Broadway: The Great Original Cast Recordings

Disc 1
1	Bill / Helen Morgan From Show Boat 4:04
2	Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man / Chorus From Show Boat 4:06
3	How Are Things in Glocca Morra? / Ella Logan From Finian's Rainbow 3:15
4	Wunderbar / Alfred Drake From "Kiss Me Kate" [From Kiss Me Kate 3:38
5	Some Enchanted Evening / Ezio Pinza 3:04
6	A Wonderful Guy / Girls Chorus From South Pacific 3:35
7	Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend / Carol Channing 2:59
8	Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered / Lehman Engel & Orchestra From Pal Joey 3:11
9	Stranger in Paradise / Richard Kiley From Kismet 4:09
10	Hey There / John Raitt From The Pajama Game 3:35
11	Hernando's Hideaway / Harold Hastings & Orchestra From The Pajama Game 3:50
12	The Rain in Spain / Rex Harrsion From My Fair Lady 2:43
13	I Could Have Danced All Night / Phillipa Bevan From My Fair Lady 3:33
14	I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face / Rex Harrison From My Fair Lady 5:19
15	Standing on the Corner / Arthur Gilbert From "The Most Happy Fella" 2:49
16	The Party's Over / Judy Holliday From Bells Are Ringing 2:44
17	Tonight / Larry Kert From West Side Story 3:56
18	America / Girls From West Side Story 4:35
19	Somewhere / Max Goberman & Orchestra From West Side Story 2:01
20	Conga! / Lehman Engel & Orchestra From wonderful Town 3:27
21	I Enjoy Being a Girl / Pat Suzuki From Flower Drum Song 3:36
22	Everything's Coming Up Roses / Ethel Merman 3:06
Disc 2
1	My Favorite Things / Mary Martin From The Sound of Music 2:49
2	Do-Re-Mi / Children From The Sound of Music 5:55
3	Put on a Happy Face / Dick Van Dyke From Bye Bye Birdie 3:20
4	Camelot / Richard Burton From Camelot 2:32
5	Anyone Can Whistle / Lee Remick From "Anyone Can Whistle" 3:42
6	Do I Hear a Waltz? / Frederick Dvonch & Orchestra From Do I Hear a Waltz? 3:45
7	Big Spender / Girls From "Sweet Charity" 3:35
8	Mame / Donald Pippn & Orchestra From Mame 6:18
9	Willkommen / Cast From Cabaret 5:11
10	Cabaret / Jill Haworth From Cabaret 4:31
11	The Ladies Who Lunch / Elaine Stritch From "Company" 4:31
12	I Want to Be Happy / Susan Watson From "No, No, Nanette" 2:59
13	Send in the Clowns / Glynis Johns From A Little Night Music 3:29
14	What I Did for Love / Company From A Chorus Line 3:47
15	One / Donald Pippn & Orchestra From A Chorus Line 4:47
16	Tomorrow / Andrea McArdle From Annie 2:08
17	Folies Bergeres / Lilane Montevecchi From Nine 7:00
18	Never Met a Man I Didn't Like / Keith Carradine 2:19
19	My Friend / Pamela Isaacs From "The Life" 3:33

Barnes & Noble

In Frank Rich's thoughtful and enthusiastic essay written for this beautiful collection of show music, he writes, "…the [American] musical is the big theatrical stew into which have been tossed all the arts-high and low-of our national vaudeville, not just words and music, but dance and drama and comedy and spectacle, bawdy gags and exquisite emotions, the grit of slang and the grace of poetry." All of these elements - ingredients-- if you will, are wonderfully present and accounted for in BROADWAY: THE GREAT ORIGINAL CAST RECORDINGS, from Helen Morgan's heart-wrenching rendition of "Bill" from the 1932 revival of SHOWBOAT, to Pamela Isaac and Lillas White's rousing duet, "My Friend," from the 1997 production, THE LIFE.
The mere fact that this two-disc collection spans six decades of Broadway cast recordings makes it an invaluable cross-generational experience, whether you like this kind of music or not. Frankly, I used to find my parents' Broadway show albums highly resistible when I was a kid. To my mind they were full of corny emotions, out-of-tune singing and loud and abrasive orchestral arrangements. But now the very same things that used to rankle me as a kid I find charming and even exhilarating. And what makes this particular collection so distinctive is that the majority of the recordings represented here were produced by the legendary, Goddard Lieberson. A meticulously thorough and painstaking perfectionist, his inspired touch is everywhere. From the dialogue that precedes Ella Logan's touching "How Are Things in Glocca Mora?" from FINIAN'S RAINBOW, to Enzio Pinza's burnished, impassioned and imperfect "Some Enchanted Evening" from SOUTH PACIFIC, to the startlingly original and oddly androgynous voice of 28- year-old Carol Channing singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Or the maniacal magnificence of Ethel Merman's "Everything's Coming Up Roses," which brought down the first-act curtain every night at GYPSY.
Other highlights are Elaine Stritch's extraordinary "The Ladies Who Lunch" from COMPANY, Rosalind Russell's adorably screechy "Conga!" from WONDERFUL TOWN, and the divinely human reading of "Send in the Clowns" from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC" by the one and only Glynnis Johns. Only six additional numbers follow the Sondheim. If, like myself, you feel the Broadway musical tradition has taken a major nosedive over the past few decades, then less current fare is more. There are selections from such mild productions as NINE, WILL RODGERS' FOLLIES and THE LIFE, and even a handful of songs that aren't bad -- "What I Did for Love," and "One" from A CHORUS LINE, and "Tomorrow" from ANNIE --- just a little bloodless compared to material from the likes of MY FAIR LADY and WEST SIDE STORY featured earlier. But there's a reason they call it a golden age. Mary Cleere Haran

All Music Guide

To commemorate the end of the century, Sony Music assembled the gargantuan 26-disc box set Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack for a Century. The title was imposing, as was the idea behind it -- to chronicle the life of the oldest record label in the music industry. To be clear, Sony Music has not existed for 100 years, but the heart of its catalog, Columbia Records, was founded early in the 20th century. Sony acquired Columbia and its various subsidiaries in the late '80s, purchasing one of the richest catalogs in pop history, as the box set proves again and again. Sony realized that most consumers wouldn't invest in a 26-disc box, no matter how impressive it was, so they simultaneously released a series of 12 genre-specific double-disc sets that culled highlights from the box. That left two discs exclusive to the box, which was appropriate, since anyone who spends over $300 on an album deserves a little bonus. As it turns out, the double-disc sets are every bit as impressive as the big box, perhaps more so, because they're easily digestible. Even so, the scope of the 41-track Broadway: Great Original Cast Recordings is impressive. Columbia and its subsidiaries were always at the forefront of Broadway cast recordings, which is evident from this set, which captures highlights from an amazing number of shows, including selections from Show Boat, Kiss Me, Kate, South Pacific, Pal Joey, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Bye Bye Birdie, Camelot, Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Annie, and Will Rogers Follies, among others. These are all taken from the original Broadway casts and, as such, provide a good capsule history of the Great White Way. Yes, some major performers and musicals are missing, but this gets the essence of its history, while being enormously entertaining. Stephen Thomas Erlewine