This is Page 5 of ABCDs

 

CDs for the Must Close Saturday label with Audio Restoration & Re-mastering by Alan Bunting

Latest update - October 2011 (at bottom of page)


ALICE IN WONDERLAND
and
ALICE THROUGH
THE LOOKING GLASS

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3012

This original Broadway cast recording of Eva Le Galliene and Flora Friebus’ adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories is issued on CD for its first reappearance since the original 78s were released in 1947, to celebrate the centenary of the British composer Richard Addinsell. Bambi Linn is an incisive Alice surrounded by a superb cast of American actors. This is a potted performance, lasting almost an hour, giving dialogue as well as Addinsell’s many songs. A set of the 78s in good condition was traced in the United States, and these records have been digitally transferred and restored with astonishing clarity. Addinsell’s music is always understanding of Carroll’s mysterious world, from the lovely summery melody at its opening, to the sadness of the White King’s great ballad.

Original New York 1947 Cast :

Eva La Gallienne
Margaret Webster
Richard Waring
Hugh Franklin
Bambi Linn

Music by Richard Addinsell

01. Opening into ‘A boat beneath a sunny sky’ / ‘Jabberwocky’
02. The White Rabbit; The Pool of Tears; The Caucus Race
03. The Caterpillar ‘You are old, father William’
04. The Footmen ‘Speak roughly to your little boy’; The Cheshire Cat
05. The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
06. The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle ; ‘Will you walk a little faster?’; Turtle soup’
07. The Trial; ‘They told me you had been to her’
08. The Red Queen
09. The White Queen
10. Humpty Dumpty
11. The White Knight; ‘A sitting on a gate’
12. The Red Queen and the White Queen; ‘Lullaby’
13. Queen Alice; ‘To the looking-glass world’
14. The end of Looking Glass World; ‘A boat beneath a sunny sky: reprise’


COWARD SONGS

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3030

 

COWARD SONGS + WORLD WEARY

Our sleeve note describes this as ‘a sort of Golden Jubilee celebration of that decade of the immediate post-war years – a time when Coward’s output of new dramatic work seemed to lose popular appeal, and when his polymathic talents led to his emergence, ‘To my own and everyone else’s astonishment’, as a highly successful cabaret entertainer, uniquely performing his own material’. No finer example of this aspect of Coward’s career probably exists than these, his very last British recordings made with Wally Stott and his orchestra and Norman Hackforth. They seem to offer a perfectly expressed envoi to his British roots. Also on this disc we have, available again for the first time in fifty years, a remarkable LP made by the American singer Harry Noble, displaying an immaculate understanding of Coward’s songs.

NOEL COWARD with WALLY STOTT AND HIS ORCHESTRA

1. A Room With A View
2. Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage Mrs. Worthington
3. World Weary
4. Alice
5. Someday I'll Find You
6. Mad Dogs And Englishmen
7. Poor Little Rich Girl
8. Uncle Harry
9. I'll See You Again

WORLD WEARY - THE SONGS OF NOEL COWARD
HARRY NOBLE with STUART ROSS at the Piano

10. Nina
11. I'll Follow My Secret Heart
12. Imagine The Duchess's Feelings
13. Poor Little Rich Girl
14. Something To Do With Spring
15. Parisian Pierrot
16. Where Are The Songs We Sung?
17. A Room With A View
18. World Weary


TWENTY MINUTES SOUTH
Original London Cast

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3032

TWENTY MINUTES SOUTH

Twenty Minutes South, seen in London in 1955, may well be the archetypal British musical of its period. With music by Peter Greenwell, composer of the legendary British musical The Crooked Mile (also available from Must Close Saturday Records) this take of love and misunderstandings in London’s suburbia has a zestful, snappy score. The show is about the boys and girls who travel up to London from the suburbs on the train each day to work in offices and at 5.27 go back on the train to the suburbs to home and boyfriends and girlfriends and tennis and dances at the local community centre. All seems well until interfering Cousin kitty (Daphne Anderson) comes to stay, and life twenty minutes South is never quite the same again. A real retro delight, Greenwell’s score is preserved in this original cast recording, with linking dialogue.

