2 comments about Child's Celebration of Classical Music.

1. This is definitely not what I expected in a classical music tape, but still a surprisingly enjoyable to listen to. I bought it for my 4 year old who loves to listen to what he calls "kid's songs" and hoped that it wouldn't totally annoy my older children. This one is a winner, though, ALL the kids (ages 2 to 11) really like it. Bobby McFerrin's Music Box is really quite amazing and you appreciate his talent the more you listen to it (although I would never have guessed this was classical music.) The water music rendition is equally fun. My only complaint is that Gerald McBoing is waaaay too long, but still it fascinated the kids so I guess it's worth it! The variety of music contained on the tape keeps it fresh.



2. Kids will eat this up! The selection of readers and singers are brilliant. Not only will the stories entertain children but they will learn from a young age that classical dosn't mean boring! Danny Kaye is one of my favorite people. His voice has always captured me somehow. I have seen my siblings listen in amazement to Boby McFerrin's amazing "voice". His portrayel of a music box is highly impressive. The way this CD combines the old with the new, the humorous with the soothing, and the music with the story telling, leaves me feeling up-lifted and calm. A complete must-have for children and adults alike!

No comments about Broadway Sings the Blues: Party's Over.

2 comments about Hit the Road With Bing and Bob: From Bali to Zanzibar.

1. If you are a fan of the Bob and Bing road movies this CD is for you. It is lots of fun and taken right from the movies.



2. This is an excellent cd for all fans of the Road Movies. Even if you are not familiar with the films, there are many wonderful songs to enjoy. Fortunately, the films are all available in excellent dvd editions.

3 comments about Vera Lynn Collection.

1. Vera Lynn is a favorite from my father's early days.
   
   My favorites are from her WWII era: We'll Meet Again, White Cliffs of Dover, Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye), There'll Always Be an England, Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.
   
   More well known in the UK than the US. We'll Meet Again and White Cliffs of Dover are her best remembered.
   
   Another wonderful voice from that era is Jo Stafford, who is known for I'll be Seeing you and Long Ago and Far Away.



2. A little disappointing, because only 5 top notch war songs are represented. The remaining songs were recorded after the war and don't seem to have the same effect.



3. Vera Lynn was quite popular during the war. She had a beautiful voice. Her song, We'll Meet Again (Don't Know Where Don't Know When) was used in the film (was it Dr. Strangelove?) where a fellow rides the atom bomb at the end of the film.
   Catchy melody, pleasant to hear, typical of the war era.
   Funny: war songs don't seem to exist any more in any quantity, whereas they were an important part of
   WWII.

5 comments about The Best of the Shangri-Las.

1. I have to go along with the majority of reviewers so far and give this the top rating allowable. OK, so it doesn't include stereo versions, but this is the way most of us remember the original Red Bird 45s, and as an added bonus, without the hiss and pop. It also provides all eleven hit singles they had between 1964's Remember (Walkin' In The Sand), # 5 Billboard Pop Hot 100 that summer, and mid-1966's Past, Present And Future, # 59 Hot 100, along with six B-sides.
   
   The liner notes contain a complete discography of the contents along with four pages of background information written in 1996 by Don Charles, and some wonderful photographs of the group, including one showing Liz Weiss, the sister of lead singer Mary Weiss, who did not always appear with the group, either on record or in person.
   
   These two students at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York were joined by twins Mary Ann and Marge Ganser, and were singing semi-professionally when discovered by disc-jockey Babalu [Bob Lewis] who brought them to the attention of producer George "Shadow" Morton. And, for two glorious years, they combined to put out records which can only be described as theatrical in their intensity, easily rivaling Phil Spector's Wall of Sound.
   
   When the Red Bird label folded its tent in 1966, the group also disbanded. Sadly, the Ganser twins are no longer with us, Mary Ann having died of encephalitis in 1971 and Marge from breast cancer in 1996 at age 48.
   
   A marvelously complete collection by one of the so-called "Girl Groups" which you will enjoy from beginning to end.



