George Grossmith was most famous as the creator of nearly all of Gilbert & Sullivan’s great clown roles… but he was also a successful composer for music-hall revues. This interesting disc gathers his most famous songs. It’s unfortunate that Grossmith never made any recordings (although enough of his contemporaries have so that we have a good idea of what his style would have been like, even if we are deprived of what was certainly a unique genius). Certainly it must have been that personality that made these songs successful in the theater, since in these perfectly decent performances there’s nothing remarkable about them – they are merely respectable examples of their genre. But this is a genre that has many admirers who will undoubtedly be grateful for this unusual release.