"Adelaide's Lament"-Best Recorded Rendition

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 3:54pm

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.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 3:58pm

Blaine. Period.

Streisand's version is so unfunny.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 3:59pm

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

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:02pm

Awww,muscle, *tear*

BobbyBubby, I despise Streisand's version, she thinks she's being funny but she really isn't, same with Burnett's. I think I like Faith Prince's rendition a bit better than Blaine's though.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:04pm

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

[AuditioningWaitress]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:20pm

I love Vivian Blaine's version....Does anyone remember Mandy Moore doing it on some A&E or BRAVO special? It's was pretty weird...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:30pm

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."

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:41pm

I remember Moore's version AW. Awful. Truly awful. And I like Mandy Moore usually.

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:43pm

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.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:58pm

Blaine's is great, but Faith Prince is my personal favorite. Use the live version from MY FAVORITE BROADWAY: THE LEADING LADIES rather than the OBCR rendition, though.

I don't like the tempos they use on the 1976 recording.

[sidneybruhl]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 5:20pm

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

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:41pm

Was the 1976 revival any good?

[Jon]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:49pm

Blaine. Blaine. Blaine.


Faith Prince refuses to sing the actual notes as written.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:55pm

For me, it's a tie between Faith Prince and Kim Criswell.

Posted: 2/25/06 at 10:27pm

Hands down Vivian Blaine.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 2:18am

I think I still like Faith Prince a little better than Blaine, but I'll choose Blaine because I think she truly captures the spirit of a performer of the Golden Age singing THE song. I had a chance to listen to Mandy Moore's version and was disappointed, I like her film acting, and her voice is ok in a generic sort of way, but I don't think she has been taught to perform a song versus singing a song, she sings the lyrics and the notes but you don't get any character or subtext from her performance. Thanks for your suggestions.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 2:31am

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".

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 3:10am

Hm. I do believe Faith Prince does sing the correct notes (I don't know what you're referring to, Jon), and I do think my vote would be for Prince. But I think that's only because of my stupid perfect pitch. Blaine's rendition was not recorded in the key written in the score (I wonder why this is...?) and it rather bothers me. Her performance, however, is truly wonderful.

~Steven

[Sant]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 10:50am

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.

[Magical_Ms._Mistoffeles_72]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 12:32pm

1992 new broadway cast recording faith prince.

Im sorry, but Ive lost all respect for Vivian Blaine since I saw the movie version of G&D

I mean, what the hell?

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 2:50pm

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.

[bwaybaby891]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 3:04pm

Vivian Blaine. Hands down. I love Faith Prince but Blaine's voice is perfect. She is Adelaide.

[jv92]

Posted: 2/26/06 at 3:28pm

Vivian Blaine.