Pass in Review

            As the music buying public began to upgrade their sound systems from the old monaural high fidelity systems of the 1950’s to the newer systems that delivered stereophonic sound, record companies sought to fill a need to provide recordings that could be used to show off how much better stereo was than mono.  By the early 1960’s the record buying public began to look for particular labels that were known to provide these “stereo spectaculars;” labels such as Audio Fidelity, Command, RCA’s Stereo Action releases would provide incredible listening experiences to anyone purchasing an album that were on these labels.

            In 1961, London Records (the American label of Decca UK) began a series of albums that are still held in high regard to this very day.  The series was released on a special label known as London Phase 4 and were recorded on a four-track console; this would later be expanded to an incredible twenty-track console.  Though the first dozen releases saw monaural counterparts, London Phase 4 quickly became a stereo only label.  London Phase 4 would also become the longest lasting of the “stereo spectacular” labels lasting well into the 1970’s.

            The debut release on London Phase 4 was simply titled Pass in Review and showed off, quite well in fact, what was to come in the years to come on the label.  Pass in Review, whose production was directed by Bob Sharples, places listeners on an imaginary sidewalk watching a parade passing by (from left to right) with the band playing a bounty of famous songs from Europe, America, and Mexico; the recording gives an even more realistic experience with the sounds of a crowd standing with the listener.  Although there are two dozen songs represented the album contains only two side-long tracks; this was more than likely done to further provide the feeling of being at a real parade.  Pass in Review certainly belongs in any collection of stereo spectaculars.

Pass in Review

London Phase 4 SP-44001 (mono version: P-54001)

Production Directed by Bob Sharples

Released: August, 1961

Track Listing:

       Side 1

1.      Pass in Review [part 1] (17:34)

                     Fanfare

                     Rule Britannia

                     Scotland the Brave

                     Waltzing Matilda

                     La Marseillaise

                     La Ritirata Italiana

                     Meadowland

                     Mexican Hat Dance

                     Wearin’ of the Green

                     Matilda

                     Lili Marlene

       Side 2

1.      Pass in Review [part 2] (17:54)

                     The Caissons Go Rolling Along

                     The U.S. Air Force

                     Buckle Down, Winsocki

                     The Bells of St. Mary’s

                     Yankee Doodle

                     Indian Drums

                     She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

                     When the Saints Go Marching In

                     Dixie

                     Onward Christian Soldiers

                     Anchors Aweigh

                     The Marines’ Hymn

                     Stars and Stripes Forever

Diana Ross and The Supremes’ Greatest Hits

            One of the most successful girl groups of all-time is undoubtedly The Supremes.  Later known as Diana Ross and The Supremes they racked up a string of twelve number one hits between 1964 and 1969 and placed another six in the top twenty.

            Beginning “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” which was their first single to crack the Top 40; it peaked at number 23, to their final hit “Someday We’ll Be Together,” which hit number one in 1969.  After “Someday We’ll Be Together” Diana Ross left the group to pursue a successful solo career and The Supremes continued on, replacing Ross with new lead singer Jean Terrell.

            In 1967 Motown released Diana Ross and The Supremes Greatest Hits, a double album containing twenty classic Supremes performances, ten of which had reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100; the song “The Happening” had previously only been released as a single and made its album debut here.  This release also marked the official name change of the group from The Supremes to Diana Ross and The Supremes.  This name change began speculation among fans that Diana Ross would leave the group and start a solo career, a move that would happen in early 1970 when the group gave their final performance at The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

            Released on August 29, 1967 Diana Ross and The Supremes’ Greatest Hits became a big hit for the group making its way to Number One on Billboard’s Hot 200 Albums and Top R&B Albums charts, while the single of “The Happening” became the group’s tenth single to top the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart; the album sold nearly 6 million copies.  The original release of this album also contained three autographed full-color paintings of each group member, which were suitable for framing.

