The Definitive 'Losing My Mind'

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 10:46am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERQTfcCANY0

Above is an audio clip (unfortunately no video) of Julia McKenzie's rendition of Losing My Mind, from the Original London Production of Follies in the '80s.

A heart-wrenchingly magnificent version of the song, in my opinion... Her voice is so acrobatic, there is nothing she can't do... All the different colors she brings out in this song is remarkable... It truly is, in my eyes, the definitive version of the song. All the emotion and heart is there, and you hear every word and every note.

[lotiloti]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:09am

It's my favourite, by a mile! She was the highlight of the whole show.

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:19am

She's perfect

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 12:16pm

I disagree. Marin Mazzie will always be my favorite.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 12:27pm

Calling something "definitive" on the Internet is NOT starting a discussion. It is starting an argument. It is trollery.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 2:04pm

I'm not really a fan of anyone (cause I know it's not just McKenzie) going high instead of low at the end (sorry for my lack of actual musical terminology).

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 2:11pm

I like Julia McKenzie in general (I loved her take on the Witch in the London INTO THE WOODS), but what, exactly, makes her rendition more "definitive" than Dorothy Collins'?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU9CE6N_Dck

I also loved Mazzie's version as well.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 2:17pm

that is quite a beautiful rendition. Marin's is amazing as well. I love how angry she gets towards the end! It's tough to call any of the versions of this song 'definitive', as there are so many top-notch performances.

Has anyone else ever heard Maria Friedman's version? I prefer hers as well as Bernadette's, they both have such distinct voices and filled with emotion.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 3:07pm

McKenzie did as much as anyone to popularize the song among theatergoers, singing it on both sides of the Atlantic in SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM years before she appeared in the London FOLLIES. And MAZZIE is magnificent and BARBARA COOK is sublime.

But "definitive"? Listen to Dorothy Collins again. Her "Losing My Mind" is as simple and emotionally direct as "The sun comes up/The coffee cup..." She never even breaks into her head voice, she doesn't need it.

I know everybody is tired of hearing about the original cast in 1971 and how perfectly the roles were adapted to fit them. (The topic has been banned at my house.) But it is what it is.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 3:15pm

I know everybody is tired of hearing about the original cast in 1971 and how perfectly the roles were adapted to fit them.

Ha, I wasn't even born in 1971 and I hold that truth to be self-evident!

[FrontRowDress]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 3:45pm

Liza and the Pet Shop Boys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_mjkxc7Ys

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 3:47pm

To coin a phrase, "it's the song, stupid". No doubt this is a wonderful interpretation, but the song is such a great song that it leaves itself open for many different and valid interpretations. As someone said earlier, it's hard to call one interpretation definitive.

When I saw Bernadette Peters sing "Send in the Clowns" in the ALNM revival, I thought it was the best version I had ever heard, and I had made a point of trying to listen to as many as I could, starting of course with Glynis Johns. But that was a matter of my own taste, I could never call it definitive (though if I recall correctly, some critics may have done just that.)

Great songs allow themselves to be sung in many wonderful ways by great singers.

[theeatah]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 4:05pm

No discussion of this can be complete without reference to the ensemble version from CAMP.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 5/21/12 at 5:11pm

If I had to demonstrate to someone untutored in Sondheim why Losing My Mind is such a remarkable song I'd go for the Barbara Cook recording.

However, as far as Julia is concerned, I'd give my back teeth for a recording of the London production of On The Twentieth Century.