A Vocal Selection by Peter Knight's Singers and Orchestra provides the bonus material

01. The 8.27
02. I like people
03. One of the family
04. It’s a lovely evening
05. This is love
06. Typing typing + Never mind I’m delighted
07. Why never ever?
08. Easy to say
09. The Addison mambo
10. Sunday girl
11. Reprise: Sunday girl
12. I shall
13. Do we?
14. Having ourselves a wonderful time
15. Wondering alone
16. Reprise: Typing typing + Reprise: Easy to say
17. Reprise: This is love
18. The 5.27
19. Vocal selections from Twenty Minutes South: The Peter Knight Singers and Orchestra


THE WATER GIPSIES
Original London Cast

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3033

THE WATER GIPSIES

Original London Cast:

Vivian Ellis and A P Herbert’s final musical, seen in London in 1955, was a pastoral hymn to the canal boats and the families that lived on them. The original cast recording starring Dora Bryan, Laurie Payne and Pamela Charles if here joined by the lush cover version directed by Cyril Ornadel, with a stellar cast headed by Joan Sims, Vanessa Lee and Bruce Trent.

The bonus tracks feature another British comedienne, Cicely Courtneidge (NOT RESTORED BY ME).

ORIGINAL LONDON CAST

01. Overture
02. Why did you call me Lily?
03. Clip Clop
04. I should worry
05. When I’m washing up
06. Jane’s prayer
07. Lily’s tale
08. He doesn’t care
09. Castles and hearts and roses
10. Peace and quiet / Little boat
11. Why should spring have all the flowers?
12. This is our secret
13. It would cramp my style
14. You never know with men

ORIGNAL COVER VERSION
15. Castles and hearts and roses
16. When I’m washing up
17. It would cramp my style
18. Peace and quiet
19. I’m not a jealous woman
20. This is our secret (Listen...)
21. Here’s mud in your eye
22. Clip Clop
23. You never know with men
24. Jane’s prayer
25. Ah, little boat!
26. He doesn’t care
27. Finale

Bonus tracks: Cicely Courtneidge (Not restored by me)

28. Home
29. There’s something about a soldier
30. Laughing gas
31. We’ll all go riding on a rainbow


SUMMER SONG

PLAIN AND FANCY

Original London Casts

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3036

SUMMER SONG + PLAIN AND FANCY

Two great British productions of musicals on one disc, with audio restoration by Alan Bunting. In Summer Song Eric Maschwitz used the music of Dvorak to tell his romantic story of two young lovers, played by Sally Ann Howes and David Hughes. The cast includes such distinguished players as Laurence Naismith as Dvorak, and a great American soubrette, Bonita Primrose. Lushly orchestrated and with attractive choral passages, this melodious score is one of the very best of the 1950s, brought to new life by Macshwitz’s lyrics. The disc also contains the original London cast recording (a real rarity) of the Broadway musical Plain and Fancy, with its well-remembered hit song ‘Young and foolish’.

SUMMER SONG - With Sally Anne Howes, David Hughes, Edric Connor

01. Opening music + I loved my love
02. Just around the corner
03. My darling Karolka
04. Once a year is not enough
05. Be she dark, be she fair
06. Cotton tail
07. No one told me
08. Sing me a song
09. Murphy’s pig
10. Saturday girl
11. One boy sends you a rose
12. Dvorak’s letter
13. Deep blue evening
14. Milli’s wedding Part I
15. Milli’s wedding Part 2
16. Summer song
17. Small town sweetheart
18. New York ’93
19. I’ll be remembering
20. Finale

PLAIN AND FANCY

21. Plenty of Pennsylvania
22. Follow your heart
23. City mouse, country mouse
24. Young and foolish
25. Plain we live
26. A helluva way to run a love affair
27. It wonders me


CRANKS

WILD GROWS THE HEATHER

Original London Casts

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3037

CRANKS + WILD GROWS THE HEATHER

One of the wittiest and most original intimate revues of the 1950s, written by a new enfant terrible of British theatre (the choreographer John Cranko), Cranks has an atmospheric score by John Addison, and brought two new stars to the attention of London audiences – Anthony Newley and Annie Ross. With its haunting amalgam of jazz and blues, this really is a show with a feel all of its own. It was British revue’s contribution to surrealism, now restored to new life in Alan Bunting’s audio restoration. The 1956 musical Wild Grows the Heather is a colourfully Scots romance based on J M Barrie’s play The Little Minister, with rich choral and orchestral passages. Och aye!

