Born James Montgomery Fyfe on October 5th 1900, Monte Rey as he later became known did not truly begin his singing career until he was 26 years old, relatively late in showbiz!
Having been sponsored by the Duchess Of Montrose and the film star Jack Buchanan amongst others he decided to take classical singing seriously and left for Milan,Italy to study under singing teacher Briano Onielo (who comically turned out to be an Irishman named Brian O'Neil)!!!
As Montgomery Fyffe he appeared in many prestigious London venues such as the Albert Hall and the Wigmore Hall. CD2 includes all the songs Monte recorded under the Fyffe name but finally by 1934 he had become the Monte Rey that we all remember so well!
Joining Geraldo after a series of successful radio shows he stayed with him until 1939 alongside working with Joe Loss until 1941. During this period Monte also undertook a series of recordings for transmission by Radio Luxembourg which comprise arguably his finest body of work. We present 27 examples of this fine work on CD1. Our final selections for this wonderful Avid Easy release feature five Scottish songs including a glorious live version of Annie Laurie.......there was not a dry eye in the house when he closed with this number!
A superb collection full of both popular and rare unreleased material that show Monte Rey deserves his place among the great tenors of the day such as John McCormack and Richard Tauber.