The intention of Ben Bagley's series of "revisited" albums of the music of great songwriters is to uncover little-known compositions and have them sung by the cream of Broadway and New York nightclub performers. For his Irving Berlin volume, Bagley assembles a cast including Bobby Short, Dorothy Loudon, and Blossom Dearie, and sets them loose on obscure Berlin songs dating back to 1909 ("Sadie Salome Go Home") and up to 1947 ("Mr. Monotony"). He delves particularly into Berlin's never-recorded 1940 Broadway musical +Louisiana Purchase ("It'll Come to You," "Fools Fall in Love," "Wild About You," and the title song), which justifies his praise of it. (They didn't make Original Broadway Cast albums in those days.) In addition to the accomplished saloon singers who effectively put across this worthy (if not stellar) material, Bagley also adds one worthy ringer, TV's Dr. Kildare, Richard Chamberlain, who also had a brief career as a pop singer. He applies his smooth voice to a series of ballads ("Lonely Heart" and "How's Chances?" from +As Thousands Cheer, "Fools Fall in Love," and "I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep" from +This Is the Army), which allows the other performers to whoop it up all the more in the rhythm numbers. ["23 minutes of newly recorded songs added," proclaims the back of the booklet for the 1990 CD reissue of the album, and those 23 minutes consist of nine more relatively unknown Berlin songs, even if they begin with the maudlin "When I Lost You," which actually was a major hit in 1913. Bagley has put together an entirely different cast for these songs that includes Ann Hampton Callaway (who mostly handles the ballads this time), Arthur Siegel, Sandy Stewart, and William Cantor, accompanied by a piano/bass/drums trio. He is still trying to promote +Louisiana Purchase, adding two more songs from the show, "Sex Marches On" and "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow." But he also delves back to the early days of Berlin's ethnic novelty songs with "Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars." The CD version is even more valuable as a collection of Berlin rarities.] ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide