Butchered Recordings of Broadway Songs

[BumpwithBalloons]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 12:17am

Hey Broadwayworld! I need your help... can anyone think of any Broadway songs that got butchered when a pop star or recording artist tried to record it? I'd love to put together a mix CD as a joke for a friend of really bad renditions of Broadway show tunes.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 12:24am

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:12am

Anytime Streisand has done an ALW song.

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:17am

Being Alive from Brian Stokes Mitchell's album.

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:19am

I couldn't agree more- I hate her version of "Memory."

[LePetiteFromage]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:20am

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 02:20 AM

[PJC]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 2:24am

Liza's pseudo-techno version of 'Losing My Mind'.

[bythesword84]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:16am

Neil Diamond's absolute massacre of "I Dreamed a Dream"

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:19am

I'm a huge Streisand fan, mostly of her early work, but her "Some Enchanted Evening" on her Back to Broadway disc is cringe worthy. "Su-hu-huuum enchanted evening!"

[Weez]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 6:04am

'Being Alive' by John Barrowman on his 'Reflections From Broadway' album. A lot of it has to do with the accompaniment, I reckon, but it's pretty horrible. It did improve when he recorded it for his 'Another Side' album though, so make sure you get the right one.

For shizzles and giggles, Elaine Paige once recorded 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Ooh, and it is actually a showtune! Kinda! Sorry, I usually ignore the existence of 'We Will Rock You', so it didn't occur to me that would be an on-topic thang until after I typed it. XD

[PJC]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 6:17am

Oh, Weez, you are so right. And as bad as Elaine's singing is on that one ("just gotta get right outa here-yore"), it's the London Philharmonic galumphing through Brian May's guitar solo that made me long for sweet, sweet death.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 7:25am

The entire Sweeney Todd soundtrack.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 9:49am

one name:
Deborah Gibson

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 9:56am

Karen Carpenter singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina". But she didn't just sing the song, oh no, she had to do the whole dialogue of "On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada".

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:23am

I actually rather like Streisand's ALW songs. Esp. the two for Sunset AND "Memory"

I was gonna say anything done by Kelli O'Hara, but that sounds too bitchy.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:53am

one name:

Ben Bagely

The man produced some of the worst recordings ever made. Granted, he did full versions of Broadway scores that nobody else has ever recorded, but have you actually listened to some of them? In my world, if there is a hell, Blossom Dearie is the sound of the background music.

[Flight0017]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:56am

"With One Look" as recorded by Shirley Bassey. It's gruesome. At the end it sounds like she sings "They'll say chili's back at last", but she is of course replacing "Norma" with "Shirley". I guess she thought she was kinda hot!

[JRybka]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:09am

Since my music tastes revolves around loving really bad remixes and remakes of songs, I have a weath of knowledge in this department.

Harajuku did a whole dance cd of some really bad dance mixes of broadway musicals....On My Own, I Still Believe, Phantom of the Opera, Beatuy and the Beast just to name a few.

Ethel Merman did a disco album of her greatest hits. Alexander's Ragtime Band, Everything's Coming Up Roses and more

Grace Jones also did a disco album called Portfolio that incleded some deliciously tacky versions of Send in the Clowns, Tomorrow and What I Did For Love

You can always find Festival's cd/lp of Disco Evita with probably the campiest version of Buenos Aries along with the major songs from EVITA

I adore Elaine Paige and still thrill to her STAGES CD with such brilliant trainwrecks of One Night Only, Be On Your Own, Tomorrow, Good Morning Starshine

Of course, with the mega status of Wicked you cannot forget the bad renditions of Defying Gravity floating around... the worst I must say is Julie Budd's shrilling version on her NEW CLASSICS cd.

International Cabaret Sensation, Julie Wilson blasts throuh a version of Cy Coleman's Use What You Got/Hey! Big Spender that is shocking in her lack of hitting ANY notes.

Some of the fun stuff also comes out of Germany and England... They must not know that they sound like crap but people eat it up (myself included...)

The Men... Ah.. One must not forget Dennis DeYoung from Styx doing 10 on Broadway with classics like "On The Street Where You Live"

A man popular on the PBS circut is Stig Rossen... as amazing as he is on songs like "Love Oh Love" by Lionel Ritchie he does a total Little Richard-esque version of "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story on his double live cd.

So this is a sampling... This is just stuff off the top of my head. When I get home, I will go through my collection and list more for you. But it is a start...

[sally1112]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:13am

I don't know if I would out-and-out say "butchered" but I was very disappointed with a Donny Osmond solo CD I bought with his Broadway covers.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:16am

Stevie Wonder's "Seasons of Love". One reviewer said it sounded like Stevie was being castrated.

Robert Guillame's Phantom of the Opera. Someone needed to tell him that he can attempt to reach for the high notes all he wants, but when the notes aren't in your range, they just aren't there.

[JRybka]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:20am

Oh yes... I completely forgot about Benson's version of Phantom of the Opera... and they even remixed the damn thing for the dance clubs... How insane is that?

[Weez]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:33am

Ohhh, who's that mentalist that did the disco version of 'The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd'? I keep forgetting I have it, then once every four months or so, my iPod's shuffle function will find it, and I experience the horror all over again. XD

[Jamie Pierce]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:39am

I second Debbie Gibson.

Madonna as Eva Peron.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:41am

I believe we've overlooked the all-time greatest butcher of Broadway songs

WING!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 12:04pm

Better than the Ethel Merman disco album is an album called Ethel's Riding High, on which Ethel delivers some truly horrifying renditions of "Sunrise, Sunset" and "The Impossible Dream."



It's available now on a two-fer with Merman Sings Merman.