Miss America can just resign

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts.

22/12/63 : West Side Story Original Soundtrack - Various Artists

Ah, I was aware a decision was going to be required as to whether the film soundtrack required a separate visit from the musical original cast recording - but I wasn't aware it was going to come around quite so quickly! But actually, it wasn't such a tricky decision after a quick listen to the first minute of both of them because they're significantly different - and the Wikipedia entry also contains quite a few interesting facts which I obviously have to bore you with!

It certainly starts in traditional film soundtrack style with over 11 minutes of a overture and a prologue before we get any singing - they certainly wouldn't do things that way these days. However, it also does something else you wouldn't see these days by including snippets of dialogue, which actually works quite well. The songs are pretty much as you'd expect because if you know these songs then it's probably the film versions you know. They're quite a lot more orchestral than the versions in the musical cast recording (which is to be expected) - some of them feel a bit over the top, but I guess that was just the way things were in Hollywood back then. It's not one of my favourite musicals, but it has some very decent songs and it's all done well and pretty listenable.

We're at #3 in the charts this week on its 93rd week of an impressive 163 week run, with it having spent 13 weeks at #1 - so yeah, it was quite popular. The rest of the top five were The Beatles, The Beatles, Frank Ifield and Gerry & The Pacemakers, with the highest new entry being Elvis Presley (#15 - don't worry, we'll see it in '64).

The Wikipedia entry tells us that most of the singing is by "ghost" singers as opposed to cast members, with possibly the most famous ghost singer of them all, Marni Nixon, singing for Natalie Wood's Maria - making this third time we've met her after The King And I and My Fair Lady. Apparently Natalie was assured they'd use her vocals, but once it was filmed they had Marni re-record it all singing along to the film such that her recording matched Natalie's lips (which strikes me as quite the skill). Marni's contract didn't cover such eventualities, so she wasn't going to be given any royalties but Leonard Bernstein donated 0.25% of his 1% to her - what a gent! I also learned that Marni Nixon appears in The Sound Of Music as Sister Sophia - who sings "Maria", which is a nice coincidence.

James Bryant did the singing for Richard Beymer's Tony - he was also uncredited and had no such luck on the royalties front but was always grateful to Richard for bringing up his name in interviews. James's other main claim to fame was that he was part of the group that sang the Batman TV theme tune. The other thing that surprised me reading both the soundtrack and film entry is how many of the film's actors are still alive - Richard Beymer is still with us at 88 and still working (and, I was surprised to learn, played Ben Horne in Twin Peaks), Russ Tamblyn (Riff) is 91 and only retired in '18 (and he played Dr Lawrence Jacoby in Twin Peaks!), George Chakiris (Bernado) is 93 (possibly best known as Nicolas in Dallas, but his last TV appearance was, quite obviously, Last Of The Summer Wine) and Rita Moreno (Anita) is 94 (and appeared in Spielberg's version). 

There's no specific word on the critical reviews for the soundtrack but the film was, and remains, very much admired by most, although Pauline Kael declared it to be "frenzied hokum", which I'd struggle to argue with. Interestingly, Leonard Bernstein wasn't such a fan of the film score finding it "overbearing and lacking in texture and subtlety", but I think it's probably safe to say it's the definitive version for most. And commercially, it did well here, but it REALLY did well in the US, having a run of FIFTY FOUR weeks at #1 in the chart.

discogs.com tells us there really are a load of copies out there because you can pick up either a re-released CD or an original mono vinyl for a quid, but if you want an original gatefold stereo vinyl copy then you're going to have to head over to the US and shell out $300 (and probably not a lot less for shipping!). I didn't mind this album but I have to say I enjoyed the Wikipedia entries more - there were some fascinating people in the film!

29/12/17 - A historically significant album