Wives and Lovers

Jack Jones reached the zenith of his commercial fame with the 1964 smash "Wives and Lovers," Burt Bacharach and Hal David's velveteen paean to chauvinism and pre-ERA domestic bliss. The accompanying LP boasts a similarly old-guard charm, recruiting arrangers including Marty Paich and Ralph Carmichael to create a delightful collection of string-sweetened, jazz-influenced ballads perfectly attuned to Jones' rich, crystalline vocals. An unusually clever interpreter, Jones approaches standards like "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" with intelligence and class, never succumbing to pathos — the purity of his singing never fails to astound. [Wives and Lovers was reissued in 1999 on CD on a two-fer alongside the 1965 Kapp release Dear Heart & Other Great Songs of Love.]