CRANKS

01. Who’s who + Adrift
02. Where has Tom gone?
03. Cold comfort
04. Passacaglia
05. Who is it always there?
06. Chiromancy
07. New blue
08. Valse anglaise
09. Don’t let him know you
10. Sea song
11. Telephone song
12. I’m the boy you should say yes to
13. Metamorphosis
14. Would you let me know?
15. Dirge
16. Arthur, son of Martha
17. Goodnight

WILD GROWS THE HEATHER

18. Overture / Along the way
19. Law and order
20. I see everything I love in you
21. A little bit of devil
22. Wild grows the heather
23. Walking to the Kirk
24. I want the stars to see you
25. I once had a wonderful day
26. Finale


LUTON GIRLS CHOIR

GLASGOW ORPHEUS CHOIR

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3038

LUTON GIRLS CHOIR & THE GLASGOW ORPHEUS CHOIR

The Luton Girls’ Choir and the Glasgow Orpheus Choir belong to a very particular time in British music and – unlike any other choirs that have been heard in Britain since – each evoked, and still evokes, a unique atmosphere. This collection of some of their best-known songs recalls the days of BBC record request programmes when such fare was a staple of the airwaves. The items from the Glasgow Orpheus Choir are preceded by spoken introductions by their famous founder, Hugh Roberton. The repertoire of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir includes their immortal All in the April evening, while the Luton Girls’ songs explore more ‘popular’ pieces, with their unmistakably saccharine harmonies!

LUTON GIRLS CHOIR

01. Count your blessings
02. The nuns’ chorus
03. Trees
04. The bells of St Mary’s
05. Some day my heart will awake
06. The holy city
07. The holy child
08. Easter hymn
09. My heart and I
10. You are my heart’s delight
11. Take the sun
12. Serenata
13. Break of day
14. Barcarolle

THE GLASGOW ORPHEUS CHOIR
15. White waves on the water
16. Jesu joy of man’s desiring
17. The cloud capp’d towers
18. The faery song
19. Crimond
20. Hark, hark the echo falling
21. The blue bird
22. Ellan Vannin
23. All in the April evening


CONVERSATION PIECE

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3039

Noel Coward's operetta Conversation Piece had its finest recording moment in 1951 when a distinguished cast was assembled in New York for this studio recording of a 'complete' performance, linked with rhyming verse by Coward himself. One of the Metropolitan's stars, Lily Pons, plays the role originally written for Yvonne Printemps, with Coward and a young Richard Burton co-starring, along with two grande dames of the British theatre, Ethel Griffies and Cathleen Nesbitt. The score, including its immortal waltz song I’ll follow my secret heart remains a supreme example of the Coward operettas.

01. Overture
02. The scene is laid in Brighton
03. Good morning, Rose
04. Never mind. When you are married / I’ll Follow My Secret Heart
05 .The Marquis of Shere
06. You understand, her happiness
07. I’m afraid it is too late for that / Reprise: I’ll Follow My Secret Heart
08. The Regent and his retinue
09. Regency Rakes
10. Two English ladies with English names
11. Charming, Charming
12. Dear Little Soldiers
13. The mother and father of dear Lord Shere
14. We British are an island race
15. Imagine a summer evening
16. Lord Shere and his father
17. My dear Julia
18. Once more the house so modest
19. English Lesson
20. There’s a lady downstairs to see you
21. Melanie, I wish to apologise
22. The melody that follows
23. Now that you know
24. Please try to envisage a social occasion
25. What a charming house
26. I am glad that you are gay
27. The following scene is the following day
28. And now for a rather charming scene
29. Nevermore]
30. Melanie
31. All comedies must come to an end [Finale]


FREE AS AIR

Original London Cast

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3040

The musical with which Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds followed Salad Days has one of the team’s finest scores, orchestrally rich and tuneful. Produced at the Savoy Theatre in 1957, FREE AS AIR ran for a year. The story follows the adventures of a young heiress, Geraldine Melford, who escapes the attentions of the popular press by sailing away to a Channel island, Terhou,occupied by eccentrics and a young island girl, Molly (played by Patricia Bredin) who yearns for a man from the mainland. Slade’s music is as 'open-air' as he ever wrote, in a score that he never eclipsed, including the immortally relevant ‘Let the grass grow’. This issue includes orchestral dance music from the show by Tommy Kinsman and His Band, and Slade’s own piano selection.

