Track Listing

1. Battle Hymn of the Republic
2. America
3. America the Beautiful
4. Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean
5. God Bless America
6. Revolutionary War Medley: Yankee Doodle
7. Revolutionary War Medley: Chester
8. Civil War Medley: The Bonnie Blue Flag
9. Civil War Medley: Lorena
10. Civil War Medley: Dixie
11. Civil War Medley: The Battle Cry of Freedom
12. Civil War Medley: Tenting on the Old Camp Ground
13. Civil War Medley: When Johnny Comes Marching Home
14. Service Songs Medley: From the Halls of Montezuma
15. Service Songs Medley: Achors Aweigh
16. Service Songs Medley: The Wild Blue Yonder
17. Service Songs Medley: The Caissons Go Rolling Along
18. Star Spangled Banner

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30841 in Music
• Brand: RCA
• Released on: 1991-06-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .19 pounds

Customer Reviews

A Mellow 1950s Slant on Patriotic Music
A nice recording with fine singing. But the arrangements and performance sound very dated. Despite the aggressive title of this disc - many of these classics are arranged to give everything a kind of mellow orchestral flavor - while most of the songs should have the flavor of a Sousa Band (after all these are patriotic songs). For crisp inspiring renditions of these songs consider the new men's chorus recording of patriotic songs on the CD entitled "The Spirit of Freedom" with the Washington Men's Camerata.

For traditionalists, this is hard to beat...
If you want a CD with the most popular patriotic or military anthems on it, performed in classic formal style by great artists, varied because it features not only a mixed chorus of men and women, but soloists and a symphony orchestra too, buy this one before it goes out-of-print. First issued in 1962, this disc features not only "America" and "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful" but also a stirring long version of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Less familiar is "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean", which I've always liked. It closes with "The Star-Spangled Banner" of course. Inbetween is a great version of "Yankee Doodle" and a Civil War medley which offers not just songs from the righteous Union side, but a few from the traitorous Confederacy, too. There is also a medley of the armed forces anthems for the Marines, the Navy, the Air Force and the Army. I purchased this recently as a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law, who is 81, was a young bride with an Air Force husband during World War II, and is as conservative a Christian as any good Southern Baptist can be. I hope she'll like it, even though country and western music from the '40's and '50's is her special thing. If you have a desire to have these kind of songs in your collection, the Robert Shaw outfit does them in high style and you'll likely be happy with this CD.

Music of America
This CD, a reissue of an earlier RCA LP recording, is a triumph of choral music. The singers of the Robert Shaw Chorale are, as always, superb. Shaw's later mastery of orchestral conducting is not fully realized here and the arrangements are very good, but not great. The late Thomas Pyle's solo, however, is reason enough to purchase this CD.