2. If you only know the Shangri-las from "Remember, Walking in the Sand" or "Leader of the Pack" (neither of which I'm crazy about) trust me: There are a lot more -- and better -- gems to discover. Just take "Past, Present and Future," a truly astounding recording that Who guitarist Pete Townshend called one of the best singles of all time. (Listen, and hear why.) Or how about "Out in the Streets," covered by Blondie, or the hilarious "Give Them a Great Big Kiss," recorded umpteeth times by the New York Dolls and their guitarist, Johnny Thunders (who sometimes imitated lead singer Mary Weiss when he sang). Most of the Shangri-las' songs were written by the best Brill Building songwriters in the business, and my favorites include "Heaven Only Knows," "The Train from Kansas City," "Right Now and Not Later" (which used producers from Motown, and sounds it), "Long Live Our Love," the folkish -- and underrated -- "Footsteps on the Roof," "Love You More Than Yesterday" and many more.

   But it's not just the songs. I've always felt Mary Weiss had one of the best voices in rock -- a haunting and expressive half-whine with the unmistakable stamp of Queens. (Her back-up singers have that New Yawk sound as well.) According to the liner notes, Weiss, who was still a teenager when she made these recordings, would get so wrapped up in these little melodramas that she'd burst into tears. Mary Weiss, wherever you are, you're the greatest. And this CD rules too.




3. The Shangri-Las early-60s sides for Leiber & Stoller's Red Bird Records were among the very best girlgroup recordings ever made. In addition to their own bad-girl charms (epitomized by lead vocalist Mary Weiss), the group was the recipient of some of Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich's finest songs. Having worked with Phil Spector, their songs readily adapted themselves to producer Shadow Morton's own operatic grandeur. Morton also penned many fine sides for the Shangri-Las, including their towering hit, "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)" and the tortured pair, "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" and "Past, Present and Future."

   Mercury's 25-track collection hits all of the classic highpoints, though it doesn't quite measure up on breadth of Red Bird sides to RPM's anthology, "Myrmidons of Melodrama." On the other hand, Mercury's collection includes four post-Red Bird singles (tracks 22-25), not on the RPM release. Though none of the latter-day tracks were commercial successes ("The Sweet Sounds of Summer" scrapped the bottom of the chart at #123), they're still quite good, and must-haves for Shangri-Las fans. (To complicate matters further, RPM has issued two different versions of "Myrmidons," with slightly different track lineups and mono/stereo sound!). This Mercury edition is a fine starter, and a definite follow-on purchase (despite the duplication of everything but the last four tracks) to any completist who starts with "Myrmidons."




4. Though not racking up as many hits as the Shirelles or Supremes, the Shangri-Las rank up there with the most remarkable girl groups of the era. No other girl group of their time earned both the fame and notoriety for their pushing of the musical envelope. Going beyond the boy-infatuation or dance-craze dominant themes of girl group tunes of the mid-60s, the Shangri-Las presented the music buying public with sometimes remarkably sophisticated, sometimes marginally mainstream acceptable and often over-the-top musical melodrama. The dramatic lyrics were often accompanied by complicated and extravagant productions and topped off with the powerful readings given the songs by the girls themselves. No wonder the girl group sound was lurched forward, lost all its innocence and made way for many future artists that owe much to these tunes. This compilation brings together all 11 of the Shangri-Las Red Bird-label charting tunes along with b-sides, a few album cuts and a few Mercury singles. After the demise of Red Bird, the girls moved to Mercury (with no further success) and therefore this collection comes from Polygram. The down side here, and the reason for less than a five-star rating, is that the entire CD is in mono, and while some tracks are clean and crisp, some are muddy-sounding and these tunes exhibit none of the life found in the stereo versions that have since appeared on the Red Bird compilations from Taragon and Varese Vintage. Notwithstanding the less than stellar sound quality, for the best and most complete Shangri-Las collection, this is the one to go for. An absolute necessity for 60s pop music collectors.