With: Gillian Lewis, Patricia Bredin, Gerald Harper, John Trevor

PIANO SELECTION from FREE AS AIR - Julian Slade with Arthur Sandford and rhythm accompaniment
01. Free as air; Nothing but sea and sky; A man from the mainland; Let the grass grow; I've got my feet on the ground; I'm up early.

FREE AS AIR Original London cast - With: Gillian Lewis, Patricia Bredin, Gerald Harper, John Trevor

02. I'm up early
03. Let the grass grow
04. Nothing but sea and sky
05. The boat's in
06. A man from the mainland
07. Free as air
08. Her mummy doesn't like me any more
09. The girl from London
10. A man from the mainland [reprise]
11. I'd like to be like you
12. Testudo
13. I've got my feet on the ground
14. Holiday island
15. Geraldine
16. We're holding hands
17. Terhou
18. Let the grass grow [reprise]

19. ORCHESTRAL MUSIC from FREE AS AIR - Tommy Kinsman and His Band : 'Perfect for Dancing'
Free as air; I'd like to be like you; I've got my feet on the ground; Nothing but sea and sky; Terhou;
The boat's in; Holiday island; Let the grass grow


THE MUSIC OF JULIAN SLADE

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3041

An important addition to the discography of one of Britain’s most eminent musical theatre composers, this disc includes the first reissue of the complete LP of ‘The Music of Julian Slade’ with its songs from early Julian Slade works, sung by Eleanor Drew, James Cairncross, Harry Dawson, John Neville and Jane Wenham. The selection from his operetta THE DUENNA, a setting of the Richard Brinsley Sheridan libretto, has Slade at his most inspired. The disc concludes with the premiere publication of the original cast recording of Slade’s Cambridge musical LADY MAY, featuring Anne Percival-Smith, Angus Mackay and Slade himself. These unique historical recordings have been restored by Alan Bunting, enabling us to hear for the first time a happy score that bears Slade’s authentic and individual freshness.

With: Eleanor Drew, John Neville, Anne Percival-Smith, Angus Mackay

THE MUSIC OF JULIAN SLADE [linking commentary by David Jacobs]

01. One, two, three, one
02. We smile
03. I’d love to be in love with you
04. A star
05. He’s got absolutely nothing
06. Doh Rey Me
07. So much to say
08. Let’s take a stroll through London
09. Should he upbraid [The Comedy of Errors]
10. Pack clouds away [Two Gentlemen of Verona]
11. Cold’s the wind [The Shoemaker’s Holiday]
12. Hey nonny no

THE DUENNA [Music by Julian Slade. Lyrics by Richard Brinsley Sheridan]

13. Fandango
14. He vowed he came to save me
15. Tho’ cause for suspicion appears
16. I loved him for himself alone
17. Never may’st thou happy be
18. Fandango [reprise]

LADY MAY [Book music and lyrics by Julian Slade]

19. A star
20. A lovely night
21. Snap!
22. He’s got absolutely nothing
23. A gypsy Earl
24. It might be love
25. When you’re in Romany
26. Finale: Tamba Samba; A home-made girl; If only; A gypsy Earl; It might be love;
She never quite got me; As long as you’re there; Wedding day
27. Excerpts: A star, A lovely night; He's got absolutely nothing; Snap!; When you're in Roman


BRITISH MUSICALS OF 1957

Original British Casts

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3042

This generously packed disc offers highlights from four British musicals of 1957.

The film THE GOOD COMPANIONS had a zestful score (possibly sung by Jill Day and Michael Holliday who dubbed two of its stars), creating a musical extravaganza from the original J B Priestley story. It is followed by most of the original cast recording of HARMONY CLOSE, a snappy picture of a London community with a big-band-cum-revue score and an interesting cast including Rose Hill as an ex-Madame. GRAB ME A GONDOLA was one of the year’s greatest successes, and is represented here by the four songs that became hugely popular, and made Joan Heal such a star. Finally, there is a vocal selection from FREE AS AIR, Julian Slade’s hit musical at the Savoy Theatre, performed here by the Peter Knight Singers and Orchestra. Sound restoration by Alan Bunting.

