Favorite Cast Recording(s) of the 16/17 Season? — Page 5

(I have nothing to add at the moment, other than to THANK those engaging in a thoughtful and informative discussion in this thread. It's what I love about BWW and keeps me coming back)

It's nice to know that we are entertaining and that may be worth throwing this thread wildly off-topic.

Gaveston, I'm know the Westbury Music Fair well, with the family home about a half hour away for the last 50 years, but I thought the location might be more helpful to others unfamiliar with it. Sadly, I knew the Music Fair when it was still just a tent. I think I saw my first musicals there at about 10 or 11:. Paint Your Wagon and The Student Prince (an operetta?). An MGM mid-50s film of Student Prince, starring Mario Lanza, explains the revival of the operetta and the interest of the Italian side of my family. I think it is best known, if not only known, for "The Drinking Song." I think I also saw No, No, Nanette with Ruby Keeler still in the lead.

I may have exaggerated my dumbness in 40s music, particularly the vocals. There were maybe 20 (?) Big Bands touring the country and charting a hit or two, but I'm only familiar with about a half dozen. I figure there must be some of them that didn't achieve the fame of the others, but like Bandstand at its best, produced some minutes of sheer joy.

The ballads I'm pretty well up on. There were so many gorgeous ballads during the war years that it almost makes you wish you had been there. "It's Been a Long, Long Time," "It Could Happen to You," "We'll Meet Again," (Remember Julie Andrews singing this on her short lived TV series. Can you imagine that the country couldn't make room for an hour of Julie Andrews every week?), "I Don't Want to Walk Without You," "I Remember You," "I'll Be Seeing You," "The Last Time I Saw Paris," and of course the Johnny Mercer contribution, the not so sentimental "G. I. Jive."

After you wash and dress
More or less
You go get your breakfast in a beautiful little caf they call "The Mess"
Jack, when you convalesce

Outta your seat
Into the street
Make with the feet
Reet!!


This is the G. I. Jive
Man alive
They give you a private tank that features a little device called "fluid drive"
Jack, after you revive

Chuck all your junk
Back in the trunk
Fall on your bunk
Clunk!!

One of my best playlists is alternating songs by Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford, 15 apiece. The Sinatra channel on Sirius XM played a lot of those ladies, but in recent years they have been pushed back in favor of Billie Holliday. To my great regret, I just don't find Holliday's voice pleasant to hear. I must be in a small minority.

It's great that you can call a life-threatening incident "trivia." You sound like you really enjoyed those days.

No, if I had seen Student Prince in the 70s, I would have a much more vivid memory of it. It's just a shadow of a memory now, probably dependent on "The Drinking Song" for any recollection.

You keep leaving hooks in your messages that draw me onward. You mentioned Jeanette MacDonald. She was one of the important women in my life during a five year period that ended early last year. I accompanied my mother down that road to dementia and death, and she had no one else in the world. But her girlish heros, for whom she still had strong feelings, were Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Before the dementia advanced, she had a great desire to see some of their films again. No DVDs had been issued in the U.S. yet, so I ordered them from Brazil. English language, with optional Portuguese subtitles. (The DVDs are now very available from TCM and Amazon.)

She enjoyed them, at least when she didn't doze off in the middle. As for myself, I don't think that I could sit to watch any of the films twice, except for the first of the series, "Naughty Marietta." I give this a high grade compared to similar romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s. Victor Herbert wrote two fine songs, "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" and "Italian Street Song." The last song is highlighted in a scene that could hold its own among the best scenes of similar, with Nelson Eddy, as a military officer who rescued Jeanette, but with no idea that she is a princess. He has been showing off his voice to her, and in this snippet of the scene she chooses to finally reveal to him that she has some talent as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3korUTUVzEk

Of course you have to be able to stomach operettas. Anyway, she was a talented and classy woman. After achieving film stardom she worked on her voice until she was ready to sing opera. A nice woman, but a tough negotiator with the studio.

She also appeared in the unique pre-code comedy Love Me, Tonight, with Maurice Chevalier and a young Myrna Loy as a nymphomaniac. This film introduced Rodgers and Hart's "Lover" and in a very unique way, "Isn't It Romantic." (Richard Rodgers thought that Peggy Lee's hit recording of "Lover" was not at all as he had perceived the song being sung, and told her so. Ms. Lee had the big hit nevertheless.) And of course she did San Francisco, with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. Judy Garland, in her famous Carnegie Hall concert, mocks Jeanette in the film before she sings "San Francisco herself." I've assumed that it was all in fun, with no animus intended, but I don't really know.

I used to say that I drove best when drunk. I don't say that anymore. Do you swim best when you're drunk?

