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Various Artists
Sinatra At The Movies
Personnel: Frank Sinatra (vocals).
Photographers: Ken Veeder; Sid Avery.
Frank Sinatra was not only the 20th century's greatest vocalist, he also happened to be a movie star. Sinatra's charm and charisma lent themselves well to film, and he had a long, successful movie career. SINATRA AT THE MOVIES is a collection of songs the crooner king sang in some of those films. It almost functions as an alternative best-of, sporting the inspirational "Young At Heart" from the film of the same name, the rollicking "Chicago" from THE JOKER IS WILD, the sassy "The Lady Is A Tramp" from PAL JOEY, and plenty more. Even if you throw the cinematic concept out the window, SINATRA AT THE MOVIES simply contains some of the singer's finest moments, grouped together in a fresh context.
After Bing Crosby, no jazz vocalist had more success in the movies, or was better at intertwining his performances with his films, than Frank Sinatra. From 1940 to 1970, he was never far from Hollywood, and his film successes often went hand in hand with his popular fortune. (Even his movie personas aligned with his musical themes and ambitions, from his breakthrough starring role, in Higher and Higher, to the ambitious On the Town, the scrappy From Here to Eternity, the quintessentially swinging Pal Joey, and the self-satisfied Ocean's Eleven.) Sinatra at the Movies isn't the career-spanning movie retrospective that it should be -- instead, it concentrates on his Capitol period of the '50s. (Even his big film hit from 1943's Higher and Higher, "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night," is present here only in its 1957 version.) The '50s are virtually defined by Sinatra's great music, but the quality of his movie titles was scattershot. Yes, there were some big hits from the film world -- "Three Coins in the Fountain," "All the Way," "(Love Is) The Tender Trap," "All of Me" -- and virtually all of them were great performances. Sinatra was also making sure he recorded plenty of great material, classics like "I Could Write a Book" (from Pal Joey), "The Lady Is a Tramp" (Pal Joey again), and "Just One of Those Things" (Young at Heart). Yet he was occasionally becoming lighter and more pithy by the end of his Capitol era, never more so than when a children's choir began "High Hopes." Overall, it's not a great choice for beginners, although note that it provides a great complement to his studio albums of the '50s. An added bonus here is the inclusion of several songs that are comparatively rare on Sinatra retrospectives: "Not as a Stranger," "Monique," and "C'est Magnifique." ~ John Bush
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Various Artists
Mannix
This is a new, digitally recorded version of the soundtrack from the series, which originally aired between 1967 and 1973.
Original score composed by Lalo Schifrin.
Composer: Lalo Schifrin.
Utilizing the brisk, street-savvy jazz that makes his film music so electrifying, Lalo Schifrin's score for the classic, Emmy-nominated television crime series MANNIX is a sonic thrill ride. In 2008, Collector's Choice issued the official television score, remastered and including the original LP liner notes. The series ran from 1967 to1975, which was also Schifrin's rise to fame, and MANNIX catches this influential composer at his inventive best.
Newly recorded in 1999 at WDR Studios in Cologne, Germany, Mannix gives composer Lalo Schifrin a chance to refine compositions and arrangements that he wrote for the detective series of the same name in 1967. Although not his most famous television work of that period (an honor belonging to Mission: Impossible), Mannix did offer Schifrin a chance to move into more exotic forms of composition. Once one gets past the main title theme, the music quickly takes on an identity of its own, separate from the series. Some of it evokes places such as South America ("Sao Paolo After Dark") and Austria ("The Vienna Incident"), but most of it is in a light '60s pop-jazz vein, which doesn't mean there isn't some virtuoso playing, especially on the part of the saxmen and the trumpets. The players do what they can to make the most pedestrian of this material come alive, although curiously, the most potentially expansive piece here, the extended version of the title work, is also the most predictable. ~ Bruce Eder
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Various Artists
Witches Of Eastwick [Collector's Choice]
Composer: John Williams .
Liner Note Author: Jeff Bond.
Recording information: 20th Century Fox Studios.
