously released on "Las Número Uno" (CD/DVD set) in Mexico in 2006 - in a different sequence, though.

* from 's Always Conniff / **instrumental version

Click here for “2 on 1” CDs

May 13 / June 12 / July 2, 2014:

March 4 / 27 / April 8 / 11, 2014:

Jan. 25 / Feb. 9 / 28, 2014:

May 9, 2011:

March 8/16, April 17, 2011:

December 28, 2010 / January 2, 2011:

June 3/8/28, 2013:

May 2009:

October 25 / November 3 / December 8, 2013:

“Ray Conniff Masterworks: The 1955-62 Albums” Two different CD sets with the same title. (Left:) Box set (7 CDs) available from fnac, released in France and Spain in September 2013, featuring 14 albums: “‘s Wonderful (1956), “'s Marvelous (1957), “'s Awful Nice (1958), “Broadway in Rhythm” (1958), “Hollywood in Rhythm” (1958), “It's the Talk of the Town” (1959), “Conniff Meets Butterfield” (1959), “Young at Heart” (1960), “Say It with Music” (1960), “Memories Are Made of This” (1960), “Somebody Loves Me” (1961), “So Much in Love” (1961), “'s Continental” (1961), and “Rhapsody in Rhythm” (1962). It comes with a 20 page booklet. Thanks for this information, Francisco! Update (December 8): It is also available from Amazon Europe now. For the excellent liner notes click here. (Right:) This CD set of 6 CDs includes the same albums with the exception of “Conniff Meets Butterfield” and “Rhapsody in Rhythm”. For full details click on the right cover scan. Missing on both sets are both volumes of “Concert in Rhythm”.and “Dance the Bop!”.

’S WONDERFUL / ’S MARVELOUS / ’S AWFUL NICE This box set is simply a cardboard wrapper around three previously issued CDs. Sony simply took 3 of Ray's CDs and packaged them with an outer sleave (Sony Music 65369). Sony made no attempt to fix the flaws that appeared in the original CD reissues.

April 22, 2011:

January 30 / March 13/20, 2015:

February 14, 2015 / March 7, 2015: Release dates for the Continent of Europe: March 27, 2015, USA: May 5, 2015

Released in the UK on March 9, 2015 (other countries: see note!) on the Acrobat Music label, a 4 CD set titled The Ray Conniff Collection 1938-62 Catalogue Number: ACQCD7086 (Click on this link for track list!) This is how the set is advertised: Ray Conniff became one of the biggest stars of easy listening music as a bandleader and conductor during the 1960s and beyond, but his career began in the late’30s as a trombonist with Bunny Berigan, before joining Artie Shaw as trombonist and arranger in the early ‘40s. His career blossomed after he joined Columbia Records, working as an arranger and conductor with a remarkable array of top names over the years, from bandleaders like Harry James to the great singers of the day in Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Johnnie Ray, Marty Robbins and Don Cherry, as well as recording his own work under the name of Jaye Raye. Along the way, he invented his innovative style of integrating a vocal chorus with his orchestral arrangements, which encouraged Columbia’s Mitch Miller to begin what became a hugely successful series of LPs recorded under Conniff’s own name beginning in 1957, which established his trademark sound. This great value 113-track 4-CD set traces the first quarter- century of his career from his recording debut in 1938 through to the early ‘60s. It’s a highly entertaining overview of the work of one of the illustrious names of popular music in the post-war era.

Released November 4 (USA) / 14 (Europe), 2016: THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA CHRISTMAS RECORDINGS, a 2 CD set featuring “Christmas With Conniff”, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, and “Ray Conniff’s Christmas Album ‘Here We Come A-Caroling’”; bonus tracks: “My Favorite Things”, from the Mary Poppins album and Christmas Greetings by Ray.

Sept. 7, 2016:

Released in Mexico, a 3 CD set titled LO CLÀSICO DE RAY CONNIFF with 60 tracks. Click on the cover scan on the left for details.

’S WONDERFUL! The Ray Conniff Page

Multiple CD sets

This page features a selection of multiple CD sets from around the world. Please note that this list may not be complete. For “2 on 1” CDs, please click here. (List compiled by Doug Mitchell)

January 30 / March 13/20, 2015:

Released in the UK on March 9, 2015 (other countries: see note!) on the Acrobat Music label, a 4 CD set titled The Ray Conniff Collection 1938-62 Catalogue Number: ACQCD7086 (Click on this link for track list!) This is how the set is advertised: Ray Conniff became one of the biggest stars of easy listening music as a bandleader and conductor during the 1960s and beyond, but his career began in the late’30s as a trombonist with Bunny Berigan, before joining Artie Shaw as trombonist and arranger in the early ‘40s. His career blossomed after he joined Columbia Records, working as an arranger and conductor with a remarkable array of top names over the years, from bandleaders like Harry James to the great singers of the day in Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Johnnie Ray, Marty Robbins and Don Cherry, as well as recording his own work under the name of Jaye Raye. Along the way, he invented his innovative style of integrating a vocal chorus with his orchestral arrangements, which encouraged Columbia’s Mitch Miller to begin what became a hugely successful series of LPs recorded under Conniff’s own name beginning in 1957, which established his trademark sound. This great value 113-track 4-CD set traces the first quarter-century of his career from his recording debut in 1938 through to the early ‘60s. It’s a highly entertaining overview of the work of one of the illustrious names of popular music in the post-war era.

April 22, 2011:

LO ESENCIAL DE RAY CONNIFF (Mexico, Sony BMG 886975234721, released in April 2009) 3 CD / 1 DVD-set shown on the right: box cover

* from 's Always Conniff / **instrumental version

May 2009:

October 25 / November 3 / December 8, 2013:

“Ray Conniff Masterworks: The 1955- 62 Albums” Two different CD sets with the same title. (Left:) Box set (7 CDs) available from fnac, released in France and Spain in September 2013, featuring 14 albums: “‘s Wonderful (1956), “'s Marvelous (1957), “'s Awful Nice (1958), “Broadway in Rhythm” (1958), “Hollywood in Rhythm” (1958), “It's the Talk of the Town” (1959), “Conniff Meets Butterfield” (1959), “Young at Heart” (1960), “Say It with Music” (1960), “Memories Are Made of This” (1960), “Somebody Loves Me” (1961), “So Much in Love” (1961), “'s Continental” (1961), and “Rhapsody in Rhythm” (1962). It comes with a 20 page booklet. Thanks for this information, Francisco! Update (December 8): It is also available from Amazon Europe now. For the excellent liner notes click here. (Right:) This CD set of 6 CDs includes the same albums with the exception of “Conniff Meets Butterfield” and “Rhapsody in Rhythm”. For full details click on the right cover scan. Missing on both sets are both volumes of “Concert in Rhythm”.and “Dance the Bop!”.