5. Part of the 60s girl group scene,the Shangri-las set themselves apart from the others with a darker slant to the pop song.Death,run-aways,war,and surviving rape are idea bandied about along side love ditties,all delivered with a dramatic passion that has never been duplicated.Absolutely top-notch.
   Check out the 60s british pop singer Twinkle.Her song "Terry"is like another take on the "Leader of the Pack" idea.Her other songs are great too.

5 comments about The Hoagy Carmichael Songbook.

1. History will record that Hoagy Carmichael, born on November 22, 1899 (the same year as another great, Duke Ellington), was one of THE major contributors to pop music to emerge in the 2Oth Century. And no wonder, considering the classics he composed, among them Rockin' Chair, Lazy River, Two Sleepy People, Small Fry, Heart And Soul (the last three with lyricist Frank Loesser, How Little We Know (introduced by the sultry Lauren Bacall in To Have And To Have Not), Ole Buttermilk Sky (first sung by Hoagy himself in the film Canyon Passage), Lazy Bones, Skylark, and In The Cool, Cool Of The Evening (all with lyricist Johnny Mercer), and the oft-recorded Georgia On My Mind, immortalized in the 1960 rendition by the late, great Ray Charles.
   
   At the top of this impressive list, of course, comes Star Dust (sometimes shown as Stardust), only the most recorded love song of all time. It didn't start out so renowned, however, as initially it was a 1927 up-tempo instrumental. Even when words were added in 1929 by Mitchell Parrish it failed to take off. That is, until both Irving Mills & His Hotsy Totsy Gang (# 20) and Isham Jones (# 1) added it to their respective band's repertoire in 1930 - again as an instrumental. After that it seems everyone wanted to record it, and by 1943 there had been no less than 15 hit single versions, with Bing Crosby having the first vocal hit with it in 1931 (# 5). That same year other hits came from Louis Armstrong (# 16), Wayne King & His Orchestra (# 17 instrumental), and Lee Sims (# 20 in a piano version).
   
   In 1935 Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra, with vocal by Henry Wells, would take it to # 10 as the flip of his # 1 hit, Rhythm Is Our Business, and a year later Victor would release it with two different artists performing it on each side - Benny Goodman & His Orchestra as a # 2 instrumental, and Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra as a # 8 with vocal by Edythe Wright. Next up was Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra in 1939, a # 16 instrumental, following which came the early 1941 Artie Shaw version. Winding up at # 1, this instrumental version, voted the greatest record (and the song voted greatest song) of all time in a Billboard disc jockey poll, featured solos by Artie on clarinet, Billy Butterfield on trumpet, and Jack Jenney on trombone. That same year, Tommy Dorsey had another hit with a new recording of the song, this time featuring vocals by Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers (# 7), while a Glenn Millerinstrumental hit # 20.
   
   In 1943, Baron Elliot & His Stardust Melodies Orchestra took it to # 18, with vocal by The Stardust Trio, and in a re-issue of his 1941 hit, the Tommy Dorsey version went to # 23. Fourteen years later, versions by Billy Ward & His Dominoes, with lead vocal by Eugene Mumford (# 5 R&B/# 12 Top 100) and Nat "King" Cole with orchestral backing by Gordon Jenkins (# 70 Top 100) saw it return to the charts. And it did again in 1962 in a new recording by Frank Sinatra which, with backing by the Don Costa orchestra, finished at # 98. In 1964 Nino Tempo & April Stevens saw their rendition reach # 31 Hot 100, and in 1975 Johnny Mathis had his version top out at # 4 Adult Contemporary (AC). The last hit version (to this point) then came in 1993 when Harry Connick, Jr. finished at # 46 AC.
   
   So, it would seem Hoagy Carmichael's firm position in pop music history would have been solidified on the basis of that one song alone. But, as you will see from this album, his talent didn't end there. Twenty great tracks by some of the most renowned artists to grace one CD, with excellent sound reproduction and two pages of liner notes written by John E. Quinn.



2. These CDs please the ear, the heart, and the mind. Playing them gives me a reminder of the many contributions Hoagy Carmichael made to the world of music. Most people hear his compositions and don't realize who the composer was. Hearing his voice singing gives one goose bumps. Great! I only wish the collection included the version of Small Fry sung by Bing Crosby and Johnnie Mercer and Kate Smith's rendition of Can't Get Indiana off my Mind.



