South Pacific Medley (Some 3
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120785bk SouthPacific 23/7/04 9:18 PM Page 2 1. Overture 3:31 9. I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right 21. Bali Ha’i 3:15 23. My Girl Back Home 2:59 Orchestra Outa My Hair 3:25 Ezio Pinza with Orchestra conducted by Mary Martin with Percy Faith’s Orchestra Columbia 4556-M, mx CO 41180-1 Mary Martin & Girls’ Chorus Lehman Engel Columbia 27-G, mx CO 45812 2. Dites-Moi 1:23 Columbia 4562-M, mx CO 41185-1 Columbia 4588-M, mx CO 41489 Recorded 8 June 1951 Barbara Luna 10. A Wonderful Guy 3:30 Recorded 10 October 1949 24. South Pacific Medley (Some 3. A Cock-Eyed Optimist 1:42 Mary Martin & Girls’ Chorus 22. The Loneliness of Evening 3:21 Enchanted Evening—A Wonderful Mary Martin Columbia 4561-M, mx CO 41186-1 Mary Martin with Percy Faith’s Orchestra Guy—Bali Ha’i—Younger Than Both Columbia 4557-M, mx CO 41184-1 11. Younger Than Springtime 3:24 Columbia 27-G, mx CO 45813 Springtime) 6:35 4. Twin Soliloquies (Wonder How It William Tabbert Recorded 8 June 1951 Eadie & Rack, Piano Duet Feels) 2:24 Columbia 4560-M, mx CO 41182-1 Decca 24707, mx W 75069-1, 75070-1 Recorded 14 July 1949 Mary Martin & Ezio Pinza 12. Happy Talk 3:30 Columbia 4558-M, mx CO 41189-1 Juanita Hall All selections recorded in New York 5. Some Enchanted Evening 2:59 Columbia 4559-M, mx CO 41191-1 Transfers & Production by David Lennick • Digital Restoration by Graham Newton Ezio Pinza 13. Honey Bun 2:00 Columbia 4559-M, mx CO 41190-1 Mary Martin 6. Bloody Mary 2:14 14. Carefully Taught 1:16 Producer’s Note Men’s Chorus William Tabbert Though it was one of the best-selling Original were derived directly from the lacquers, and in Columbia 4560-M, mx CO 41183-1 Both Columbia 4558-M, mx CO 41187-1 Cast albums of all time, responsible more than 1950, the cast album appeared briefly on 45s, 7. There Is Nothin’ Like A Dame 3:33 15. This Nearly Was Mine 3:26 any other single album for converting record which also appear to be from the original Men’s Chorus Ezio Pinza buyers to the new ‘LP’format in 1949, South lacquers and not an intermediate tape master. Columbia 4561-M, mx CO 41181-1 Columbia 4557-M, mx CO 41192-1 Pacific has had a checkered sonic history. A clean 45 RPM set was used for this Naxos 8. Bali Ha’i 3:24 16. Finale 2:58 Originally recorded on 16-inch lacquer discs, as transfer. The Al Goodman recordings were Juanita Hall Mary Martin, Barbara Luna, Ezio Pinza was the custom through the 1940s, the cast issued on RCA’s budget ‘Bluebird Series’, but Columbia 4562-M, mx CO 41188-1 Columbia 4556-M, mx CO 41193-1 recordings were also captured on the newly oddly enough were pressed on vinyl. Vinyl Original Cast with Orchestra conducted by Salvatore Dell’Isola developed magnetic tape. Various issues over sources were also used for the extra selections Recorded 18-19 April 1949 and issued in Columbia set MM-850 the years have been taken from both sources, by Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, the latter a often with attempts to ‘modernize’ the sound by 7-inch 33RPM single disc. Worth noting are the 17. A Cock-Eyed Optimist 2:32 19. There Is Nothing Like A Dame 2:53 adding reverb or fake stereo. Early LP pressings variations in some of these recordings: an entire Sandra Deel The Guild Choristers suffer from distortion and diminished high extra set of lines in Dickinson Eastham’s RCA Victor 31-0001, mx D9-VB-1635 RCA Victor 31-0003, mx D9-VB-1637 frequencies, later ones have extra reverb and performance of This Nearly Was Mine (which 18. Some Enchanted Evening 2:54 20. This Nearly Was Mine 3:27 poor balance, and CD issues have suffered from Pinza also sang, but on a broadcast, not on his Dickinson Eastham Dickinson Eastham faulty edits or defective tape sources and Columbia recording) and different lyrics in the RCA Victor 31-0002, mx D9-VB-1636 RCA Victor 31-0001, mx D9-VB-1642 varying speeds. Two generations of record Guild Choristers’ version of There Is Nothing Al Goodman's Orchestra, with the Broadway show’s understudies and the Guild Choristers collectors have never heard the original sound Like a Dame. Recorded 14 June 1949 and included in RCA Victor set BN-3 recorded in 1949. However, the 78 masters -- David Lennick 5 8.120785 6 8.120785 120785bk SouthPacific 23/7/04 9:18 PM Page 1 and had written his first Broadway musical, profound achievement. Next up was Allegro Evening” were incorporated as a poem in a love unique sound to add the exotic element. Always You, before his 25th birthday. (1947), an experimental parable on the dangers scene between Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor. Besides the two bonus Mary Martin South