Charles Aznavour: "You And Me"

Angel, CDC 7243 8 33473 2 (Import, 60 mins)

Dial a track code: 1201

Perhaps if Charles Aznavour had died before recording songs like the sugary She, he - like Jacques Brel - would also be the focus of attention for a new generation of songwriters and music lovers who are turning from Anglo American rock to European pop art music. He deserves to be. And let's not forget that four years before Scott Walker discovered Brel and brought his music to Englishspeaking audiences, Bob Dylan was listening to Aznavour in Greenwich Village and clearly being influenced by his debt to poets such as Baudelaire and Rimbaud.

Unlike Brel, who detested English so much that he never recorded in that language, Aznavour has been recording in his adopted tongue since 1962, producing in the process adult love songs such as You've Let Yourself Go and Children of War, which make an absolute mockery of most pop songs of their time. Thirty four years on, he proves that he is still a master of this particular genre.

Sugar from She still soils quasi Tin Pan Alley romances like the title tune and I Love You So; but when he remains true to his own cultural base, in songs like The Needle, I Drink and Maria Was Her Name, Aznavour matches Brecht and Brel and leaps beyond them into the 1990s. The three tracks deal with heroin addiction, alcoholism and rape respectively, with the treatment of the latter, in Maria Was Her Name, being both mercilessly moving and free from sentimentality of any kind. A pop masterpiece. Allowing for its weaker moments, the same applies to this album. Inspiring work indeed, from a man who is nearing 70.

Tony Bennett: "Here's To The Ladies"

Columbia 4812666 2 (67 mins)

Dial a track code: 1311

In a world gone mad celebrating rock youth culture or more specifically, the financial rewards such celebrations can lead to, it sure is cool to see another seasoned 60 something like Tony Bennett being assured that in some areas of the music business artistry matters more than cash. Following his MTV special, which led to a Grammy winning album and a succession of world tours, the great TB now bounds back with his best album in years.

Indeed, as a collection of 18 classic pop songs associated with singers such as Peggy Lee, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan and Mabel Mercer, Here's To The Ladies is almost obscenely rich with musical pleasures. Finest are those cuts with Bennett's long time musical partners, the Ralph Sharon Trio, such as a sublime Tenderly; though if it's big band arrangements you prefer. Jorge Calandrelli's charts for songs like Down In The Depths and Tangerine are equally masterful. No doubt Bjork will be borrowing a few licks from these particular cuts for her next "sshhh" album. But she and her peers will have a long way to go before they catch up with Tony Bennett.

Various Artists: "Not Fade Away

(Remembering Buddy Holly)"

MCA 11260 (37 mins)

Dial a track code: 1421

If Buddy Holly had lived he too would now be in his 60s, though that concept is probably as hard to comprehend for original greasers as the idea of Elvis, Gene Vincent or the Big Bopper lining up to collect their old age pensions. Holly's music is bound to be rediscovered as we near the end of the century he and they helped redefine - though, in his case, less as a result of this scrappy, half hour long album than the fact that the Stones did a wonderful tribute of their own, Not Fade Away, on their CD ROM, album Stripped.

Most authentic are those tracks that have been stripped back to the kind of country, folk, pop and rock `n' roll basics that were Holly's hallmark. The Mavericks crooning True Love Ways, Nanci Griffith's Well All Right and Mary Chapin Carpenter's Wishing. Though, for novelty value alone it's hard to beat Holly's group, the Crickets, mixing it with the band on their version of Not Fade Away. Waylon Jennings and Mark Knopfler also do a pretty cute duet on Learning The Game. But the question remains: why would anyone want such recordings when they can go back to the originals? Those cuts won't fade away. These will, like all inferior work.