Diana Ross and The Supremes’ Greatest Hits

Motown MS2-663 (mono version ML2-663)

Tracks Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier

Liner Notes by Carol Channing

Paintings by Robert Taylor

Track Listing

      Side 1

1.      When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes (2:38)

2.      Where Did Our Love Go (2:30)

3.      Ask Any Girl (2:44)

4.      Baby Love (2:34)

5.      Run, Run, Run (2:20)

Side 2

1.      Stop! In the Name of Love (2:53)

2.      Back in My Arms Again (2:52)

3.      Come See About Me (2:38)

4.      Nothing But Heartaches (2:57)

5.      Everything Is Good About You (2:57)

Side 3

1.      I Hear a Symphony (2:38)

2.      Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone (2:45)

3.      My World Is Empty Without You (2:32)

4.      Whisper You Love Me Boy (2:40)

5.      The Happening (2:50)

Side 4

1.      You Keep Me Hangin’ On (2:40)

2.      You Can’t Hurry Love (2:45)

3.      Standing at the Crossroads of Love (2:28)

4.      Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart (2:55)

5.      There’s No Stopping Us Now (2:56)

The portraits poster included with the original release

Strangers in the Night — Frank Sinatra

            By the mid-1960’s Rock & Roll had firmly became entrenched as the most popular form of music in America.  Unfortunately for many artists, who had found monumental success in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the shift to Rock & Roll left many of them desperate for continuing success.  Artists such as Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee and the Chairman of the Board himself, Frank Sinatra found themselves struggling in the face of artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan who were clearly speaking to America’s youth.

            Frank Sinatra had an immensely successful career that began in the 1930’s with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra and had reached its pinnacle in the 1950’s when he recorded a series of concept albums for Capitol Records.  In 1960 Sinatra left Capitol and formed his own record label Reprise Records; in forming Reprise, Sinatra was one of the first recording artists to form their own label.  One of the goals Sinatra put in place at Reprise was giving artists signed to the label complete artistic freedom over the releases.  Unfortunately for Sinatra sales of records on the new label did not live up to expectations so in 1963, Sinatra sold the label to Warner Bros. Records, however Sinatra would stay with the label until 1981.

            In 1966 Sinatra recorded Strangers in the Night, an album that would be the last to pair him with Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra.  While the album is composed of the phenomenal instrument that is Sinatra’s voice another element was added to some of the tracks on the album: an upbeat, swinging sound augmented with an electric organ, especially apparent on "All or Nothing at All", which is the third of a total of five recordings that Sinatra released of the song, the first being with Harry James in 1939 and the last, a live recording from 1982 (released in 2006).

            Recorded in Hollywood in early 1966 and released in April of that year, Strangers in the Night would prove to be a huge success becoming Sinatra’s first number one album since Nice and Easy in 1960.  The title track would also reach number one on the pop singles chart and would win three Grammy awards (Record of the Year, Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist or Instrumentalist, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male) at the 9th Annual Grammy Awards on March 2, 1967.

Strangers in the Night — Frank Sinatra

Reprise Records FS-1017 (mono version F-1017)

Arranged & Conducted by Nelson Riddle

Produced by Sonny Burke

“Strangers in the Night” Produced by Jimmy Bowen; Arranged by Ernie Freeman

Engineers: Lee Herschberg and Eddie Brackett

Front Cover Photo and Art Direction: Ed Thrasher

Released: April, 1966

Track Listing:

            Side 1

1.      Strangers in the Night (2:36)

2.      Summer Wind (2:55)

3.      All or Nothing at All (3:59)

4.      Call Me (2:46)

5.      You’re Driving Me Crazy! (2:16)

Side 2

1.      On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever) (3:19)

2.      My Baby Just Cares for Me (2:32)

3.      Downtown (2:10)

4.      Yes Sir, That’s My Baby (2:09)

5.      The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (2:25)

Two singles were released from the album:

           Strangers in the Night B/W Oh, You Crazy Moon                    Reprise 0470

           Summer Wind B/W You Make Me Feel So Young                  Reprise 0509

            “Strangers in the Night” reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 Singles chart while “Summer Wind” peaked at number 25.