3. Hoagy Carmichael wrote and played some of the great American songs, including one of the greatest of all, his signature song, 'Stardust'. He had a certain laidback quality, an ease, an effortlessness ( or so it seemed) that suited truly the composer of 'Lazy River' 'In the Cool of the Evening' and 'Heart and Soul'. His music is music which gives quiet pleasure and sense of deep relaxation.
   One of the best.



4. Hoagy Carmichael wrote some great songs for the film GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell.
   Great songs such as WHEN LOVE GOES WRONG, sung by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, as well as another one called AIN'T THERE ANYONE HERE FOR LOVE, a great song performed by Jane Russell
   amid a group of athletic musclemen from the US Olympic Team.
   A song deleted from the film WHEN THE WILD WILD WOMEN GO IN
   SWIMMING IN BIMINI BAY sung by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
   has never surfaced anywhere, even though the scene from that
   song is used in the trailer of the film. Did anyone else record
   this song? .
   Hoagy Carmichael, a great songwriter.



5. Hoagy Carmichael is one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. He's the author of the best songs of the century (Stardust, Georgia on my mind, Lazy River, the Nearness of you, Heart and Soul,...). His songs have been covered by most of the greatest artists of the 20th century: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and so on. "The Hoagy Carmichael Songbook", released in 1990, gives a fairly good idea of how good and influential was Carmichael's music. All Carmichael's major hits (performed by an all star cast) can be found in this "Songbook". The best part of the record is - by far - Mildred Bailey's recording of Rockin' Chair. It is very powerful and very moving at the same time. Her voice, coupled with the sound of xilophones, gives the song a sort of otherworldly beauty. I have rarely heard anything as good as this.

2 comments about 22 Songs Of Faith & Inspiration.

1. I grew up watching Lawrence Welk, and falling in love with the Lennon Sisters, so I probably shouldn't have been surprized that I enjoyed this collection of songs so much, but even so, the incredible beauty of their voices makes me feel like I'm in heaven, and the excellent selection of songs is just a joy to hear. I'm not Catholic, so I wasn't familiar with all of the songs, but they are so well done, and so moving that you'll have tears in your eyes.
   
   I'm just glad CD's were invented, so I won't have to worry about wearing out records and tapes.
   
   Buy this CD for yourself or anyone else who likes beautiful Christian music. It is outstanding.



2. I love the Lennon Sisters for the absolute beauty, perfection and purity of their harmonies and their tonal qualities, but no one can describe in words how this all comes together on this CD in these songs. You truly have to hear it to understand. The sheer beauty of this has often brought tears to my eyes. A few of the songs I had never heard (Unfailing Love, In This Very Room and the Wedding Song) and the three of them are extremely beautiful and moving. (My only beef with these three is I haven't been able to locate the sheet music to them!!!) Their "Holy Holy Holy" is absolutely phenomenal. This album has brought well over 200 hours of joy and peace to me; the music is awe-inspiring. It touches the heart, soul and spirit. I can't do this album justice, and I don't think anyone could. I (obviously!) give this one my heart-felt recommendation, and hope others will hear it and love it and derive all the beauty and peace from it that I have. (Question for the inquiring minds--How can four people WITHOUT FAIL always cut off at EXACTLY the same time???!!!)

3 comments about Candida.