With: Joan Heal, Zack Matalon, Jo Ann Bayless, Rose Hill

THE GOOD COMPANIONS [film] (Rossi-Roberts-Parsons / Incidental music by Laurie Johnson)
Musical director Louis Levy with the Associated British Studio Orchestra

01. Good companions
02. This kind of love
03. Where there’s you there’s me
04. If only
05. Round the world in eighty minutes [Roberts-Parsons]

HARMONY CLOSE (Book and lyrics Charles Ross Music Ronald Cass and Charles Ross)
Original London cast - Musical director: Leonard Morris

06. Opening / Good morning
07. Getting nowhere fast
08. Undesirable elements
09. Great big city / London is a village
10. Don’t knock
11. Goodbye to all that
12. I go round in a whirl
13. Nothing to do in London
14. Goodnight until today
15. Lovely weather for ducks
16. Why should I care?
17. Exercising the dog
18. Life should be a lively thing

GRAB ME A GONDOLA (Book - Julian More • Lyrics - James Gilbert and Julian More Music - James Gilbert) Original London cast Musical director - Frank Cordell

19. Grab me a gondola
20. That’s my biography
21. Cravin’ for the Avon
22. Man, not a mouse

FREE AS AIR (Book and lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade, Music by Julian Slade))
Vocal Selections by the Peter Knight Singers & Orchestra

23. I’m up early
24. Let the grass grow
25. Nothing but sea and sky
26. The boat’s in
27. Man from the mainland
28. Free as air
29. Holiday island
30. I’ve got my feet on the ground
31. Testudo
32. Terhou
33. Finale


EXPRESSO BONGO
&
IRMA LA DOUCE
HIGHLIGHTS

Original British Casts

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3043

One of the ‘real-life’ musicals that arrived in London at the end of the 1950s, EXPRESSO BONGO cast a wry look at the lower rungs of the pop-industry in its seedy Soho setting. Distinguished by its star performance by Paul Scofield, supported by Millicent Martin and Hy Hazell, the show’s success further established David Heneker and Monty Norman as leading writers for British musicals. Although heavily sardonic (as in the pastiche of a terrible pop song, ‘The Shrine On The Second Floor’) the score also explored the complexities of love in such stand-out numbers as ‘Seriously’ and the lovely ‘Time’. Elizabeth Seal will forever be associated with her outstanding starring role in the French/British musical IRMA LA DOUCE, and is heard here in the best of the songs from the original British cast recording.

EXPRESSO BONGO complete

1. Overture
2. Don't You Sell Me Down The River
3. Expresso Party
4. Nausea
5. Spoil The Child
6. Seriously
7. I Never Had It So Good
8. There's Nothing Wrong With BritishYouth Today
9. The Shrine On The Second Floor
10. He's Got Something For The Public
11. I Am
12. Nothing Is For Nothing
13. We Bought It
14. Time
15. The Gravy Train
16. Finale
17. The Dip is Dipping [Bonus Track]

IRMA LA DOUCE highlights

18. Valse Milieu
19. Tres Tres Snob
20. The Bridge of Caulaincourt
21. Our Language Of Love
22. She's Got The Lot
23. Dis-Donc, Dis-Donc
24. The Wreck Of A Mec
25. That's A Crime
26. Le Grisbi Is Le Root Of Le Evil In Man
27. From A Prison Cell
28. Irma-La-Douce


WHERE'S CHARLEY
&
CHRYSANTHEMUM HIGHLIGHTS

Original British Casts

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3044

Norman Wisdom scored one of his greatest successes as Charley's Aunt ('where the nuts come from') in Frank Loesser's WHERE’S CHARLEY , the brilliant musical adaptation of Brandon Thomas' old farce. This is a classic score with such evergreens as 'Lovelier Than Ever' and 'Once In Love With Amy'. Although originally a Broadway show, the London cast of 1958 was the first to record the songs. Ably supported by Pip Hinton, Marion Grimaldi and a superb orchestra, Wisdom proves himself to be a true star of his time in this enduring period delight. Pat Kirkwood and Hubert Gregg are the stars of the ragtime musical CHRYSANTHEMUM with its tuneful and lively songs firmly rooted in pastiche. Only one song has had to be missed from the original LP because of time restrictions.

