Posted: 5/7/17 at 8:09pm
HELLO DOLLY now on XM...WOWOWOW...getting chills!
Updated On: 5/7/17 at 08:09 PM
Posted: 5/7/17 at 8:29pm
DAME said: "I just heard the title track on XM. NICE!
"me too :)...just relived that wonderful night!
Posted: 5/7/17 at 8:53pm
I caught the title song on XM last night. It's beautiful. Bette sounds like she's having a ball. That said, I actually prefer the orchestrations of the OBCR. The instrumentation is much richer sounding. The banjo part before the final reprise and the horn section at the end is loud and vibrant without being overwhelming.
You can't compare the vocals. Channing is Channing and Bette is Bette and they each bring their own magic to the role (though I absolutely LOVE Bette's "It's so nice to be back home where I... belong."
The male choruses are both spectacular.
Posted: 5/7/17 at 9:11pm
any of you heard the full thing yet?? how is it? i am itching to get a listen
Posted: 5/7/17 at 10:43pm
When Martha Raye played Dolly, she pronouned "parade" Poo- rade and then sang the hell out of the song.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 9:07am
First listen available on NPR.org...
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/08/527191829/first-listen-hello-dolly-new-broadway-cast-recording
Posted: 5/8/17 at 9:57am
Wow, it sounds gorgeous!
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:10am
Not to nitpick, but they really couldn't include the small reprises of "I Put My Hand In" and "Parade"? I find it a little frustrating.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:18am
ljay889 said: "Not to nitpick, but they really couldn't include the small reprises of "I Put My Hand In" and "Parade"? I find it a little frustrating. "
Agreed. Particularly upset about the Parade reprise.
This sounds gorgeous though. Baldwin brings new life to "Ribbons Down My Back", a song I've always written off.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:23am
I'm not complaining really but honestly, what does it take to get a complete recording of a score these days?!
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:33am
Is this the same company that did the recent KING & I recording? Still upset about the inexplicably unrecorded "Hello Young Lovers" reprise and the entire finale.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:37am
I am so happy to hear this company belting through my speakers right now! Seeing them live was spectacular...what a great way to start Monday!
And I agree with the Kate Baldwin sentiment...I always wrote off "Ribbons..." until I heard her just float through it!
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:54am
I believe the TKAI album was Universal and this is Sony, but like I said earlier, commercial labels are pretty awful at making somewhat complete albums. This makes me worried for the upcoming SITPWG album as I believe it's being done by Warner Bro.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 11:17am
I'm seeing conflicting release dates for the CD. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have it listed as this Friday, May 12, but Best Buy says June 2nd. Anyone know which is correct?
Posted: 5/8/17 at 2:20pm
I agree it does feel restrained compared to watching it live. I've been listening to the OBC and the 1994 revival and Sunday Clothes sound so much more exciting in those versions than this one.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 4:06pm
There's another thread on this and on that one I said this recording is flat and doesn't't capture the "Broadway sound". It seems to have been recorded during the rehearsal period and that may be the answer.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 4:16pm
Has nothing to do with it being recorded during rehearsals. It has all to do with it being recorded in a recording studio. There's a relaxed intimacy recording this way plus Bette is most comfortable getting in that mode. Live she's one way but in a recording booth she brings her voice into a more controlled and polished interpretation. She's playing Dolly Levi for the listener as opposed to a Broadway theatre. Same applies to the cast in their ensemble numbers.
Decades ago cast recordings were done is huge studios so everyone went full-out for the overhead microphones. They "performed" for the recording. Nowadays cast recordings are done in more intimate spaces so the recordings sound a bit flat and not as vibrant as the older days. Has all to do with the studio set-ups.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 4:28pm
BeukyBaby said: "I'm seeing conflicting release dates for the CD. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have it listed as this Friday, May 12, but Best Buy says June 2nd. Anyone know which is correct?
"
I'm pretty sure it is May 12. I will know Friday, when I go into my local Barnes & Nobles. Did you notice on Barnes & Noble and Best Buy sites, they show the correct Bette Midler cover but they call it the 1994 recording? Amazon lists it correctly.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 4:31pm
Listening to the album on NPR now. The 1964 cast was full of clowns. That album was funny. This cast is full of singing actors. The album is pretty but the humor isn't coming across to me in songs like "It Take a Woman," "Motherhood March" and "Elegance."
Posted: 5/8/17 at 4:38pm
BrodyFosse123 said: "Has nothing to do with it being recorded during rehearsals. It has all to do with it being recorded in a recording studio. There's a relaxed intimacy recording this way plus Bette is most comfortable getting in that mode. Live she's one way but in a recording booth she brings her voice into a more controlled and polished interpretation. She's playing Dolly Levi for the listener as opposed to a Broadway theatre. Same applies to the cast in their ensemble numbers.
Decades ago cast recordings were done is huge studios so everyone went full-out for the overhead microphones. They "performed" for the recording. Nowadays cast recordings are done in more intimate spaces so the recordings sound a bit flat and not as vibrant as the older days. Has all to do with the studio set-ups.
That is probably all true but ON THE TOWN captured the energy of the show. The new DOLLY recording is "without color and without life"
"
Posted: 5/8/17 at 5:03pm
I am really enjoying this new cast album. I find it full of life and glorious. So the lesson is; to each his own.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 8:24pm
BrodyFosse123 said: "Has nothing to do with it being recorded during rehearsals. It has all to do with it being recorded in a recording studio. There's a relaxed intimacy recording this way plus Bette is most comfortable getting in that mode. Live she's one way but in a recording booth she brings her voice into a more controlled and polished interpretation. She's playing Dolly Levi for the listener as opposed to a Broadway theatre. Same applies to the cast in their ensemble numbers.
Decades ago cast recordings were done is huge studios so everyone went full-out for the overhead microphones. They "performed" for the recording. Nowadays cast recordings are done in more intimate spaces so the recordings sound a bit flat and not as vibrant as the older days. Has all to do with the studio set-ups.
"
Some of this is true and some not. There's nothing wrong with what Bette and everyone else is doing on this recording. The reason it doesn't "sound" like older recordings is because producers of cast albums these days don't "get" it - they don't know how to get that sound and believe me it's EASY to get if you know what you're doing. Before I began doing cast albums no one ever put singers in a booth for a cast album. We did with the leads because it gave us control. But the sound was all in the way we mixed it, the space (reverb) we gave everything - we always tried to match the sound of Goddard Lieberson's Columbia cast albums - for me the gold standard. But yes, I have to tell many a Broadway performer that this was for the ear not the eye. That we had to do for the ear only and achieve what they eye would add in the theater - they all "got" that very quickly. Bette, of course, knows that because she's a recording artist as well as a stage artist. It's all in the mix, folks.
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:10pm
I've been thinking how tastes in voices change over the years. I'm not a voice expert, so I feel funny commenting, but the male chorus on the OBC seemed to have a more masculine sound. Maybe they had more bases or baritones then. The chorus on the new album has that pop tenor sound. Could someone who knows what they're talking about comment on this?
Posted: 5/8/17 at 10:26pm
The album is good- but to have the full experience, a night at the theater with a live audience cannot be duplicated on CD.
Updated On: 5/8/17 at 10:26 PM