Pacific Through the years, Hammerstein wrote with of success that didn’t really work on any level. Other changes included a solo for Ezio Pinza selections, this recording also features Pinza’s Music by Richard Rodgers • Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II an assortment of collaborators, most notably Consequently,when they set out to create the called “Now Is The Time” being dropped in favor recording of Bali Ha’i, which he recorded as a Original Broadway Cast and Bonus Recordings, 1949-1951 Sigmund Romberg, Rudolph Friml and Jerome show that would become South Pacific,Rodgers of the haunting This Nearly Was Mine. single six months after the show opened. Kern. Although his prolific output included the and Hammerstein felt increased pressure to But the most troubled song slot proved to There are also four tracks from a 1949 RCA It’s all about historical perspective. bombs are about to be detonated. book and lyrics for hits like Rose Marie and come up with a smash hit. be the one that finally yielded Younger Than Victor recording which featured Al Goodman Nowadays, when we think of South Pacific, Some Enchanted Evening isn’t just a Show Boat, he also had more than his share of That feeling was intensified by the Springtime. Logan kept rejecting everything and his Orchestra,The Guild Choristers and – we tend to view it simply as one more hit passionate love song. It’s about two people flops. In fact, when Rodgers approached him competition around them. Irving Berlin’s Annie Rodgers and Hammerstein came up with most interestingly – the Broadway show’s two musical from the golden team of Rodgers & surrounded by death who are hoping a personal about a partnership, he hadn’t had a truly Get your Gun, Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate and including a now-lost number called “My Friend” understudies. Hammerstein: a heartwarming show full of relationship could make sense of the insanity successful show in over a decade. Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon had proven that and another selection,“Suddenly Happy”, whose Dickinson Eastham stood by for Pinza and glorious songs. around them. Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) had his first Rodgers and Hammerstein weren’t the only music resurfaced as “Getting To Know You”in Sondra Deel did the same for Martin. On this But to the opening night audience, it was And a ballad with the heart-rending Broadway credit for Poor Little Ritz Girl in 1920, figures in the landscape. The King And I. recording, they get a chance to have their place much, much more than that. simplicity of Younger Than Springtime shortly after his 18th birthday. His lyricist on the Director Joshua Logan was the one who first But when the show finally opened in New in the sun. When the curtain rose on 7 April 1949, not acquires added pathos when you realize that the project was Lorenz Hart, with whom he would read James Michener’s Tales From The South York, it was greeted by a unanimous chorus of Last, but certainly not least, there’s a medley even four full years had passed since the end of solider who sweetly sings it is soon to die in write two dozen other shows over the next 22 Pacific and decided it would make a fine critical acclaim, including “a show of rare of songs from the score recorded on the Decca the Second World War. A musical drama set in combat. years. During that time, they created an enviable musical. Rodgers and Hammerstein agreed and enchantment”, “an utterly captivating work of label on 14 July 1949 by the twin piano duo of the Pacific theatre, filled with soldiers loving, The magic of the original South Pacific is catalogue of popular songs (“Where Or When”, signed him on as director. theatrical art” and “an occasion worth Eadie Griffith and H. Rack Godwin, popularly fighting and dying, was bound to have an that it didn’t have to overplay the war card, “My Funny Valentine”,“Johnny One Note”) and a Hammerstein, however, lacked any military celebrating”. known as “Eadie and Rack”. emotional resonance that we can only guess at because everyone in the audience remembered wide assortment of hits, including The Boys experience, and found writing the book It went on to run 1925 performances and to These are just a few of the numerous “spin- today. what had happened all too well. From Syracuse and Pal Joey. problematic. He brought in Logan, a veteran, as win a then-record 10 Tony Awards as well as the offs” that a hit show like South Pacific could By contrast, fourteen years passed from the But for us to appreciate the depth of its But by 1942 Hart’s alcoholic instability had his collaborator and the billing and royalty Pulitzer Prize for Drama.