GavestonPS said: "Nalkarj said: "Sorry just to pop up to bump this one silly thread, but someone on IMDb v2.0 found a promising lead—David Kernan, who sang Berlin, Coward, Sondheim, and Porter both on Broadway and the West End.
If anyone here knows of him, could you please tell me if he’s a likely choice? I tried asking at the Theatre Board devonian.t recommended, unfortunately to no avail.
Thanks!"
I know Kernan's voice well from SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, live on Broadway several times and countless playings of the OLCR. I can't say that he couldn't imitate the Rudy Vallee-style voice on the SLEUTH recording, but his normal voice has more vibrato in it. Check out "I Remember" in SIDE BY SIDE (available to sample on iTunes) for a comparison.
Al Bowlly's voice--judging from the links in this thread--is much brighter than the SLEUTH singer. But again, I don't know that he couldn't alter his singing style. If Jane Horrock ofLITTLE VOICE can sound so authentically Garland, etc., then almost anybody might have done the SLEUTH numbers.
I also listened to some samplingof Rudy Vallee himself, even though I feel sure someone else would have identified him if he were the singer in SLEUTH. Vallee comes closer than the two singers I reference above, but his voice is lower, in range and in timbre; the SLEUTH singer goes to what sounds almost like a falsetto effortlessly, but with Vallee the effort on the high notes definitely shows."
Thanks!