WHERE'S CHARLEY?

1. Overture
2. Where's Charley?
3. Better Get Out Of Here
4. The New Ashmolean Marching Society and Student Conservatory Band
5. My Darling, My Darling
6. Serenade With Asides
7. Make A Miracle
8. Lovelier Than Ever
9. The Woman In HisRoom
10. Pernambuco
11. Once In Love With Amy
12. The Gossips
13. At The Red Rose Cotillion
14. Finale

CHRYSANTHEMUM [highlights]

15. Overture / Alexander
16. Watch Your Step
17. Mary Ann
18. Sorry You've Been Troubled
19. Is This Love?
20. Love Is A Game
21. Act One Finale
22. Saturday Night
23. Thanks To The Weather
24. No More Love Songs
25. How Can I Find My Love?
26. Shanghai Lil
27. The Fire Brigade
28. Finale


LIVING FOR PLEASURE
Original British Cast
+
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
&
ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
with
Juliet Mills & David Nixon

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3045

This disc devoted to the music of Richard Addinsell begins with the original London cast recording of the hugely successful 1958 intimate revue LIVING FOR PLEASURE. Arthur Macrae’s witty and sometimes wicked lyrics provide Addinsell with a perfect platform for his skills as a theatre composer, including the classic ‘tart with a heart of gold’ number for its star Dora Bryan, heard here in a variety of songs and sketches, and expertly crafted songs for the show’s chanteuse, golden-voiced Janie Marden. The rare British studio recording of excerpts from Addinsell’s score to accompany Lewis Carroll’s timeless classic ALICE stories perfectly complements our already available Broadway cast recording of 1947. This enchanting version features Juliet Mills as Alice, David Nixon and Charlie Drake. There are several songs not heard on the Broadway recording. Altogether a wonderful find!

LIVING FOR PLEASURE

1. Living For Pleasure
2. Book Ends
3. Alone With A Love Song
4. The Lady
5. Mr Wrong
6. No Ball
7. Dustbin Follies
8. Sloane Street Ladies
9. The Two Miss Browns
10. Shepherding Sheep
11. Lost Without Your Love
12. Friends
13. Love You Good, Love You Right
14. No Better Than I Should Be
15. Finale

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

16. A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky
17. How Doth The Little Crocodile?
18. You Are Old, Father William
19. Speak Roughly To Your Little Boy
20. Will You Walk A Little Faster?
21. Beautiful Soup
22. They Told Me You Had Been To Her / Finale

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

23. Introductory Music
24. The Walrus And The Carpenter
25. The Lion And The Unicorn
26. I'll Tell Thee Everything I Know
27. To The Looking Glass World / Finale



FOLLOW THAT GIRL!
&
HOORAY FOR DAISY

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3047

FOLLOW THAT GIRL Original Cast 

1.Overture
2.Tra La La 
3.I'm Away 
4.Follow That Girl 
5.Solitary Stranger 
6.Life Must Go On 
7.Three Victorian Mermaids 
8.Doh Ray Me 
9.Song and Dance 
10.The Chase 
11.Taken For a Ride 
12.Shopping in Kensington 
13.Waiting For Our Daughter 
14.Lovely Meeting You at Last 
15.One Two Three One 
16.Evening in London 
17.Finale

HOORAY FOR DAISY! 

18. She's Coming on the 4.48
19.  I Feel As If I'd Never Been Away
20.  No Lullaby
21.  How When and Where?
22.  If Only You Needed Me
23.  Nice Day
24.  Madam Will You Dine?
25.  Wine Is a Thing
26.  I'm Sorry
27.  Let's Do a Duet
28.  Personally
29.  Soft Shoe Shuffle

30.  MICHAEL COLLINS Orchestral selection from FOLLOW THAT GIRL 

31.  VICTOR SYLVESTER & HIS ORCHESTRA: FOLLOW THAT GIRL Slow Foxtrot  


A TALENT TO AMUSE
Noel Coward's 70th
Birthday Concert

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3048

For the first time extracts from this landmark occasion are available to hear after forty unheard years in the vault. This release is made possible by the kind co-operation of the Noel Coward Society.