The Academy Award-nominated The Witches of Eastwick captures composer John Williams at his most rapturous and playful, brilliantly communicating the sinister seductiveness of the Devil (played by Jack Nicholson) as he wreaks romantic havoc on the desperate housewives of a picturesque New England hamlet. Williams' score is romantic yet dark, its swelling strings underlined by a vague but palpable sense of menace. At the same time, however, The Witches of Eastwick is an archly comedic effort, embracing everything from wry satire to pure camp. (At one point in the film, Nicholson's Daryl Van Horne even whistles his own Williams-penned theme song.) Taken as a whole, it represents Williams' most complete and imaginative comedic score, with none of the heavy-handed whimsy of better-known works like Home Alone. ~ Jason Ankeny
The Academy Award-nominated The Witches of Eastwick captures composer John Williams at his most rapturous and playful, brilliantly communicating the sinister seductiveness of the Devil (played by Jack Nicholson) as he wreaks romantic havoc on the desperate housewives of a picturesque New England hamlet. Williams' score is romantic yet dark, its swelling strings underlined by a vague but palpable sense of menace. At the same time, however, The Witches of Eastwick is an archly comedic effort, embracing everything from wry satire to pure camp. (At one point in the film, Nicholson's Daryl Van Horne even whistles his own Williams-penned theme song.) Taken as a whole, it represents Williams' most complete and imaginative comedic score, with none of the heavy-handed whimsy of better-known works like Home Alone. ~ Jason Ankeny
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Original Soundtrack
Mame
We sold through the limited-edition Rhino Handmade release of this soundtrack so fast that we had to rush out and license it for all our customers that missed out! This is the 1974 film that starred Lucille Ball; critically panned at the time (mostly because people weren’t used to seeing or hearing Lucy sing), it has since grown to be a huge cult favorite, especially among disciples of Ms. Ball. Also aboard are Bea Arthur and Robert Preston, while the Comden-Green libretto and Jerry Herman score are just perfect.
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Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley Sing
Principal cast includes: Penny Marshall (Laverne); Cindy Williams (Shirley); Michael McKean (Lenny); Eddie Mekka (The Big Ragoo).
Personnel: Cindy Williams, Penny Marshall (vocals); Peter Jameson, Dan Ferguson (guitar); Plas Johnson (tenor saxophone); Steve Douglas (baritone saxophone); Lincoln Mayorga (piano); Hal Blaine (drums); Diana Canown, Waters Family, Lynne Martha, Melissa Manchester (background vocals).
Liner Note Author: Joseph F. Laredo.
Recording information: Devinshire Sound Studios; United Western Sound.
Photographers: Pete Bennett & The Embers; Sam Emerson.
Several months after making their first guest appearance on the hit television show Happy Days, the characters of Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney -- as portrayed by Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, respectively -- got their own prime-time network series. Laverne & Shirley became the first Happy Days spin-off [aside: Joni Loves Chachi...hello...anyone?] and in short order was more popular than the original. The show's unexpected success yielded, among other things, Laverne & Shirley Sing (1976). While the actresses are prominently featured on the LP jacket, their contributions seem to have been primarily in spirit rather than in voice. This dozen-song long-player was the brainchild of promo man Pete Bennett. After a few legal snafus, he was able to assemble some of the best session musicians, including Wrecking Crew stalwarts Hal Blaine (drums), Plas Johnson (tenor sax), and Steve Douglas (baritone sax). The female vocal leads, for the most part, were also handled by some of the best in the biz. These include the likes of Melissa Manchester, Diana Canova, and the soulful Waters Family. The musicians were under the direction of famed pop music arranger Jimmie Haskell and the project's music coordinator, Michael McKean -- who played Lenny of "Lenny & Sqiggy" fame -- was also the author of the tune "Oh Gee," one of only two original compositions on the album. In keeping with the show's late-'50s/early-'60s backdrop, the vast majority of the material covered on Laverne & Shirley Sing consists of slightly modernized arrangements of early rock & roll classics. Among the notable covers are Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'," the Essex's "Easier Said Than Done," the Crystals' "Da Do Run Run," the Four Freshmen's "Graduation Day," and the Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream." Decidedly more maudlin is the dialogue "More From Our Yearbook," which does feature the actresses reading corny and scripted entries from a mock high-school yearbook. A careful listen will reveal that the names mentioned are actually folks involved with the production. While these stacks of wax might not get props from a musical vantage point, as a timepiece of a much simpler era -- both in music as well as television -- few can fault the unbridled schmaltz of Laverne & Shirley Sing. ~ Lindsay Planer
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Various Artists
77 Sunset Strip
