"Adelaide's Lament"-Best Recorded Rendition

I am trying to make an album for my boyfriend with standards from the Golden Age. Of course I have to include "Adelaide's Lament" because it is probably the song with the best lyrics from the Golden Age. I have heard four renditions of the song: Vivian Blaine's, Faith Prince's, Carol Burnett's, and Barbara Streisand's. Of those four I think only Vivian Blaine and Faith Prince actually let the song speak for itself, they rely on the lyrics, and pay more attention to their singing. Burnett and Streisand worry too much about the comedy and forget to sing the hell out of the song. I was wondering if anyone else had an opinion on these renditions or if there's any other recorded versions of the songs that I should listen to.

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Ray is back!!! the # 1 is back!!!

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I think Prince is good, but the song fits Blaine so perfectly. Everything Prince does she owes to Blaine.

Blaine is definitive, but I do personally love Norma Donaldson on the 1976 Broadway revival recording with Robert Guillaume and Ernestine Jackson. Donaldson is so kooky, she may be even funnier than Blaine. Ken Page is also a standout on the recording doing "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat."

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Of the ones I've heard (Blaine, Donaldson, Prince, Streisand, Burnett, Julia McKenzie and Debbie Reynolds), Blaine is by far the best.

Of the others, I found Reynolds (on Sinatra's Reprise Musical Theatre series - an all-star recording of almost the entire score to Guys and Dolls and other shows) to be unlistenable with her off-pitch screeching. Pity, too, because her Sue Me duet with Allan Sherman could have been a classic. Adelaide is a ditz, but she is the star of a nightclub, and Reynolds confuses ditzy with excruciating.

Burnett and Streisand barely register with me and I find Prince to be too comment-y. McKenzie is quite good on the 80's London revival recording. But my second choice would be Norma Donaldson on the underrated all-black revival cast recording of the show, all souped up and seventies and wonderful. Donaldson offers an exuberant, heartfelt rendition that pushes the envelope but stays truthful to the character.

But if I were off to a desert island, I'd take Blaine in a heartbeat.

Though I do love Faith Prince's rendition, my vote would have to go to Blaine too.

Blaine. Blaine. Blaine.


Faith Prince refuses to sing the actual notes as written.

Hands down Vivian Blaine.

Norma Donaldson was VERY funny live. On the '76 recording, you can hear the little shriek she gave out after looking at herself in the mirror on "And a feeling she's getting too old".

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I've only heard two versions, Prince's and Streisand's. Prince's version is better by far.

Streisand's version seems to be kind of 'a duet with myself' version. The same thing she did to "I know him so well" from CHESS... Might have been better if she had done it as a proper duet with someone else or as a proper solo number.

I agree that Vivian Blaine's performance in the Guys & Dolls movie is less than stellar and I've only seen her perform in the Broadway's Lost Treasures DVD lypsynching to an abridged version of the song many many years after she opened the show. But if you listen to the original recording of the song, you can tell she is Adelaide and that subsequent Adelaide's usually have a touch of Vivian Blaine in their performance. I like Faith Prince's version better because I like her voice better and I've seen her perform live, but like BobbyBubby said, everything Prince does she owes to Blaine. It is rather unfortunate Jane Krakowski didn't get to record her Adelaide, she was great in the London revival, one can only hope she reprises the role if the show transfers and that they do a Broadway recording because she was the highlight of the show.

Vivian Blaine.