The Light Music While You Work title of this disc is not general, but specific: it refers to a BBC radio program and to an associated series of 78 rpm records on the Decca label. In 1940, over the protests of purists, the BBC inaugurated a program of "light music," which Americans would call easy listening, in order to raise morale, or productivity, at British factories during wartime. The program was an instant hit and lasted, in one form or another, until the mid-'90s. This disc, the second in the Guild label's light music reissue series devoted to Music While You Work, presents Decca recordings, not transcriptions from the BBC itself. Except for the brief overture and postlude Calling All Workers of
Eric Coates (which is shared with the previous disc), all the recordings date from between 1943 and 1946, and all of it is by British musicians. This sets the program apart from most of the Guild series, which demonstrates the international reach of the light music phenomenon, is mostly organized by theme, and spans a range of time from late Viennese origins to modern bachelor-pad music. The music itself, too, is more focused on Britain, although there's a pleasing Girl Crazy from a
Studio Orchestra conducted by
Phil Green. Several works come from the classical repertory (albeit pared down to consistent tempi in a manner anticipating the Hooked on Classics LPs) and few if any have a connection with the theme of work, although there is a consistent uptempo quality that would later be employed by the makers of Muzak. The album gives us a snapshot of British tastes during the war, and it, like other discs in Guild's series, offers unexpected enjoyment, but other discs in the series are more compellingly programmed for the average buyer wanting to sample these releases.