Edited and essayed by John Hunter Knowles

1. The Boy Actor: John Gielgud 
2. Introduction: Richard Attenborough 
3. Early Mourning: Irene Worth 
4. My Child's Book: Robert Morley 
5. I've Been To a Marvellous Party: Danny La Rue 
6. A Room With a View: Cheryl Kennedy, David Kernan 
7. Private Lives scene: Richard Briers, Susannah York 
8. If Love Were All: Joyce Grenfell 
9. I've Just Come Out From England: Celia Johnson 
10. Matelot: Mark Wynter 
11. London Pride: Stanley Holloway 
12. You Were There: Susan Hampshire, Denis Quilley
13. Chase Me Charlie: Pat Kirkwood
14. Twentieth Century Blues: Elisabeth Welch
15. Why Do the Wrong People Travel?: Maggie Fitzgibbon 
16. Mary Make-Believe: Jessie Matthews
17. That Is the End of the News: Angers, Hazell etc
18. I'll Follow My Secret Heart: Patricia Routledge
19. Nina: Cyril Ritchard
20. Time and Again: Anne Rogers, Jeremy Brett
21. Melanie's Aria: June Bronhill
22. Mad About the Boy: Cleo Laine


WILDEST DREAMS

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3049

From a vantage point of fity years, one may perhaps begin to fully appreciate this, the last of the Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds collaborations to reach London in the summer of 1961. The score is a long way from that of their greatest commercial success SALAD DAYS, with songs that have Slade writing in a very different vein. The piece exudes the feeling of a British summer, with its young lovers (one of them is indeed a schoolgirl - recently expelled for going for a ride in a sports car!) and its characters always dreaming of some romantic entanglement or other - sometimes involving Arabs on stallions ... As well as some of Slade's catchiest melodies, there is the wonderful lead song 'Girl on the Hill', a swipe at British folksongs a la Benjamin Britten, and some meltingly soft numbers. This original London recording comes up as fresh as paint in a superbly restored mastering by Alan Bunting. The bonus tracks include a laid-back piano selection from FOLLOW THAT GIRL, one of the best numbers from FREE AS AIR sung by Dickie Henderson, and the sketch 'A Resounding Tinkle', about Slade and Reynolds, from the West End revue ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE. We can thoroughly recommend this issue to anyone of taste and discernment, catching as it does the absolute flavour of the Slade era. Unmissable!

With: Anna Dawson, John Baddeley, Dorothy Reynolds, Angus Mackay 

WILDEST DREAMS - Original London Cast 

1. Opening: There's a Place We Know 
2. Nelderham 
2. Mrs Birdview's Minuet 
4. Please Aunt Harriet 
5. Till Now 
6. Girl on the Hill 
7. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom 
8. Here Am I 
9. Wildest Dreams 
10. Red or White 
11.You Can't Take Any Luggage With You 
12. A Man's Room 
13. I'm Holding My Breath 
14. Quite Something 
15. Green 
16. Oxblood Hill 
17. There's a Place We Know 
18. The Days Go By
19. When You're Not There
20. This Man Loves You 
21. Reprise: Girl on the Hill 

BONUS TRACKS

22-25. FOLLOW THAT GIRL - Piano selection by Robin Douglas Home 

26. A RESOUNDING TINKLE - Sketch from the revue On the Brighter Side with Betty Marsden, Ronnie Barker and Stanley Baxter

27. 'Let the Grass Grow' from FREE AS AIR sung by Dickie Henderson 


HOORAY FOR DAISY

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3050

Another welcome retro blast from the 1960s - Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds' magical Christmas musical HOORAY FOR DAISY! This original London cast recording, only ever issued in mono, emerges with fresh splendour in an immaculately remastered new release. The memorable melodies include 'No Lullaby' and 'I Feel as If I'd Never Benn Away' in a story of parochial pantomimes and upsets in the Gloucestershire village of Milbury. They don't write them like this any more! Of especial interest is the generous selection of live extracts from the Bristol Old Vic production of 1959, revealing the star performance of Dorothy Reynolds as the doyenne of Milbury. As it says in that remarkably fine book about British musicals, A Tanner's Worth of Tune, 'What had the audiences watching HOORAY FOR DAISY! been doing all week, except drinking too much coffee at mothers' meeting, and attending bridge parties? ... Few other musicals have held up so gleaming a mirror to middle-class audiences who came to the theatre and discovered themselves on stage.'  Three cheers for Daisy!  Sound restoration by Alan Bunting

