[4/30/2011] Sunday Classics preview: "Love is a thing that has victims" (continued)

Columbia Records' Goddard Lieberson took the extraordinary step of recording a three-LP Original Broadway Cast album of Most Happy Fella -- now available from Sony as a two-CD set.

OUR RECORDINGS

Guys and Dolls (1950)
* Original Broadway Cast recording; Irving Actman, cond. American Decca, recorded 1950
* Original National Theatre (U.K.) recording, Tony Britten, cond. Chrysalis, recorded April 1982

The Most Happy Fella (1956)
* Original Broadway Cast recording; Herbert Greene, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded May 1956
* complete studio recording; National Symphony Orchestra, John Owen Edwards, cond. Jay/TER, recorded (mostly in London, partly in New York) 1997-99

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961)
* Original Broadway Cast recording; Elliot Lawrence, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1961
* film soundtrack recording; Nelson Riddle, cond. United Artists, recorded 1967
* 1995 Broadway Cast recording; Ted Sperling, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Apr. 2, 1995

"Guys and Dolls," from Guys and Dolls (1950)

Stubby Kaye (Nicely-Nicely Johnson) and Johnny Silver (Benny Southstreet), vocals; Irving Actman, cond. From the Original Broadway Cast recording
David Healy (Nicely-Nicely) and Barrie Rutter (Benny), vocals; Tony Britten, cond. From the Original National Theatre Cast recording

* * *

"The Most Happy Fella," from The Most Happy Fella (1956)

Robert Weede, baritone (Tony Esposito) et al., vocals; ensemble and orchestra, Herbert Greene, cond. From the Original Broadway Cast recording
Louis Quilico, baritone (Tony) et al., vocals; John Owen Edwards, cond. From the Jay/TER studio recording

* * *

Overture and "How To," from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961)

The soundtrack version doesn't really add much, but I went ahead and made the audio file, so here it is. If nothing else, it's, er, interesting to hear the Overture Hollywoodized. The 1995 Broadway version, however, definitely adds come important connective tissue.

Robert Morse (Finch), vocal; Nelson Riddle, cond. From the film soundtrack recording
Walter Cronkite, narrator; Matthew Broderick (Finch), vocal; Ted Sperling, cond. From the 1995 Broadway Cast recording


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

More from all three shows, and the major remarkable man who created all this music


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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