In case you think you might never get to Love Me Tonight, here is the long scene at the beginning which introduces "Isn't It Romantic" as it travels from the poor Paris taylor to the Princess on her balcony (Yes, Jeanette is a princess, again). This is probably the first thing although not the only thing that people recall when they call the film inventive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNQ7TrVDrg

Sometimes I just can't believe that the Richard Rodgers of Rodgers & Hart was the same Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The way his daughter has described him -- straightlaced, almost humorless, a worrier and a business associate much more than a friend of Hammerstein -- how could he have written so many wacky songs with Lorenz Hart?

I've never listened to the whole recording of Do I Hear a Waltz. I guess I should.

I know there are quite a few critics who would put Love Me Tonight near the top of the heap of musical comedies. I find the first half to be pretty memorable screwball comedy, but the second half not so much. Still, a film that works in the Weird Sisters of Macbeth and a desperate nymphomaniac in Myrna Loy should definitely be seen - at least once.

I guess someone should do a film biography of Hart, not counting that awful biopic Words and Music in which Mickey Rooney plays Hart. It might be hard for me to watch, though, with the anguish of Hart's life alternating with the joy of his songs. He could write songs like "Lady is a Tramp" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," the latter sung or recorded by every serious female vocalist who ever lived, and then produce the hauntingly sad "Little Girl Blue," in which he might have been writing about himself.

When I was very young the world was younger than I

As merry as a carousel

The circus tent was strung with every star in the sky

Above the ring I loved so well

Now the young world has grown old

Gone are the tinsel and gold

Sit there, and count your fingers What can you do? Old girl, you're through

Sit there, and count your little fingers, Unlucky, little girl blue.



Janis Joplin sung this. It's up on YouTube. I guess that won't be much of a surprise to those who saw the 2015 documentary: Janis Joplin: LIttle Girl Blue. It was originally on the Kozmic Blues album.

And from Little Girl Blue" we'll go on to these famous lyrics from "I Wish I Were In Love Again."

When love congeals it soon reveals

the faint aroma of performing seals

the double-crossing of a pair of heels.

I wish I were in love again!

Then circle back again to "Spring is Here," or "Ten Cents a Dance." (Ella, not Doris Day)

Hart belongs with the best.

I adore Sergio Franchi's performance on the cast recording. I wish I had been able to see the recent Encores! version of Do I Hear A Waltz.

Dear Evan Hansen and Bandstand

Updated On: 7/15/17 at 09:36 AM

This thread made me listen to the GHD cast album again (and again), which I thought was dreadful the first time, and I have to say I've really grown to like it a lot. Especially the "Day One" sequence and "If I Had My Time Again." Some really fine rhythms and music and flow of the lyrics. Still, the barely even half rhymes hit my ear like a freight engine!

I still CANNOT get through the COME FROM AWAY album despite several tries. Would love to see the show at some point, the album has kindof a rambling nature that probably works marvelously in the theatre, but the music alone just isn't doing it for me.

10086Sundays said: "Mr. Nowack said: "This thread made me listen to the GHD cast album again (and again), which I thought was dreadful the first time, and I have to say I've really grown to like it a lot. Especially the "Day One" sequence and "If I Had My Time Again." Some really fine rhythms and music and flow of the lyrics. Still, the barely even half rhymes hit my ear like a freight engine!"

Glad you gave GHD another chance Mr. Nowack! "If I Had My Time Again" is probably the most accessible standalone song, except for the crude lyrics. From your post, it sounds like you haven't seen the show live, is that true? Just out of curiosity.

"

I hope it's okay to be reviving an older thread, but...I absolutely loved "If I Had My Time Again" on the cast album. My first exposure to GHD was via streaming the cast album in the background at work. I had enjoyed it up until then, but that was the song that made me stop and seriously start paying attention. I also loved the "making of" video of the cast album, as you can see most of Andy and Barrett's acting choices.

I've seen the live show twice now. I really, really love the show, but "If I Had My Time Again" somehow fizzles in the theater and I don't know why. The only thing I can pinpoint is that both times I saw the show, I felt like I was having trouble hearing Andy and Barrett over the instrumentation. The song still does its job, but I wish it *felt* like more of a showstopper.

Anyway, "If I Had My Time Again" still would have been my choice for the Tonys, as it does a better job of combining the humor and pathos of Phil's arc. I guess the verse about masturbation disqualified it? ("Seeing You" is gorgeous, but it has less impact outside of the context of the show IMO).

My favorites this season are Anastasia, Hello Dolly, and Bandstand. Great Comet is up there too as well. The classic golden age and traditional Broadway sound are very prevalent in these scores, which I love since a lot of stuff these days can be very contemporary (not a bad thing, but still). I'm confused when people say the Anastasia / Dolly recordings have no character or life, whenever Journey to the Past or Sunday Clothes plays, I'm an emotional mess. Bandstand is just good old fun, the songs have real personality.