There's a generation forever scarred by watching TV's Gomer Pyle open his mouth on some 1970s variety show, only to have a robust baritone worthy of Robert Goulet pour forth with "The Impossible Dream." But Jim Nabors' vocal talents were no fluke, the product of years of cabaret singing after his graduation from the University of Alabama. Such was Nabors' appeal to the easy-listening set that his career as a singer of show tunes and gospel burgeoned even after his television stint as America's goofiest Marine ended. Indeed, his version of "Impossible Dream" here hails from the successful road show production of Man of La Mancha that Nabors starred in in the early '70s. There's an unescapable kitsch quotient to his earnestly melodramatic readings of "Born Free" and "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," but it's his more successful renditions of gospel favorites that form this collection's core. That work, especially his loping, country-tinged "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" a! nd collaborations with the veteran Jordanaires on "He" and "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" are this anthology's focus. --Jerry McCulley