Merman: "Sam and Delilah" Recording?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 1:20pm

Did she ever record "Sam and Delilah", her first song from Girl Crazy? I can't find record of her ever doing it, which is strange since it was her first song on Broadway. Anyone with any info? Would be greatly appreciated!

Updated On: 2/20/11 at 01:20 PM

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 3:14pm

Back in the early 60s, there was a recording of songs she did in her nightclub act. While the orchestrations are souped up, she does sing Sam and Delilah on that disk. It was released by Reprise records, which was somehow affiliated with Frank Sinatra. All the numbers have a Las Vegas-ish sound. I don't believe it was ever released on CD, but I may be wrong on that. And despite its shortcomings, Ethel delivers it with all her usual gusto.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 3:16pm

Ty Ed. I also found it on a LP of her greatest hits. Anyone who has an mp3 of it is more than welcome to PM me. Ty so much!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 4:06pm

I thought it was on Ethel Merman: A Musical Autobiography, but I just checked and it's not.

That's the Australian CD release, which omitted a few numbers. I think it might have been on the original 2-LP boxed set.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 4:07pm

Ty Joey. I'm slightly obsessed with this song at the moment.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 5:03pm

It's not Merman, but there is a kick ass version by Debbie Shapiro/Gravitte to be found here:

http://castalbums.org/recordings/George-Ira-Gershwin-A-Musical-Celebration-1993-STAGE-Concert/5462

[beaemma]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 6:02pm

It's on an old (1961) Reprise Lp called "Merman...Her Greatest," which I've never seen on CD. It's a studio recording with the songs arranged and conducted by Billy May.
I Got Rhythm
Medley:
This is It
Do I Love You
I Get a Kick Out of You
Sam and Delilah
Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries
Blow, Gabriel, Blow
You're an Old Smoothie
Down in the Depths on the Ninetieth Floor
But Not for Me (which wasn't introduced by Merman)
Friendship
You're the Top
The last two numbers, normally duets, are done with a small group of male back-up singers.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 8:49pm

Thank you for reminding me of this LP. The "Vegas-styled" orchestrations aren't all that bad, considering this was a nightclub song in GIRL CRAZY (and not plot/character related.)

I guess that just leaves Boy! What Love has done to me" as the only song Merman sang in the show that she never recorded.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:08pm

"Boy, What Love Has Done to Me" is, I think, my all-time favorite Gershwin torch song.

I would kill to hear a 1930s-era rendition of that song by Ethel.

For anyone who doesn't know it, here is Ella Fitzgerald's version of it, with the spectacular Nelson Riddle arrangement from her George and Ira Gershwin Songbook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt_TRY7EoDQ

You get to know life
When married to a low-life.
Boy! What love had done to me.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:16pm

Nancy Walker did this wonderfully bluesy version on her "I Hate Men" album. Listen to it at this link:

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2007/12/338_07_Nancy_Walker_-_Boy_What_Love_Has_Done_To_Me.mp3

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:18pm

Never knew this existed: A Duke Ellington recording of "Sam and Delilah" with a male vocal by someone named Chick Bullock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkyRXgMU3g0

Listen to the 2nd vocal chorus--Chick surprises you!

I bet Ethel did what he does but even more so.

Updated On: 2/20/11 at 09:18 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 10:11pm

No recording exists but sometime in in 1930, while she was appearing in Girl Crazy, Merman appeared on the The Louis Calhern Show on radio and sang what is listed as a "medley of songs from the show," without specifying of "Boy, What Love Has Done to Me" was part of the medley.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 11:55pm

Wow Pal Joey, that Nancy Walker album brings back a particular memory.

Some years ago when I was working full time in radio, I found a copy of that Camden Lp in a used record store, I got it home and had the record out in it's inner sleeve looking at the label when I heard a crash in the other room. I put the record down on the chair and went to investigate what my cat had gotten into. The a phone call came in. Later I returned to my chair and without looking sat on the record and broke it in half! (It didn't even make it to the turntable!)

I was pissed off with myself but had only paid $5 bucks and figured I would find another copy somewhere.

Next morning I go into the radio station to do my on-air shift (I was doing morning show then) and the newscaster mentions in passing "Oh did you hear that Nancy Walker died last night?"

I killed Nancy Walker!

Too spooky.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/21/11 at 1:20am

You sat on her and broke her in two!

[Jackson Upperco]

Posted: 12/31/11 at 12:03am

PalJoey,

That's a shame that the radio broadcast doesn't exist. I'd kill to hear that as well!


If I remember correctly, in the '04 documentary, "Broadway: The American Musical," there was footage of a younger Merman singing "I Got Rhythm." Do you know where this comes from?

Updated On: 12/31/11 at 12:03 AM