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Ethel Merman: "World Take Me Back" from Hello, Dolly!

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#1

Ethel Merman: "World Take Me Back" from Hello, Dolly!

Posted: 10/4/11 at 2:10pm

Can't believe it's taken me this long, but I recently discovered and fell in love with "World Take Me Back," which was originally written for Merman in Hello, Dolly! but later dropped after she turned down the part (or at least that's what I've read). Of course it was put into the show when she finally accepted the role to close out the show's historic run in 1970.

Remember she did this..and all of her shows..without the help of amplification (only foot mics here, I believe). Hard to believe that less than 15 years later, that voice would be silenced forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mP2oZH80_c

Anyone else a fan of this song or other songs that, originally, didn't make the final cut? I love the uplifting message here.
#2

Ethel Merman:

Posted: 10/4/11 at 2:37pm

I've always wondered where this went in the show - I got the impression it was right around the "Before The Parade Passes By" slot, but it seems like it's basically the same song. Did it work dramatically? It would seem like it would undercut the (IMO) much better and more thrilling "Parade" number.

At the same time, if you're going to see Merman play Dolly, why not have as much of Merman as Dolly as you can squeeze in, dramaturgy be damned.

So, any thought on how the show played with the additional song? It's fun but seems extraneous (and no other productions ever add it in, to my knowledge.)

But it is a very fun recording, thanks for the link!
#3

Ethel Merman:

Posted: 10/4/11 at 3:07pm

I know some regional productions have added it - is it able to be licensed?
#4

Ethel Merman:

Posted: 10/4/11 at 3:24pm

The recording begins with Horace singing "It takes a Woman," so either that is a reprise or "World Take Me Back" was placed early in Act I. That would make sense, because many of the lyrics sound like the classic "I want" song that is usually written so that musical heros and heroines can introduce themselves.

(I suppose another possibility is that it was added to the curtain call medley so that Merman could have a big closing number. That strikes me as weird--why is she still talking to Ephraim when he has already sent her a sign?--but then Herman's fondness for choral medleys after the plot was concluded always struck me as odd. And it would be the easiest way to integrate the song into the show for Merman.)

That said, I agree with temms that the song covers the same dramaturgical territory as "Before the Parade Passes By." The primary difference is that "World" is asking while "Parade" is vowing. The latter was written late in the try-out period, as everyone knows, and may have been filling a gap left by the deletion of "World Take Me Back." (I'm assuming "World" was cut originally because it wasn't right for Channing.)

Updated On: 10/4/11 at 03:24 PM

#5

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 3:37pm

I remember how excited I was the first time I saw the 45 RPM single with Ethel singing these two songs from Hello, Dolly!

Apparently she paid for the recording herself and the record was available only in the theater lobby.

I love both songs (especially "Love, Look in My Window") and can't believe how tender she is in them. (Well, tender for Ethel...)

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'
#7

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 4:33pm

Oh, if only there were some type of machine that could tell you where Broadway songs were positioned in shows it would be worth millions.
Link
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#8

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 5:14pm

While I recognize the snark, I will say thank you for the link. I frequently check IBDB and it didn't occur to me that they may have alternative song lists for different casts.

Now, if you could help find a song list for "The Night That Made America Famous" that would be awesome as well, since I've been curious and IBDB, wiki and google don't seem to help much.

Back on topic... geez, that seems to make for a long first act. I had presumed that "Love Look In My Window" would have gone where "Love Is Only Love" went in the movie. And "World Take Me Back" does make sense as an "I Want"-ish number, but it seems a bit early in the show for her to be boisterous about it, especially since "Parade" and the Ephraim speech seem to be so strongly about her making a decision.

For me, that Ephraim speech probably remains the most memorable part of Channing's performance, which granted I only saw this last time around in the mid-'90s. If she's already declared she's ready to live life again, it seems to undercut that.

But hey, you got the Merm blaring out a new Jerry Herman tune in a show late in its run, so I'm sure nobody was all that bothered. Still, it does seem particularly extraneous.


ETA: Okay, just noticed the Harry Chapin Wiki site lists the songs for TNTMAF. Should have looked further down the results page.

Updated On: 10/4/11 at 05:14 PM

#12

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 6:37pm

As someone who saw Merman in the role several times, I can say that "World Take Me Back" was performed in Horace's Feed and Grain Store shortly after "It Takes A Woman". "Love Look in My Window" was just before the "Parade" number--virtually making the same point twice. Both numbers were in the first act.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#13

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 6:57pm

Both the songs added for Merman went into the first act. World Take Me Back was sung on her entrance into Vandergelder's after his exit reprise of It Takes a Woman, as you can hear on the youtube recording.

Love Look in My Window preceded the parade scene and the Ephraim, let me go speech occurred in the middle of the song.

I wasn't in New York at the time but had many friends who saw her and they all said the audiences loved the new songs with their climactic high notes which even that late in her career soared out into the house with a clarion ring that would drive the house crazy.

I was surprised by the youtube recording which is slower and I think less effective than the recording I have heard in the past, which allegedly is a soundboard of the closing night. That recording of the entire show is a classic and should be heard if at all possible.