1. As a huge fan of Tony Orlando and this being a very early album, it is a treasure.



2. Before this LP was released Tony Orlando was working for as Vice President and General Manager of April-Blackwood.Producer and freind Hank Medress asked Tony to sing on a demo.Tony relented at first because he thought it would hamper his day time job.Tony relented at first because he did not want his named used. The song"Candida" was used under the name Dawn after Jay Siegels daughter Stacy Dawn.This song quickly rose to number#3 on the Billboard charts in September of 1970.Then "Knock Three Times" came along and it was even a bigger hit then "Candida". This song went all the way to number#1 in January of 1971. The only problem there was no real Dawn and Tony set out to find some backup singers and came along Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson who came from Deteroit(they are cousins) and the rest is history. The group then became Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.Tony does some great vocals with Telma and Joyce on the songs" The Love in Your Eyes,""Carmen",I Didn't Mean To Love You So Good Junaita", The Good Life"," I Get Ideas","Summer Sand","Play and Sing"," Home"," Rainy Day Man"," Sweet Soft Sounds Of Love","In The Park"," Up On The Roof","What Are You Doing Sunday","Carolina On My Mind"," Get Out From Where You Are",Perhaps The Joy of Giving", and "Country".This is a must have for any Tony Orlando and Dawn fan.



3. in 1970,singer TONY ORLANDO ,a former teen idol from the early 60s,was still doing demos for some extra cash that he needed at the time ,..since he had a baby on the way.He had just had a top twenty hit under the bogus name of WIND with a song called MAKE BELIEVE.if you have heard this track you might almost think it is FRANKIE VALLI .Tony was once named one of the best blue eyed soul singers and to me this song,.. and the entire lp of CANDIDA proves it.the title track was already recorded with another male vocal but it didnt have the sound the producers wanted , so they rememebered their good friend tony. next thing you know, tony says he remembers driving in the car and his wife saying,"that sounds like you"in which he replied, 'i think it is me ' and even more surprising was that the song made it to #3 pop,and #1 cashbox and AC AND went on to sell over 2 million copies. a few months later,the producers asked him back for a follow up.the song was KNOCK THREE TIMES.tony said he thought it was to corny and forgot about it but to his surprise it went to #1 all over and sold over 7 million copies.of course the record company wanted a another follow up and a lp but there was a problem....there was NO GROUP!tony went back with producers and did all the leads with all the other demo seesion payers that had been there on the first 2 singles,.the result was this lp ,CANDIDA.THE LP is filled with what Tony does best,blue eyes soul with covers of some of his favorite artists like THE DRIFTERS ...UP ON THE ROOF,and JAMES TAYLORS ..,RAINY DAY MAN.also included is the tenny booper hits WHAT ARE YOU DOINg SUNDAY AND SUMMER SAND.the latter being the most well crafted of the two and it reached #9 on the AC charts in the early summer of 1971.in the uk other singles foloowed such as CARMEN,and JUANITTA ,.and I PLAY AND SING but they are too sugary for me.all in all ,this cd contains most of the first 2 DAWN lps but there is one negative.TELMA hOPKINS,AND Joyce and Pam Vincent who later became known as the female part of DAWN are not featured here on this cd set as they officially did not join the group until 1971 ,well after this lp was released.i was hoping for the 35th anniversary they might have the ladies overdub their vocals on this cd set and give some of these songs the motown edge they needed.but it didnt happen,so basically this is really a TONY ORLANDO solo lp but still a good one filled with some good songs and memories.if you need a trip back to 1970,all you need to is buy this cd and KNOCK THREE TIMES.all in all ,great vocals with some great covers.

5 comments about But One Day....

1. While her German cabaret repetoire is my favorite, this has enough to please even the pickiest Utetarian.



2. `but one day...' is a long drink of water for Ute Lemper fans. Its choice of songs is positioned almost perfectly in the middle of her defining repertoire of Kurt Weill, Jacques Brel, Steven Sondheim and classic German cabaret songs. It is neither all German / all Weill nor very edgy like her selection of songs on `Punishing Kiss' nor too conventional like the selection of songs on `Life is a Cararet' where Ms. L tries the Lisa Minelli mantle.
   
   The selection is centered on two very classic Weill songs, `September Song' and `Speak Low', both originally written by Weill for two of his best Broadway shows. This traditional material is joined by two from Brel, `Ne me quitte pas' in French and `Amsterdam' done in French and English. From Bertolt Brecht and Hans Eisler is an obscure English / German song `Ballad of Marie Sanders, the Jew's Whore'. From Werner Heymann and Robert Ziegler we have `Living Without You' which is sung in English.
   
