101STRINGS:Music by Alan Jay Lerner The title song in this set may do for the A movie -star she became, in the larger -than- and Frederick Loewe. 101 Strings. Gigi; On Youngbloods what that miracle home run life, glamorous, old-fashioned sense, long be- the Street Where You Live; Almost Like Be- did for Bobby Thompson in 1951; nobody fore the movie was ever completed; andso ing in Love; If Ever I Would Leave You; I can remember anything else he ever did. The she sounds on the Funny Girl soundtrack. Could Have Danced All Night; Camelot; disccontainingGetTogether hadbeen The soundtrack is hers, just as the movie is, and four others. AUDIO SPECTRUM © E around for several months before that song with just the right amount of support from 55014 $4.95. made it big as a single last summer-so big one of those huge Hollywood chorus -orches- Performance: Mushy it may have obscured all else the Young- tras, from the time she starts singing (ap- Recording: Excellent bloods have tried, including a new disc now propriately)I'm theGreatestStarright Stereo Quality: Very good in circulation. through her grandstand revival of My Man. Playing Time: 32'10" Regardless of their commercial fate, the Omar Sharif, as the gangster Nick Amstein boys have a distinctive, slightly melancholy who breaks Miss Brice's heart, is heard in Suffocation by music is not a lovely way to an sound, and so far have been wise enough to occasional warble, but itis Barbra's show. go. The 101 Strings' sound is so lush and choose songs they can feel something for. More recently, in.the even more overblown squishy that the listener feels he is drowning Their instrumentals show the definite influ- screen version of Hello Dolly', Miss Streisand in marshmallow creme after a while-but ence of the Beatles; the guitar chords remind was all wrong and irritating, but Funny Girl then a safety valve trips in his head and he me of contemporary George and the drum- is so right for her that its no wonder the big ceases to be a listener. This orchestra could ming of early Ringo, and the overall effect is tunes in it are pop classics by this time. bring on this reaction with any program, but light but not bubble gum. It is as vocalists When I opened the box holding the little the Lerner and Loewe songs included here that the Youngbloods are unique, and Grizz- are so familiar that my safety valve tripped cassette which reproduces the whole of the earlier than one might expect. There are Columbia original -soundtrackrecording, I couldn't believe it was possible to containso times, of course, when one wants melodic big a personality in so tiny a package. It's all ambient noise in the house, and this cassette there though-despite some distressing fuz- is fine for such occasions. My problem is that ziness on the first side of the copy sent to I keep imagining what it must be like to be a me musician in such an organization, stuck in -including the music for the comic ballet the middle of all that mush. The Swan, and the title song composer Jule N. C. Styne added to his score for the film. The high -points, of course, remain her piercing DELLA REESE: Black Is Beautiful. Della interpretations of People and Don't Rainon Reese(vocals);orchestra. Games People My Parade. But throughout, the warmth and Play; Compared to What; Choice of Colors; sly humor of her approach to the roleare Get Together; Comment; Proud Mary; Cy- evident, whether she's putting her galvanic cles; and three others. Avco EMBASSY © nervous energy into Mr. Styne's numbers or M 53304 $6.95, ® M 83304 $6.95. reviving songs that made Miss Brice famous, Performance Good like Billy Rose's I'd Rather Be Blue Over Recording: Poor You. Most remarkably, she manages tosug- Stereo Quality: Good gest the comic genius of Brice without ever Playing Time: 39'52" directly imitating her. All this is oldnews, perhaps, but the arrival of the cassettever- Della Reese is the blackest black thatever sion served to renew my admiration fora stalked onto a stage, and if that offendsany big and brash yet wonderfully fastidious honkies in the audience, they can pickup performance. P. K. and go back to WASP acres. She is always saucy, often angry, and sometimes bitter, but BARBRA STREISAND HELLO, DOLLY! (Jerry Herman). Broad- none of that makes her sing out of tune. Warmth and sly humor for Funny Girl way -cast recording. Pearl Bailey, Cab Callo- Della bends a song all out of shape,grasps it way, Emily Yancy, Jack Crowder, others by the neck and wiggle -waggles it around, ly Bear, One Note Man, and Tears Are Fall- (vocals) ;orchestra, Saul Schechtman cond. but she never makes it unmusical. She does ing seems best suited to their style. Adding RCA © OK 1032 $7.95, g T03 1006 (33/4) get preachy at times, though, and this collec- up these elements, one would assume the $8.95, ® 08S 1032$7.95. tion-most of the songs relate to the theme group could handle country blues fairly well, of the album title, or can be construed to-is but in fact the boys seem alittlelost on Performance:Tailored a bit tiresome. Subtlety is not Miss Reese's C. C. Rider, and good and lost on Ain't That Recording: Very good strong suit, partly, I suspect, because of her Lovin' You, Baby, a classic only as sung by Stereo Quality: Good years in nightclubs, shouting to be heard Jimmy Reed. I hope the Youngbloods aren't Playing Time: 45'52" over the drunks' prattle and the tinkle of ice. forever penalized because of eternalcompar- The best advice to give most singers is to tell Nothing could overcome the distractions isons of what they do with Get Together. them to relax. Pearl Bailey usually seems too They deserve a more complete hearing, for on this cassette, however. The sound, which relaxed, so relaxed that sheiscareless.I is good when it is good, is tinny in several popular music needs more performers like think the discipline of the Broadway show spots, and there is print -through everywhere. them. N. C. was good for her, and that it shows here. Some of the arrangements I find distracting, THEATER MUSIC Obliged to Ling songs without inserting salty too, although a nightclub -oriented gin freak phrases and without pausing to clown with might find them just right. In any event,at RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT the stage hands from time to time, she sings those moments when everything works, the them with ease and grace. Her voice has that tape is a better salesman for the beauty of FUNNY GIRL (Bob Merrill -Jule Styne). kind ofsubtle,natural rhythm that has blackness than most of the Motown bubble- Original -soundtrack recording. Barbra Strei- evolved out of most of the black voiceswe gum oozing out of our radios. N. C. sand, Omar Sharif, others (vocals); orches- hear now; Mahalia Jackson's hasitand tra, Walter Scharf cond. COLUMBIA © 16 Bessie Smith's did, but Ella Fitzgerald's does THE YOUNGBLOODS:Get Together- 12 0034$6.98, ® OP 1032(71/2) BE $9.98, not. TheYoungbloods'FirstAlbum.The C) 1412 0034 $6.98, ®18 120034 $6.98. Unfortunately, Hello, Dolly! consists of Youngbloods(vocals andinstrumentals). Performance: Bravo for Barbra more than Pearl Bailey. The music is old Grizzly Bear; Statesboro Blues; Four in the Recording: Faithful but fuzzy now, and it was pretty ordinary-even dated Morning; One Note Man; Tears are Falling; Stereo Quality: Alive -when it was new. Other aspects of the and five others. RCA © PK 1221 $6.95, ® Playing Time: 47'23" production may be keeping the show alive, P8S 1221 $6.95. but all you get in a cassette is the music (and In the spring of 1967, when Barbra Streisand a bit of fine print on the cover, of course). Performance: Distinctive flew to Hollywood to re-create her Broadway Recording: Good When Pearl isn't singing (when, for exam- role as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, she told ple, Cab Calloway, who is competent asop- Stereo Quality: Good reporters as she stepped off the plane that Playing Time: 31'64" posed to being something special, is sing- for her, "being a star is being a movie star." ing), the thing is a bit bland. N. C. 110 STEREO REVIEW