The IBDB song list is wrong. It includes Come and Be My Butterfly (a nightclub number at the Harmonia Gardens) which was cut late out of town and never went back into the show and certainly wasn't there when Merman took over. I don't know why they would list that one song out of the many that were cut out of town. It was cut so late, btw, that the original LP pressing had a photo of an exasperated David Burns trying to make his way through the butterfly chorus girls.

My community theater did the show in the early 70's and tried to license the additional songs and were not only turned down flat but warned against trying to put them in. Of course that was many years ago and I have no idea what the situation is now.

I adore those songs.

Updated On: 10/4/11 at 06:57 PM

#15

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 7:38pm

I was new in New York and met a collector. The first evening he invited me over he played that Dolly soundboard and a complete soundboard of Follies in Boston. I was so young and naive I had never heard of bootlegs and I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. From a gay stroke.

And PJ, I bought that 45 at the Tower records on lower Broadway in the mid or late '70's. It's wonderful but I miss the orchestra.

Updated On: 10/4/11 at 07:38 PM

#16

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 7:39pm

"The IBDB song list is wrong. It includes Come and Be My Butterfly (a nightclub number at the Harmonia Gardens) which was cut late out of town and never went back into the show and certainly wasn't there when Merman took over."

While the song was long gone by the time Merman took over, it was in the show when it opened on Broadway.

John Anthony Gilvey's bio of Gower Champion says that it stayed in the show for a year-and-a-half, only being removed when Channing left. That's incorrect. I've got a playbill from late in Channing's original run and it's not listed. In that playbill, the "Polka Contest" is listed instead.

It seems that "Come and Be My Butterfly" stayed in the Broadway production for about a year. When the tour started, the number was replaced by the "Polka Contest" for the tour. After that, the change was put into the Broadway production.

So that's why the song is in the ibdb song list for the production. There are errors on ibdb but that's not one of them.
#19

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 8:23pm

"Come and Be My Butterfly" wasn't cut from the show until after it had opened on Broadway. Gower Champion wanted more dancing in the show and put in the Polka Contest. Jerry Herman never agreed with him and still feels the "Butterfly" number was more effective.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#20

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 8:29pm

"Thanks for the correction. I assumed since it wasn't on the LP that it didn't make it to New York. I also thought it had been replaced by the Polka contest but didn't mention that because I wasn't sure. Thanks."

You're welcome.

I believe the original LP issue of the cast recording had a photo of the number, but the number was probably considered too minor and too visual to be deemed necessary to record. And I think that Champion may have already been planning to cut it eventually.

Btw, it seems that the number was included in a German production a couple of years ago.

A little thing: I don't know of any soundboard or sound-system recordings of Merman in Dolly! At least three recordings of Merman in the show are in circulation. There are two separate recordings of the closing performance and one of an early Merman performance. (And there may be others out there.)

Anyway, all the ones I have are audience recordings, not soundboard or sound system. It may be that a sound system recording of Merman in the show exists, but I'd guess that what you heard was an audience recording since those are the ones that are out there pretty widely.

It seems that a lot of people describe all live recordings of Broadway musicals as "soundboards," which I find puzzling.

Further complicating this is that a lot of recordings that sound like they may have been recorded through the sound system were recorded off the squawk box (or stage monitor). And I think that most of the time those were not connected to the sound system but came from a separate mic set up for that purpose.
#21

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 8:30pm

I don't know if that soundboard that's floating around is really of the final performance. I was there and the audience was much, much more enthusiastic and cheered Gower Champion when he danced in the ensemble in "I Put My Hand In". That's missing on the recording. When Merman appeared at the top of the stairs, the crowd cheered wildly--really, really wildly.

Also, the Cornelius on the recording sounds much younger than the fellow from CALL ME MADAM who was in the cast at that point, and I never heard the reference to Neopolitan ice cream in place of the Tutti Frutti reference on stage. Every time I saw the show, it was always tutti frutti.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

Updated On: 10/4/11 at 08:30 PM

#22

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 8:41pm

I've always thought the recording I'm familiar with sounds as if it were recorded in the audience and not off the soundboard but I've run it across in various copies over the years and each time it was described as the closing night soundboard. Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I've also wondered whether it were really the closing night. It's nonetheless one of my treasures.

Updated On: 10/4/11 at 08:41 PM

#23

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 8:56pm

The recording I'm referring to was done in the pit because everything on stage comes across loud and clear. However the scenes played on the ramp (and presumably away from the floor mics)
sounds distant.

The actor's name just came to me: Russell Nype.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#24

Ethel Merman: 'World Take Me Back' and 'Love Look in My Window'

Posted: 10/4/11 at 9:02pm

The two songs added for Merman are featured on the "Deluxe" Edition of Hello, Dolly! issued in 2003. It featured a "remaster" of the original 1964 recording, and also had tracks with songs from Dolly by Mary Martin and Pearl Bailey, the 2 Merman numbers, and a couple of interview tracks.

Dollypop beat me to the placement of the number in the Hay and Feed Store (upstairs, if I'm recalling correctly).
Ray is the author of the Brad Frame mystery series, and two suspense novels. He is also the author of a one man play based on Ben Franklin. http://www.rayflynt.com

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