   This is the first Lemper album on which I recall seeing works by Astor Piazzolla. Apparently, Ute has been doing them in concert for quite some time. The two Piazzolla selections `Buenos Aires' and `Oblivion' are sung in English. In the liner notes, Lemper says she would have really liked to sing them in Spanish but it is not a language she knows well and she felt she simply could not do the songs justice without giving a lot of time to learning the language well enough to put the right feeling into the songs. As German is her native language, which I know, I have always been impressed by the interpretation she is able to give equally to both German and English lyrics, and I can really appreciate and respect her reluctance to risk slighting the interpretation of songs in a language with which she is not comfortable. To my ear, neither of these two Piazzolla songs are true tangos, although one can sense the typical Piazzolla Euro/Argentine fatalism in both.
   
   Finally, there are four works by Ms. L herself, all in English. From the liner notes for the album, I gather that Ms. Lemper now lives and works in New York City, as all of her material was recorded in New York with New York musicians, all in a very few sessions, and, like all of her albums, there is a great sense of uniformity in the quality of the performances. Ms. Lemper's songs are selected from a large number of her works that begin as poems. I believe these songs are not quite as soulfully memorable as the Weill, Brel, and Piazzolla classics, but they are definitely out of place, as they do not try for memorable music, but rely on heartfelt storytelling. The title song `But One Day' and `I Surrender' are straight love songs. Her children inspire `Little Face'. `Lena' is based on the mother of Ms. Lemper's Mexican publicist. While one can glide through her other three songs carried simply by the allure of the Ms. L's voice, the lyrics of `Lena' reach out and capture your attention. I simply did not have to read the lyrics of this song to catch all of the references to Holocaust and post World War II history.
   
   I first ran across Ms. Lemper's singing when I picked up her early recordings of Kurt Weill German works, as she started as a Kurt Weill specialist who, to my ears, brought something new to the traditional Lotte Lenya gravel voiced interpretations. I have reveled in all the new material Ms. Lemper has taken on without abandoning for long her European Marlene Dietrich / Edith Piaf inspired style.
   
   Ute Lemper fans will find more of everything we find appealing in her work. I also recommend this to anyone who likes female vocalists in general. Much more substance than the run of the mill diva and even a bit more genuine than Ms. Streisand.



3. According to the liner notes, this album, which was recorded in New York ("where nothing is the same"), is Lemper's response to the events of September 11 (the World Trade Center is visible in one of the photographs). Perhaps that accounts for her inclusion, at the beginning, of "September Song," a song she has recorded before but which serves here as the perfect umbrella for an otherwise motley assortment of tunes, including four that are self-penned. There are no American songs, as such, although both Weill compositions were written for Broadway, but most are rendered in English, often with new lyrics, as in the Piazolla selections, by Lemper herself. I can't help wondering whether her decision to write her own material as well as to include two Jacques Brel numbers, both covered elsewhere by Scott Walker, may be the fruit of her collaboration with Walker on "Punishing Kiss," a masterpiece of its kind but not really representative of what Lemper does best. Whatever their inspiration, the four new songs are easily the freshest things on this album, and the most immediately engaging, representing a culmination in Lemper's search for material that is both pop-inflected and worthy of inclusion among her international repertoire. The Heymann/Ziegler compostion, "Living Without You," also falls into this category and would make an excellent single. The more I listen to this ablum, the more I like it, at the same time that I am impressed by its artistry. No pretension here, and that's amazing on an album that includes Lemper's own "words inspired by" Bertolt Brecht. "But One Day" is a watershed in the constantly evolving career of one of the world's most challenging and creative artists.



4. i was first introduced to the work of ute lemper as a manager in a music store in NYC. "illusions" was my first taste of that heavenly voice and since that day i have followed her career with
   intense pleasure. in this age of celine dions' and sarah brightmans' it is so appealling to be in the musical prescence of what i personally consider a master of her craft.....this woman can do it all: sing (in various tongues no less!!!), act
   and now with the release of "but one day" write personal, involving music that takes you to a totally new level!!! ute's
   style and approach make me yearn for a seat in some dusky weimar-
   era berlin cabaret drinking absinthe and watching the world pass by with all the ennui i posess.......



