120845bk Can-Can:MASTER 3+3 10/11/06 8:20 PM Page 2 Can-Can 14. Every Man Is A Stupid Man 2:20 The Pirate 24. Nina 2:55 Original Broadway Cast 1953 Lilo Original Film Soundtrack 1948 Gene Kelly 15. I Love Paris 2:26 MGM 30099, mx 47-S-3433-1 1. Introduction 1:44 21. Mack The Black 3:05 Recorded 19 March 1947, Hollywood Orchestra Lilo & Ensemble Judy Garland 25. You Can Do No Wrong 3:00 2. Maidens Typical of France 1:17 16. Can-Can 2:56 MGM 30099, mx 47-S-3434-1 Lilo & Women’s Chorus Recorded 15 December 1947, Hollywood Judy Garland Laundresses MGM 30098, mx 47-S-3431-1 3. Never Give Anything Away 1:59 Orchestra conducted by Milton Rosenstock 22. Pirate Ballet 3:16 Recorded 13 May 1947, Hollywood Lilo & Laundresses Capitol S 452 Orchestra Recorded May 1953, New York MGM 30097, mx 47-S-3435-1 26. Be A Clown 2:38 4. C’est Magnifique 3:19 Recorded 7 August 1947, Hollywood Gene Kelly & Judy Garland Lilo & Peter Cookson Mexican Hayride MGM 30097, mx 47-S-3432-1 23. Love Of My Life 3:06 Recorded 14 July 1947, Hollywood 5. Quadrille 2:07 Original Broadway Cast 1944 Judy Garland Arranged & orchestrated by Conrad Salinger, Orchestra 17. There Must Be Someone For Me 3:13 MGM 30098, mx 47-S-3430-1 Roger Edens, Robert Franklyn & Wally Heglin 6. Come Along With Me 4:31 June Havoc Recorded 27 December 1946, Hollywood Conducted by Lennie Hayton except track 21 Erik Rhodes & Hans Conried Decca 23338, mx 71955-A conducted by Johnny Green Recorded 7 April 1944, New York 7. Live And Let Live 1:53 MGM Album 21 Lilo 18. I Love You 2:41 Wilbur Evans Transfers & Production: David Lennick • Digital Restoration: Alan Bunting • Original recordings from the 8. I Am In Love 2:37 collections of David Lennick, Greg Gormick & the Belfer Audio Laboratory & Archive, Syracuse University Peter Cookson Decca 23337, mx 71957-A Recorded 7 April 1944, New York 9. If You Loved Me Truly 3:11 Also available in the Naxos Broadway Musicals series ... Gwen Verdon, Hans Conried,Artists, Girls 19. Abracadabra 3:16 & Model June Havoc & Male Chorus Decca 23339, mx 72017-A 10. Montmart’ 1:31 Recorded 21 April 1944, New York Ensemble 20. Count Your Blessings 2:31 11. Allez-vous En, Go Away 2:13 June Havoc & Male Chorus Lilo Decca 23339, mx 71954-A 12. Never, Never Be an Artist 2:54 Recorded 7 April 1944, New York Hans Conried,Artists & Model Orchestra & Chorus conducted by 13. It’s All Right With Me 1:57 Harry Sosnik Peter Cookson Decca Album A 372 8.120788 8.120793 8.120794 These titles are not for retail sale in the USA 5 8.120845 6 8.120845 120845bk Can-Can:MASTER 3+3 10/11/06 8:20 PM Page 1 flag at a bull. After one early production for Can-Can, a lot of it was simply duty work Sinatra, best remembered for Russian premier disappointments of Porter’s career. He was Can-Can Original Broadway Cast 1953 meeting, where Porter saw designer Jo and his heart wasn’t it. Nikita Khrushchev visiting the set during thrilled to be invited to create a score for Arthur Mielziner’s spectacular painted backdrop of The show itself went through its own share shooting and sounding off on the ‘Western Freed’s famous movie musical unit at MGM, and Mexican Hayride Original Broadway Cast 1944 Paris, he calmly went home and went to work. of diva drama on the road. Lilo, the tempestuous decadence’ of the project. the idea of writing to a libretto by the witty S.N. He didn’t just write ‘any song about Paris’, German baroness who had married a French But in the end, Can-Can will best be Behrman, directed by the sophisticated Vincente The Pirate Original Film Soundtrack 1948 but the classic song about the City of Light – ‘I Marquis, was cast in the leading role of the show remembered for making Gwen Verdon a star and Minnelli and starring the dynamic Gene Kelly Music & Lyrics by Cole Porter Love Paris’. and got the lion’s share of the songs. inspiring Cole Porter to come up with some of and Judy Garland excited him no end. Even Martin had to grudgingly admit its But during rehearsals, she realized that his loveliest bittersweet ballads. Unfortunately, things weren’t to work out Cole Porter was – without a doubt – the most convinced he wanted to do a musical set in genius, once he heard the song’s unforgettable choreographer Michael Kidd was stacking the Mexican Hayride is one of those oddities: a the way anyone had planned. Behrman’s well-travelled of all Broadway composers. His Montmartre in the 1890s. Martin, who spent his release (‘I love Paris