From Broadway to Hollywood: The Sound of Music

            After a break because of life’s hectic pace, I am back and I welcome you back to “Vinyl Mania,” the blog that looks back at the wonderful world of vinyl records (with CDs also thrown into the mix).

            With this post, I will institute a feature entitled “From Broadway to Hollywood.”  These posts will look at a Broadway cast album and its corresponding movie soundtrack of its Hollywood film adaptation.  I hope that you will enjoy this post and it will become a regular series – I will probably post a new “From Broadway to Hollywood every few months.

            For nearly four decades musicals were a major motion picture genre that thrilled and delighted audiences not only in America but all around the world.  Musicals being totally dependent upon sound, not surprisingly, were the last major genre of films to be born.  Beginning with the very first sound film, Warner Bros. The Jazz Singer in 1927, audiences continued to be captivated and thrilled by singing and dancing on the screen.  By the late 1930’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer began to focus a large part of their output on musicals and by the mid-1940’s MGM had become king of the musical motion picture.

            By the mid-1950’s, the Hollywood studios began to look to Broadway as a source for musical entertainment and began adapting many of Broadway’s biggest shows for the motion picture screen.  New advancements in technology such as CinemaScope, Todd-AO, and stereophonic sound helped to bring a sense of grandeur to these adaptations.

            There is no denying that the partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II was a match made in heaven.  Beginning in 1943 with the debut of Oklahoma! on Broadway they reigned as Broadway’s top musical songwriters until 1960 with Hammerstein’s death at the age of 65.  Although the had a few clinkers along the way: 1947’s Allegro, 1953’s Me and Juliet, and 1955’s Pipe Dream (which included a book written by one of America’s greatest writers, John Steinbeck).  However their successes far outshined these few flops, just look at what this dynamic duo left the musical theater world: Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Flower Drum Song (1958), and The Sound of Music (1959).  In addition to these six classic musicals they also composed an original score for a motion picture: State Fair (1945); and an early television spectacular: Cinderella (1957).  Each of their six Broadway musicals was eventually adapted for the big screen beginning with Oklahoma! in 1955 and each of these films has become film classics.

            On November 16, 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical The Sound of Music opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Broadway; it would move to the Mark Hellinger Theater on November 6, 1962 and would close there on June 15, 1963 after a total of 1,443 performances.  The show would go on to win five Tony Awards, including Best Musical (in a tie with Fiorello!).  Other Tony Awards won included: Best Actress (Mary Martin), Best Featured Actress (Patricia Neway), Best Scenic Design (Oliver Smith) and Best Musical Direction (Frederick Dvonch).  The show’s original cast recording was released by Columbia Masterworks in December, 1959 and was produced by Goddard Lieberson; it became one of Columbia’s most popular cast albums of all time and has never been out of print.

The original release — Columbia Masterworks [KOS-2020]

The Sound of Music — Original Broadway Cast

Columbia Masterworks KOS-2020 (mono version KOL-5450)

Produced for records by Goddard Lieberson

Musical Direction: Frederick Dvonch

Cast: Mary Martin, Theodore Bikel, Patricia Neway, Kurt Kasznar, Marion Marlowe, Lauri Peters, Brian Davies

Originally released: December, 1959

Track Listing:

            Side 1

1.      Preludium; The Sound of Music (5:03)

2.      Maria (3:14)

3.      My Favorite Things (2:50)

4.      Do-Re-Mi (5:56)

5.      Sixteen Going on Seventeen (3:53)

6.      The Lonely Goatherd (3:23)

7.      How Can Love Survive? (3:05)

            Side 2

1.      The Sound of Music (reprise) (3:16)

2.      Laendler (2:26)

3.      So Long, Farewell (2:53)

4.      Climb Ev’ry Mountain (3:33)

5.      No Way to Stop It (3:07)

6.      An Ordinary Couple (3:38)

7.      Processional (3:52)

8.      Sixteen Going on Seventeen (reprise) (2:19)

9.      Edelweiss (2:09)

10.  Climb Ev’ry Mountain (reprise) (3:33)

            In the mid-1990’s Sony, who had become the owner of CBS Records in the late 1980’s, began a series of re-mastered releases of classic Broadway cast recordings.  In 1998 a re-mastered version of The Sound of Music was released by Sony as part of their Columbia Broadway Masterworks series.  This release saw 20-bit mastering as well as two bonus tracks.

1998 Remastered CD release — Columbia Masterworks Broadway/Sony Classical [SK-60583]

The Sound of Music — Original Broadway Cast Recording

Columbia Masterworks Broadway / Sony Classical SK-60583

Reissue Producer: Didier C. Deutsch & Darcy M. Proper

Mixing/Mastering Engineers: Darcy M. Proper & Dawn Frank

Released: 1998

The CD release replicates the original LPs 17 tracks and adds the following bonus tracks:

1.      The Sound of Music – A Symphonic Picture for Orchestra (16:38)

      William Steinberg & The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

      Originally released in the album “Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Music Symphonic Picture / Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady Symphonic Picture” (Command CC-11041 SD)

2.      Do-Re-Mi (2:07)

      Mitch Miller and The Sing-Along Chorus and The Kids from The Sound of Music

      Originally released as a Columbia single (41499) and later appeared in stereo on the Columbia Lp “Mitch’s Greatest Hits” (CL-1544 / CS-8573)

           

            In 1960, Twentieth Century-Fox purchased the film rights to The Sound of Music although a clause in the contract, common with Broadway musicals, prevented the studio from producing a film version until the show closed on Broadway which did not happen until 1963.  Unfortunately for Fox 1963 saw the release of the monumental epic Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton; Cleopatra cost an astronomical $40 million dollars and although it would gross $48 million at the box office, Fox saw only $26 million of that.  Cleopatra threw 20th Century-Fox in financial peril and it was hoped The Sound of Music would rescue the studio from total bankruptcy.  Robert Wise was chosen to direct after original director William Wyler began to turn the musical into a war film and was promptly fired.  Julie Andrews, still fresh from her triumph on Broadway in My Fair Lady (Andrews first film Mary Poppins had not yet been released) was chosen for the starring role of Maria with Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg Von Trapp and Peggy Wood as the Mother Abbess.  The film began production with the pre-recording of the soundtrack and choreography rehearsals in Hollywood before the cast and crew travelled to Austria for the on-location shoot.  The majority of the shoot was done in and around Salzburg while many interiors were shot after the cast returned to the Fox lot in Hollywood.  The Sound of Music had its premiere on March 2, 1965 and would go on to become one of the most popular films of all-time – it was the first film to surpass Gone with the Wind at the box office a record that had stood for over 20 years.  The original soundtrack album was released by RCA Victor on March 20, 1965, just a few weeks after the film began mesmerizing audiences worldwide.  The album would reach number one on the Billboard charts and go on to not only become one of the bestselling albums of the year but one of the biggest selling soundtracks of all time and, like the original cast album, has never been out of print.  Curiously the soundtrack album is one of the rare RCA Victor albums of this era that was not released in the “Dynagroove” process.

Original 1965 release of the soundtrack album (shown w/ special booklet) — RCA Victor [LSOD-2005]

The Sound of Music — An Original Soundtrack Recording

RCA Victor LSOD-2005 (mono version LOCD-2005)

Produced for records by Neely Plumb

Musical Direction: Irwin Kostal

Cast: Julie Andrews, Bill Lee (performed the vocals for Christopher Plummer), Margery McKay (performed the vocals for Peggy Wood), Dan Truhitte, Charmian Carr.

