This is Page 5 of ABCDs
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
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This original Broadway cast recording of Eva Le Galliene and Flora Friebus adaptation of Lewis Carrolls 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 Addinsells 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. Addinsells music is always understanding of Carrolls mysterious world, from the lovely summery melody at its opening, to the sadness of the White Kings great ballad. Original New York 1947 Cast :
Eva La Gallienne Music by Richard Addinsell
01. Opening into A boat beneath a sunny sky / Jabberwocky |
COWARD SONGS
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS
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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 Cowards output of new dramatic work seemed to lose popular appeal, and when his polymathic talents led to his emergence, To my own and everyone elses astonishment, as a highly successful cabaret entertainer, uniquely performing his own material. No finer example of this aspect of Cowards 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 Cowards songs. NOEL COWARD with WALLY STOTT AND HIS ORCHESTRA
1. A Room With A View
WORLD WEARY - THE SONGS OF NOEL COWARD
10. Nina |
TWENTY MINUTES SOUTH
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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 Londons 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, Greenwells 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 |
THE WATER GIPSIES
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THE WATER GIPSIES Original London Cast: Vivian Ellis and A P Herberts 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 Bonus tracks: Cicely Courtneidge (Not restored by me)
28. Home |
SUMMER SONGPLAIN AND FANCYOriginal London Casts
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS |
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 Macshwitzs 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
PLAIN AND FANCY |
CRANKSWILD GROWS THE HEATHEROriginal London Casts
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS |
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 revues contribution to surrealism, now restored to new life in Alan Buntings audio restoration. The 1956 musical Wild Grows the Heather is a colourfully Scots romance based on J M Barries play The Little Minister, with rich choral and orchestral passages. Och aye!
CRANKS
WILD GROWS THE HEATHER |
LUTON GIRLS CHOIRGLASGOW ORPHEUS CHOIR
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS |
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
THE GLASGOW ORPHEUS CHOIR |
CONVERSATION PIECE
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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 Ill follow my secret heart remains a supreme example of the Coward operettas.
01. Overture |
FREE AS AIROriginal London Cast
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS |
The musical with which Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds followed Salad Days has one of the teams 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. Slades 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 Slades 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
FREE AS AIR Original London cast - With: Gillian Lewis, Patricia
Bredin, Gerald Harper, John Trevor
19. ORCHESTRAL MUSIC from FREE AS AIR - Tommy Kinsman and His Band :
'Perfect for Dancing' |
THE MUSIC OF JULIAN SLADE
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An important addition to the discography of one of Britains 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 Slades 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 Slades 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
THE DUENNA [Music by Julian Slade. Lyrics by Richard Brinsley Sheridan]
LADY MAY [Book music and lyrics by Julian Slade] |
BRITISH MUSICALS OF 1957Original British Casts
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS |
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 years 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 Slades 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)
HARMONY CLOSE (Book and lyrics Charles Ross Music Ronald Cass and
Charles Ross)
GRAB ME A GONDOLA (Book - Julian More Lyrics - James Gilbert
and Julian More Music - James Gilbert) Original London cast Musical
director - Frank Cordell
FREE AS AIR (Book and lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade,
Music by Julian Slade)) |
EXPRESSO BONGO
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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 shows 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 IRMA LA DOUCE highlights
18. Valse Milieu |
WHERE'S CHARLEY
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Norman Wisdom scored one of his greatest successes as Charley's Aunt ('where the nuts come from') in Frank Loesser's WHERES 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 CHRYSANTHEMUM [highlights]
15. Overture / Alexander |
LIVING FOR PLEASURE
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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 Macraes 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 shows chanteuse, golden-voiced Janie Marden. The rare British studio recording of excerpts from Addinsells score to accompany Lewis Carrolls 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 ALICE IN WONDERLAND
16. A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
23. Introductory Music |
FOLLOW THAT GIRL!
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FOLLOW THAT GIRL Original Cast
1.Overture HOORAY FOR DAISY!
18. She's Coming on the 4.48 30. MICHAEL COLLINS Orchestral selection from FOLLOW THAT GIRL 31. VICTOR SYLVESTER & HIS ORCHESTRA: FOLLOW THAT GIRL Slow Foxtrot |
A TALENT TO AMUSE
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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 |
WILDEST DREAMS
MUST CLOSE SATURDAY RECORDS |
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 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
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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 BONUS TRACKS
20-26 Extracts from the 1959 Bristol Old Vic production of HOORAY FOR DAISY! |
JOHNNY THE PRIEST
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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 BONUS TRACKS
from NEW CRANKS
from CRANKS
from AND ANOTHER THING |
MARIGOLD
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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
MELVILLAINY |