Although Prima’s little band that played on 52nd Street in the 1930s produced some almost forgotten (and much jazzier) gems, there’s no doubt that his 1950s work with the gritty tenor of Sam Butera and the calmer vocals of Keely Smith, backed by the Witnesses is his best known and most successful body of work, until his reinvention as the ‘King of the Swingers’ in 1967’s Jungle Book. And this hits collection is the tip of that 1950s iceberg – though the heat of the band would surely melt it. The fragment of studio dialogue that starts ‘Buona Sera’ is the key to why these records are so consistent: ‘I don’t have to worry ’bout y’all, play yourselves!’ And that’s what the band does – everyone’s dependable and the sum of the parts creates something far greater. No wonder he lasted so long in Vegas! The dialogue with Butera’s tenor in ‘Oh Marie’ backed by the urgent rhythm section is a classic, just as his sung conversation with Smith (his wife) on ‘That Old Black Magic’ shows musicians completely in tune with each other. If there’s one regret in the set, it’s that there’s far too little of Prima’s sparkling trumpet. His choruses with Butera on ‘Pennies From Heaven’ and ‘When You’re Smiling’ remind us that the virtuoso trumpeter Smith describes in ‘The Lip’ is still alive and well! Yet this is not a band that’s all about jumpin’ jive – and his duo with Smith on ‘Embraceable You’ linked to ‘I Got It Bad’ is a fragment of a live show that shows exactly why they were such a successful ‘in person’ act. As Butera’s tour-de-force ‘O Solo Mio’ ends the record, the immediate instinct is to replay all 27 tracks again to recapture a more innocent time when music was fantastic fun – but all of it beautifully played.