why no "Where's Charley?" recording?

I'm not sure. But they need to bring it on Broadway or off-Broadway with Christopher Fitzgerald. Perfect.

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The classical label Naxos has released the OCR of Guys and Dolls supplemented with various recordings from Where’s Charley overseas, but apparently it’s not available for sale in the states (“due to possible copyright restrictions”).

The album notes on their site offer this explanation for the absence of a full cast recording:

No complete original Broadway cast recording exists, because the show opened during the 1948 “Petrillo Ban”, in which the head of the musicians’ union, James Petrillo battled with the record companies over a better deal for his players. After the ban ended in 1949, Bolger and his leading lady Allyn McLerie released a two-side 78 featuring the popular “Amy” and the love song Make a Miracle.

Naxos.com - Guys & Dolls/Where's Charley

The question is why the Raul Julia version of the show (Circle In The Square) was never recorded. It was a delight.

(Why do I think Mary Louise Wilson was in the cast?)

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The Petrillo/musicians union ban prevented Decca from making a full album of WHERE'S CHARLEY? The single of "Once in Love with amy" backed by "Make a Miracle" was done near the end of the run, mainly becuase Amy ahd been a showstopping number

It's a glaring gap in the Frank Loesser catalogue only partially helped by the London cast album. The show itself got mixed to negative reviews and ran mainly on the strength of Ray Bolger's name. These days most groups opt for the non-musical play which is better, and the musical is seldom staged.

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We (Kritzerland) came within an inch of recording the Tony Walton production with Noah Racey. We were going to do After the Ball and Where's Charley back to back.

But, there were problems (what else is new) with certain rights holders, who always think there's a major revival waiting around the corner that would be better to record. Of course, there isn't and there won't be and it was a real lost opportunity.

There SHOULD be an Encores production.

The Petrillo Ban is also the reason why we have no original cast recording of Alan Jay Lerner & Kurt Weill's "Love Life".

I was hoping that the DVD release of "Call Me Madam" with Ethel Merman would encourage a DVD release of the film version of "Where's Charley?"

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