Although Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Stu Bailey), Ed Burns (Gerald Lloyd Kookson III) and Roger Smith (Jeff Spencer) are prominently displayed on the outer jacket artwork, they don't actually appear on this album, which consists of Warren Barker-led orchestrations. Likewise worth mentioning is that the original soundtrack to 77 Sunset Strip doesn't include Burns' million-selling solo hit "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)," either. Featured within are a baker's dozen of atmospheric instrumentals and moody melodies that aided in giving the show its unmistakable and highly stylized persona. In addition to the finger-snappin' theme song -- which is discernibly different here from the broadcast version -- Jerry Livingston and Mack David penned the provocative "77 Sunset Strip Cha Cha" and the cool -- if not nuevo-hip -- up-tempo bopper "Swingin' on the Strip." Alex North's ambience-heavy "Late at Bailey's Pad," and the surreptitiously jazzy "Cleo's Theme" most accurately capture the darker edginess of the unfolding on-screen drama. The cover tunes are given fitting personas, such as the space-age-bachelor-pad kitsch of Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You," as well as Rodgers & Hart's laid-back ultra-serene "You Took Advantage of Me." Similarly, the breadth of the score turns up a frisky "Lover Come Back to Me" and the bluesy "If I Could Be With You," the latter previously being a selection of note for Kay Starr and Helen Humes. While 77 Sunset Strip has been available on pricey German and Japanese import CDs for several years, in 2004 Collectors' Choice Music issued a domestic pressing with an exclusive liner essay. ~ Lindsay Planer
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Original Broadway Cast
Milk And Honey [Bonus Track]
Principal cast includes: Robert Weede, Mimi Benzell, Molly Picon.
Personnel: Robert Goulet (vocals).
Recording information: Webster Hall, New York, NY (1961).
Arranger: Marty Manning.
Milk and Honey was the first Broadway musical set in Israel, which gave songwriter Jerry Herman (making his Broadway debut after several Off-Broadway revues, notably Parade) the opportunity to use words like "Shalom" (a song title) and "Hora" as well as borrow some local musical styles as influences. But actually the music had two main parts. There were operatic ballads for the big-voiced leads, especially Robert Weede (of The Most Happy Fella), and there was special comic material for Yiddish theater star Molly Picon. The story concerned a group of middle-aged Jewish-American widows traveling to Israel in search of husbands (was there ever a better scenario to draw in New York area theater parties?), so the songs focused on characters seeking second chances at love, including Weede's Phil Arkin, actually a man separated from his wife who meets Mimi Benzell's Ruth Stein. "Let's Not Waste a Moment," he tells her, despite the little matter of his estranged wife. Picon's Clara Weiss, meanwhile, has to seek the approval of her dead husband to move on, which she does in her big eleven o'clock number "Hymn to Hymie." Herman, who had previously written special material for the likes of Tallulah Bankhead and Hermione Gingold, seemed more at home with such material (Picon's march, "Chin Up, Ladies" was also a winner) than he did with the ballads. But he clearly was a craftsman in the Irving Berlin mold, not particularly clever, but a natural melodist. As a result, Milk and Honey was a winning score, and it is well sung by this cast. ~ William Ruhlmann
The 1961 Broadway musical Milk and Honey is remembered as the first show to be set in Israel, but it is more significant in theater history for marking composer Jerry Herman's Broadway debut. Never revived on Broadway (there was a 59-performance Off-Broadway production by the American Jewish Theatre in 1994), it is most intriguing 47 years later in 2008 -- the date of this reissue of the cast recording -- for the insights it gives into Herman's style. It is easy to hear in the lively march "Chin Up, Ladies" and the comic ballad "Hymn to Hymie," both written for Yiddish theater star Molly Picon in a supporting role, the seeds of similar material that would turn up in Herman's next Broadway show, the far more successful Hello, Dolly! Think of "Before the Parade Passes By" and Dolly's entreaties to her dead husband Ephraim, not far removed from Clara's (Picon's character) addresses to her dead husband Hymie. And then there's "Let's Not Waste a Moment," which seems like an early draft of "It Only Takes a Moment" from Hello, Dolly! There is no direct equivalent for "Hello, Dolly!" itself, but there is a song that clearly was intended to be the hit of the show, "Shalom." (In this reissue, Robert Goulet's cover of the song has been added as a bonus track.) The problem with the score, as with the show, is that as a whole it simply isn't as lively as its best material can be. Herman is tied down to writing operatic ballad material for the two leads, Robert Weede (of The Most Happy Fella fame) and Mimi Benzell, rather than more for Picon. He does so, but not to anyone's benefit, making this score one for musical theater fans who want to know what he did before Hello, Dolly! Kenneth Jones' newly conducted interview with the composer, included in the CD booklet, is informative. ~ William Ruhlmann
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