When Dame Vera Lynn’s daughter, Virginia Lewis-Jones, recently moved out of the family home – the house in Ditchling, East Sussex, where Dame Vera Lynn had lived with her husband, the saxophonist and clarinettist Harry Lewis, for nearly 40 years – she donated the entire collection of her mother’s records to The British Library. Archivists have been sorting through the extensive collection of discs and tapes with a fine-tooth comb ever since. Amongst these records, a set of three silver-coloured aluminium master discs were discovered. Two of the discs are labelled by hand with the song titles, 'What a Difference a Day Makes' and 'Spring Don't Mean a Thing to Me' and the other is unlabelled. Using specialist equipment, musicology experts at the British Library were able to listen to these masters and identify them as audition tapes, confirming that these are the first recordings in existence of a voice that went on to become one of the most recognisable, reassuring and beloved voices in the history of music.

The new discoveries have been compiled together with a selection of Dame Vera Lynn’s greatest hits, rarities, duets and new mixes of beloved classics in a 3CD collection.

Disc 1
1. We’ll meet again
2. There’ll be Bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover
3. What a Difference a Day makes
4. Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
5. Auf Weiderseh’n Sweetheart
6. As Time Goes By
7. When you wish Upon a Star
8. A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square
Sailing
9. From the Time You Say Goodbye
10. Dream
11. Wishing (Will Make it So)
12. Travellin’ Home
13. Harbour Lights
14. When I Grow too Old to Dream
15. How Green was my Valley
16. Home Sweet Home

Disc 2
1. It’s Home
2. Spring don’t mean a thing
3. I Hate Myself (for being so mean to you)
4. It’s a Lovely Day, Tomorrow
5. When the Lights go On Again
6. You’ll Never Know
7. Faraway Places
8. Yours
9. I’ll Pray for You
10. The Bell’s of St Mary’s
11. Close to You
12. Goodnight Children, Everywhere
13. I Hear a Dream
14. Shine on Harvest Moon
15. The Woodpecker Song
16. Someone’s Rocking my dreamboat
17. White Christmas

Disc 3
1. What a difference a day makes (original)
2. Vera Lynn Selected (original)
3. Home (original)
4. Spring don’t mean a thing (original)
5. I Hate Myself (for being so mean to you) (original)
6. When You Wish Upon a Star (feat. Cynthia Erivo)
7. (There’ll be Bluebirds over) the White Cliffs of Dover feat. Alexander Armstrong
8. Auf Weiderseh’n Sweetheart – 2017 version
9. I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – 2017 version

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Hidden Treasures - The Very Best Of - CD