I'll drive a Buick through San Juan - if there's a road you can drive on.

Continuing my trip back through the 1959 album charts.

04/10/59 : West Side Story - Original Cast


I thought I'd already done this one, but I've done the film remake - I originally assumed this was the soundtrack to the original film, but it's the Broadway recording (there's also a London recording that we might meet on our travels, but I suspect it won't need a separate write-up). I liked bits of the film but it was all a bit too much for me - it will be interesting to see whether things approve without the distracting visuals.

Yeah, I think maybe they did. I actually thought that (unlike plenty of other musicals) the plot was reasonably straightforward to follow just through the songs and they're all well done here, with decent sound quality. It's never going to be one of my favourite musicals, but this was an enjoyable visit - I particularly liked "Gee, Office Krupke", the various versions of "Tonight" and it was weird that this particular version reminded me that my grandma used to sing "I Feel Pretty" - it's weird what makes memories pop up!

We're at #9 in the charts this week on a single week re-entry - its seventh run out of eleven it managed between '59 and '62, with its longest runs being two of eight weeks and its highest position being #3, reached in '62. The top five in the chart this week were South Pacific, Gigi, My Fair Lady, Russ Conway and Peter Sellers with one new entry for Porgy And Bess (#10) and still no named women (unless you count Bess or Gigi!).

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album, but the show's entry does give us some information on the initial Broadway cast - the main cast members were Larry Kent, Carol Lawrence (who is still with us at the ripe old age of 92), Chita Rivera and David Winters. Of these, Chita Rivera is the only name I recognise and I'm not entirely sure how I know her but Wikipedia tells she was a bit of a big thing - as well as being the first to play Anita in this, she was also the first to play Velma Kelly in Chicago and was the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor and the Presidential Medal Of Freedom. The production won two Tony awards and ran for 732 performances over nearly two years, so I think we can say it did OK!

"Customers also listened to" soundtracks from Annie Get Your Gun, Camelot, Fiddler On The Roof and Gypsy - I don't believe I've ever listened to any of them, but I'm guessing they're not a million miles away. As a soundtrack album I thought this worked quite well, but it's just not one of favourites.

27/09/59 - Your call is important to us...
25/10/59 - Another disappointing compilation

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