The multi-talented and multi-lingual Miss Caterina Valente came from a family of entertainers to become one of the biggest international stars of the 1950s and 1960s in particular. Showbusiness was in her blood and she had the talent to ensure that success would be forthcoming – and sooner rather than later. Caterina recorded in excess of 1300 songs during a career that really got underway in the early 1950s and eventually spanned seven decades. Jasmine has anthologised some of these in a previous compilation, but “A Date With The Hi Fi Nightingale” takes her career back to its beginnings, pairing her first two ten inch (mostly) English language albums and adding almost all of her acclaimed 1958 set “A Toast To The Girls”, in which she paid tribute to many of her peers and influences. This collection marks the first time that these albums have appeared on CD in the order they were released, and in the same running order as their vinyl equivalents from almost 70 years ago. All of her breakthrough hits are featured – including the global smash ‘The Breeze And I’ and her first European hit ‘Malaguena’. These are the recordings that put Caterina on the road to worldwide fame, and they sound as powerful now as they did when originally released.