HOORAY FOR DAISY! - Original London Cast 

1. Opening: Wine is a Thing 
2. She's Coming on the 4.48 
3. I Feel as if I'd Never Been Away 
4. Nice Day 
5. No Lullaby 
6. Soft Hoof Shuffle 
7. If Only You Needed Me 
8. How, When and Where 
9. See You on the Moon 
10. Going Up 
11. Wine is a Thing 
12. He's Got Absolutely Nothing 
13. Ting-a-Ling
14. It Won't be the Same 
15. Madam, Will You Dine? 
16. I'm Sorry 
17. Let's Do a Duet 
18. Personally 
19. Reprise: Soft Hoof Shuffle 

BONUS TRACKS 

20-26 Extracts from the 1959 Bristol Old Vic production of HOORAY FOR DAISY! 
           Live stage recording [Archival Sound]  


JOHNNY THE PRIEST

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3051

One of the most fascinating of 'real-life' British musicals, JOHNNY THE PRIEST told the story of a young vicar's attempt to improve the lives of teenagers living in a run-down London dockland. Acknowledged as one of the most innovative and inventive scores of the period, this terrific score with its superb big band arrangements by Gordon Langford emerges refreshened in Alan Bunting's immaculate sound restoration. Antony Hopkins' remarkable score catapulted the British musical into new territory, offering not only the best songs ever about ping-pong and wallpaper, but moments of great beauty.

The booklet contains never before published photographs of the original production. 

Tracks:    

JOHNNY THE PRIEST 
1. Doin' the Burp 
2. The Little Box 3. Vicarage Tea 
4. Be Not Afraid 
5. I'm Your Girl 
6. Beyond These Narrow Streets 
7. Rooftops 
8. The Foggy Foggy Blues 
9. He'll Let You Down 
10. Ping Pong
11. Johnny Earn Peanuts 
12. A Tanner's Worth of Tune 
13. Charge Me 
14. A Boy Called Johnny 
15. Stormy Evening 
16. Finale 

BONUS TRACKS 

from NEW CRANKS 
17. Soft Soap
18. Public Library
19. Shadow Girl
20. Pure in Mind

from CRANKS
21. Julia

from AND ANOTHER THING
22. Folk Song 
23. My Kind of Someone  


MARIGOLD
&
MELVILLAINY

MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
MCSR 3052

Ready yourself for the eightsome highland reel as Alan Melville and Charles Zwar's delightfully charming romance relates the story of young Marigold's thrilling escape from the dullness of Peebles to the excitement of Edinburgh. Warmly received when it played London in 1959, MARIGOLD's pretty collection of songs, lush orchestrations and magnificently theatrical atmosphere is a guaranteed retro blast of late 1950s theatre. Jeremy Brett makes the most dashing of heroes, while film star Jean Kent's only musical recording offers a unique French accent.

The original London cast recording is joined by Melville and Zwar's recital of some of their outstanding revue numbers, MELVILLAINY, completing this celebration of their return to the record catalogue.

Tracks     

MARIGOLD Original London Cast
1.  Romance at the Manse 
2.  Love Can't Be Learned 
3.  The New Bohemian Polka 
4.  According to Mr Payton 
5.  Always Ask Your Heart 
6.  Princes Street 
7.  Her Majesty's Health 
8.  Wonderful View 
9.  Reel 
10.Present Day Youth 
11.Reprise: Always Ask Your Heart 
12. Fashionable Pair 
13. Finale 

MELVILLAINY
14. There Are No Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden
15. Noel Noel
16. Jets
17. Restoration Piece
18. Common Talk
19. Down, Down, Down
20. The Art of Midlothian
21. Heredity
22. Old Girls
23. Yonder Blessed Moon
24. Rita
25. Is It True What They Say About Dixie?
26. Which Witch?    


CDs for other companies with restoration & re-mastering by Alan Bunting

Page 1 - Guild Golden Age Of Light Music

Page 2 - Living Era Light Music CDs

Page 3 - Other Living Era CDs

Page 4 - Naxos CDs

Page 6 - CDs for other labels

Page 7 - Retrospective Records

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