Originally released: March 20, 1965

Track Listing:

            Side 1

1.      Prelude and The Sound of Music (2:33)

2.      Overture and Preludium (Dixit Dominus) (3:12)

3.      Morning Hymn and Alleluia (2:00)

4.      Maria (3:15)

5.      I Have Confidence (3:21)

6.      Sixteen Going on Seventeen (3:13)

7.      My Favorite Things (2:16)

8.      Climb Ev’ry Mountain (2:13)

            Side 2

1.      The Lonely Goatherd (3:08)

2.      The Sound of Music (2:09)

3.      Do-Re-Mi (5:30)

4.      Something Good (3:15)

5.      Processional and Maria (2:25)

6.      Edelweiss (1:48)

7.      So Long, Farewell (2:52)

8.      Climb Ev’ry Mountain (reprise) (1:18)

The original album was released in a standard flat cover and came with an eight-page booklet; a later reissue in 1973, to coincide with the film re-release, deleted the booklet and packaged the album in a gatefold cover.

            In 2000, to celebrate the 35^th Anniversary of the film, RCA released a special two-disc CD version of the soundtrack.  This release was notable because it not only presented fifteen bonus tracks on disc two but also presented the full original soundtrack album on disc one with the songs re-ordered to match the order they are presented in the film.  The album is still available as of this writing, so to anyone who is a fan of the film, you should really pick up a copy of this particular release.

Deluxe 35th Anniversary Soundtrack release — RCA [0786367972-2]

The Sound of Music — An Original Soundtrack Recording

35^th Anniversary 2-CD Collector’s Edition

RCA 0786367972-2

Reissue Supervision: Paul Williams

Audio Restoration: Bill Lacy (disc 1)

Tape Transfers: Mike Hartry (disc 1)

Disc 2 Produced by Nick Redman

Music Restoration: Nick Redman and Michael Matessino (disc 2)

Music Score Remix: Brian Risner (disc 2)

Additional Audio Restoration and Post Production: Bill Lacey at Digital Sound & Picture, NY

Compilation Produced by Paul Williams for House of Hits, Ltd.

Released: 2000

Track Listing:

           

            Disc 1

1.      Prelude and The Sound of Music (2:44)

2.      Overture and Preludium (Dixit Dominus) (3:14)

3.      Morning Hymn and Alleluia (2:01)

4.      Maria (3:16)

5.      I Have Confidence (3:26)

6.      Sixteen Going on Seventeen (3:18)

7.      My Favorite Things (2:18)

8.      Do-Re-Mi (5:33)

9.      The Sound of Music (2:10)

10.  The Lonely Goatherd (3:10)

11.  So Long, Farewell (2:54)

12.  Climb Ev’ry Mountain (2:16)

13.  Something Good (3:16)

14.  Processional and Maria (2:27)

15.  Edelweiss (1:50)

16.  Climb Ev’ry Mountain (reprise) (1:21)

Disc 2

1.      Prelude and The Sound of Music* (3:28)

2.      I Have Confidence* (3:41)

3.      Sixteen Going on Seventeen* (4:53)

4.      My Favorite Things* / Salzburg Montage‡ (4:22)

5.      Edelweiss‡ (2:17)

6.      The Grand Waltz‡ (2:19)

7.      Laendler‡ (2:34)

8.      Processional Waltz‡ (1:19)

9.      Climb Ev’ry Mountain* (2:37)

10.  Something Good* (3:50)

11.  Sixteen Going on Seventeen** (3:04)

12.  Edelweiss (reprise)* (2:01)

13.  The Chase‡ (2:39)

14.  Escape / Climb Ev’ry Mountain (reprise) / Finale* (2:08)

15.  Richard Rodgers Speaks (9:24)

                         * Contains some music not on original soundtrack album

                         ‡ Not on original soundtrack album

                         ** Includes additional verse not used in the film