5. This is a record that I bought because I was intrigued by the cover. I had no idea what I was getting. I'm a big fan of the jazz singers and standards.

   Her voice is tremendous.

   The songs are where the challenge lies. You've almost got to concentrate to hear what makes this music special. It doesn't just grab you, like for instance Frank singing "Fly Me to the Moon".

5 comments about Sondheim Evening: A Musical Tribute (1973 Concert Cast).

1. Reviewing this album in 1998 I wrote:
   
   This concert was recorded live at the Shubert theatre in New York in March of 1973 - just a few weeks after A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC had opened. Being a live recording there are some technical drawbacks - hence 4 stars instead of 5 - but the electicity generated by the performers and the event have never been matched by any subsequent Sondheim concert.
   Among the highlights: -Nancy Walker's definative performance of "I'm Still Here."
   
   -Ethel Shutta recreating her showstopping "Broadway Baby" which was abridged on the FOLLIES cast album
   
   -Jack Cassidy and Susan Browning in a premiere recording of "So Many people" from the unproduced SATURDAY NIGHT
   
   -Larry Kert offering both "Happily Ever After" and its replacement "Being Alive" from COMPANY.
   
   -A half-dozen songs that had not been heard because they were dropped from shows before opening night or left off teh cast albums.
   
   -Angela Lansbury recreating two of her big numbers from the ill-fated ANYONE CAN WHISTLE
   
   -and, a grand finale where Sondheim himself sings (?) the title song from WHISTLE.
   
   A useful overview of some of his best work (to 1973 at least) enlived by some steller performances. The original 2 LP set had been out-of-print for many years fetching $85 a copy at collector shops. RCA's CD edition restores some addional material left off the Lp and is a great bargain!
   
   I should add a few small advisories: The sound is only so-so - picked up mainly by floor mics, and the orchestra sounds tinny. But in the end it only adds to the you-are-there quality. Collectors have traded complete tapes of the whole show for years, and having heard these I can say that the tracks here are the best of the lot.



2. This re-release of a 1973 live concert tribute to Stephen Sondheim, long out of print, is a must for any Sondheim lover. It contains some performances preserved no where else, including re-creations by the original performers of songs from little-known Sondheim shows, or songs that were dropped before the musicals they were from debuted on Broadway, or songs in the case of "Follies" that were not included on the original cast recording. Just a few of the performers include Angela Lansbury, Larry Blyden, Alexis Smith, Chita Rivera and Jack Cassidy. It ends with an especially poignant performance by Sondheim himself singing the title song from his short-lived musical "Anyone Can Whistle".



3. The best Sondheim collection available. The live performances add greatly to the album. All the performances are fresh and fun, or heartfelt and lovely. Added bonus is the performance of unused songs from several shows. The whole thing is wonderful. Only wish it had been done more recently to include the shows of the past 30 yrs. Could be quite an evening. The Carnegie Hall tribute album is glossier and more recent, but I like this better.



4. This is an old favorite that I already had on LP, but decided to finally upgrade to CD. Obviously, I like it or I wouldn't have bothered.



5. I bought this set used on vinyl when I was 17. Then again on cassette when I was 25. I'm now about to buy it on cd. Why? Hands down it is the best concert album of his works. Nothing gimimicky, just a great evening of song, most with the original performers recreating their moments. Also, there are more than a handful of cut songs and obscure lyrics. For you Sondheim buffs: the original lyrics to "We're Gonna Be All Right" which got sanitized during the tryout becuase Dorothy Rodgers thought the lyrics were too racy. And a previous reviewer complained that there were No performance of Night Music songs on the disc, Here's why. The Cast Album had just been recorded by Columbia and they held the rights to any of the original cast recording of the songs. During "Liasons" and "Send in the Clowns" the Engineers from Warner Brothers (the original Label) had to shut off the mics. A shame...written accounts of the evening state that Glynis Johns had the house in tears with Send in the Clowns. Still and all, a worthwhile album.