Alongside his interviewing and writing, Sir Michael Parkinson has spent much of his career promoting the appreciation of the music of the Great American Songbook and encouraging those of the new generation who are fighting to keep that flame alive. In the process he has developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of that genre. This collection features artists ranging from the legendary singers Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra to modern masters of the genre Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum. It also features an exclusive new single by British artist Joe Stilgoe ‘Our Kind Of Music’. This fantastic 3CD album, released on November 24th will be supported by Sir Michael Parkinson touring the UK in a new live theatrical show next year. In conversation with his long term producer, collaborator and son Mike, using clips from his classic and extensive archive and featuring performances by Joe Stilgoe, the tour will take a fascinating, entertaining and informative journey to the music heart of Sir Michael Parkinson. “This compilation CD is a personally curated collection of, in my opinion, the best of The Great American Songbook. But what is the Great American Songbook? In simplest terms it is the canon of the most enduring and popular songs and jazz standards composed between 1920 and 1950’s. For the most part written for Broadway and Hollywood musicals It features compositions by the likes of George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Rogers and Hart, Cole Porter and Johnnie Mercer to name but a few. It is perhaps America’s sole indigenous art form and it is not a stretch to call it, as others have, ‘America’s Classical Music.” Michael Parkinson