Although primarily known for her contributions to the silver screen during the 1940s and '50s, Gloria DeHaven was a highly underrated vocalist. She came by her double-barreled talents honestly, as her parents were the vaudeville team of Carter DeHaven and Flora Parker. As a preteen, her first break was a noncredited appearance in Charlie Chaplin's #Modern Times (1936), while her cinematic singing roles included musicals at MGM (#Best Foot Forward in 1943 and #Broadway Rhythm in 1944) and at RKO (with Frank Sinatra in # Step Lively in 1944). The baker's dozen of selections on 2004's Sweet and Lovely come from Armed Forces Radio Services programs such as G.I. Journal, Mail Call, Everything for the Boys, and Command Performance. The tune stack reveals material taken mainly from concurrently popular standards and show tunes of the era, and DeHaven matches the music with uniformly strong performances. Her light wafting vibrato glides through sultry and intimate interpretations of You Go to My Head, Blue Moon (which is inexplicably left off of the track listing), Exactly Like You, Amor, and two distinct readings of the Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne classic Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are. Another particularly worthwhile entry finds the artist joining up with June Allyson on the uptempo and infectiously swinging A Love Like Ours. Sweet and Lovely is all the more notable as very few collections are available on CD featuring DeHaven. As the contents are drawn from various sources, potential consumers should expect notable vacillations in the sound quality. ~ Lindsay Planer, Rovi

1		Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are
2		You Go to My Head
3		A Love Like Ours
4		Exactly Like You
5		Amor
6		They Didn't Believe Me
7		Swingin' On a Star
8		The Man I Love
9		Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are [Second Version]
10		Sweet and Lovely
11		Don't Blame Me
12		Love Is Just Around the Corner
13		Blue Moon