Here is the finest single CD selection available of the legendary American-born Josephine Baker (1906-1975), truly one of the most remarkable black figures of the 20th century. She was an outstanding entertainer with a uniquely seductive manner, expressed in song with a distinctive voice. Possessed of a magnificently athletic body, exotic nudity was central to her scandalous performances at Les Folies-Bergères where, clad only in a girdle of bananas, she introduced the Charleston to Europe. Yet she went on to win both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur for her wartime Résistance work, and later also became known for her ‘rainbow tribe’ of homeless children of many nationalities.

This Retrospective album presents a superb selection of 27 of Josephine Baker’s most famous original recordings from her 30s heyday, including, naturellement, her theme song J'ai deux amours (i.e. her country and Paris), and such perennial favourites as La petite Tonkinoise and our title track Dis moi, Joséphine.

Most of the tracks are sung in her seductively American

French, including charming gallicized versions of such

as Cole Porter’s I’ve Got You Under My Skin and Easy To

Love, but there are also representative titles in English

(e.g. My Fate Is In Your Hands and You're Driving Me

Crazy).