every moment …’) and deck in favour of a stunning young redheaded show that was a 481-performance hit during its original script was tossed out and rewritten by a parties in Venice, cruises down the Rhine and life fighting censorship, knew the cultural marvelled at the way Porter could make ‘things dancer named Gwen Verdon. initial 1944 run and now only exists as a series of people. Minnelli was overworked and hot nights in Bora-Bora were the stuff of legend. climate of the times and felt it would make a we’ve heard a hundred times before suddenly Verdon had only appeared in the chorus of a footnote in musical comedy history. uninspired. Kelly squeezed the assignment in But, most intriguingly, Porter’s love of travel great story. sound new’. short-lived revue called Alive and Kicking, so Produced by the flamboyant Mike Todd, it between other pictures and Garland was also made its way into his work. Some shows The two men had scored their initial hits But while some of the Can-Can score is she was virtually a new discovery. mainly existed as a vehicle for eccentric comic entering a terrible period of emotional turmoil were set on cruises (Anything Goes), others on with Where’s Charley? and Guys and Dolls, both vintage champagne (It’s All Right With Me, Lilo tried to have her billing reduced, her Bobby Clark, best known for his disguises. (In due to her dependency on prescription drugs. global journeys (Nymph Errant), or some in the scored by Frank Loesser, but they felt they C’est Magnifique), a lot of the numbers, scenes slashed and her songs eliminated. In fact, this one, for example, he appeared as a mariachi The only thing Porter remembered fondly kind of out-of-the-way places he adored, like needed a different sound this time around. especially the comedy ones (Never, Never Be you’ll only find Verdon briefly in one selection musician and a tortilla vendor.) was Kelly encouraging him to write Be A Siberia (Leave It To Me) or the Panama Canal With musicals like Paris and Fifty Million an Artist, Come Along With Me) have very on this recording (If You Loved Me Truly). Porter’s score was there to provide Mexican Clown, which emerged as the one number from (Panama Hattie). Frenchmen under his belt, it’s no wonder they little fizz. But Lilo couldn’t stop Kidd from giving ‘atmosphere’, charm songs for leading lady June the score to endure. This collection is devoted to three musicals turned to Porter. He instantly approved of the A lot of that can be attributed to the Verdon more and more to do in the dance Havoc and a popular hit to help sell tickets. He In songs like Mack The Black and Love Of (two for stage, one for screen) that he wrote idea, but had no desire to meet with the personal trauma he went through during the numbers. On 7 May 1953, the night the show did just that with I Love You. His friend, the My Life you can hear a tense, strung-out during the decade from 1943-1953 and it reflects librettist, Abe Burrows. writing of the show. His beloved mother, Katie, opened on Broadway, Verdon got all the acerbic Monty Woolley, inspired the song’s Garland trying to capture the Caribbean flair a trio of his different geographic passions – Even in this post-Oklahoma! era of the major influence in his life suffered a cerebral audience’s applause. creation when he defied Porter to write a Porter called for, but the usual magic just isn’t France (Can-Can), Latin America (Mexican increasingly integrated musicals, Porter wanted hemorrhage and Porter rushed to her side in the In fact, after one number, they wouldn’t stop successful song using the hopelessly trite and present. Hayride) and the Caribbean (The Pirate). to keep working the way he always had. Indiana town where he grew up., clapping. ‘I was naked in my dressing room,’ clichéd title. Still, it’s fascinating to place these three What’s worth noting is the way that in each ‘Just tell me what you want and I’ll write it’, To take his mind off the pain, he later recalled Verdon recalled, ‘when [Michael Kidd] came As always, Porter rose to a challenge and the scores together as a demonstration of how Cole of the pieces he manages to give you a real he said to Feuer and Martin, ‘let me stick to what beating the orgiastic rhythm of the Can-Can rushing in and told me they wouldn’t stop soaring melody heard here, sung by Wilbur Porter could travel the world, bring us his view flavour of the place you’re visiting, while I can do’.