'Our Gracie' lost songs to be released

Unreleased songs by 1930s star Gracie Fields are to hit the shelves for the first time more than 70 years since they were recorded.
By The Newsroom
Published 31st Jan 2010, 14:39 BST
Updated 31st Jan 2010, 17:05 BST

They were recorded for a 1938 radio broadcast and include favourites such as Sing As We Go and a medley of Irving Berlin songs.

Record company bosses are hoping the wave of nostalgia which propelled Dame Vera Lynn to the top of the charts will strike again for the release on February 22 of Our Gracie – The Best of Gracie Fields.

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Rochdale-born Fields was a hugely popular figure in the 1930s, known for songs such as Sally and The Biggest Aspidistra In The World.

She is said to have once been the world’s highest-paid film star and in 1938 “our Gracie” took part in a series of broadcasts sponsored by Fairy Soap.

The recordings were unreleased and languished in a record company archive vault.

The tapes were to be dumped when the firm moved but archivist Ray Crick, who had been in charge of “nostalgia” saved them and stored them in a garage. It was only as he sifted through them that he identified the unreleased performances.

The tapes were remastered for this month’s release by Decca Records.

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