Customer Reviews

The Complete Manhattan Tower

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am absolutely thrilled that this record has come out on CD. I have had a copy of it ever since I first saw it, and it has always been one of my very top favorites. The music is so pretty, the songs are so beautiful, the singers are so good, and the way it's all put together is just amazing. It's a love affair in a beautiful setting, and if you haven't heard it, you really owe it to yourself to listen. I'm so happy Amazon's got it for such a good price; I want to buy a copy to send to everyone I've ever loved. If you like pre-rock-and-roll pop music, kinda the Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra sound, or if you like Michael Buble and things like that or even Barry Manilow, you'll really like this CD.

The key point the other reviewer doesn't understand is this IS a legitimate (authorized and licensed) re-issue re-mastered from the original master tape. The Sepia CD is a compilation of 2 LPs but dubbed from LPs not from the master tapes. DRG pays the publishers for the mechanical rights (use) of the songs, but Sepia hardly pays anything to anyone. The Sepia CD is indeed an illegal product in the territory of the USA technically speaking. I am an owner of a fellow record label in North America. I don't work for DRG. I am affiliated with an American song publishing company that gets constantly victimized by European bootleg labels like Sepia.

This is another of the forgotten shows that Sepia Records has brought back to life. The music and lyrics are wonderful, and the transfer is absolutely superb as are all of the Sepia recordings. The bonus material is incredible as well. I've been told that another issue of MANHATTAN TOWERS is around that doesn't have nearly the same amount of music on it. Where else can you get a CD that has close to 80 minutes of music on it and not pay a fortune? I'm quickly becoming a huge fan of Sepia Records because of their re-release of shows like this and wonderful scores like MAKE A WISH and HAZEL FLAGG that have disappeared as well. Check out Bette Davis in TWO'S COMPANY for an all-time classic. With quality and value like this, I hope that Sepia Records are around for a very long time.

I first heard Manhattan Tower in 1962...a friend had the record and I couldn't get enough of it....I still have the original record at home I would never part with it....I'm so glad this came out in CD....it brings out so many memories.....Thank You so much

Gordon Jenkins originally composed and recorded "Manhattan Tower" in the late 1940s for Decca. In the mid-1950s, with the advent of hi-fi, he recorded it again with additional material, and released it on Capitol as "The Complete Manhattan Tower." This later version, along with a couple of bonus tracks, is presented on this CD in very nicely digitized sound.

"Manhattan Tower" tells a story inspired by Jenkins' own experience as a young man from a small town visiting New York City for the first time. On the album, the young man arrives in town with a dream of living in a tall building with a view of the city. He meets a young woman and falls in love with her over the course of his visit, but in the end, he has to go home, and she won't go with him.

The image of New York that the album presents is kitschy but charming; it is very much how New York (and America as a whole) wanted to see itself in those days. This, along with the quality of the music and the witty dialog between the two main characters, probably accounts for the album's commercial success.

"Manhattan Tower" is best regarded as a stage musical without a stage, the original cast album for a show that was never performed in a theatre. The songs are great, especially "Married I Can Always Get" and the standard "New York's My Home." It's light entertainment but very well done, and half a century later it can still give us a sense of what Americans in the post-war period wanted to believe about themselves and their greatest city.

I bought the original 33 1/3 record in 1958. Over the years its age has shown. I was delighted to find a C D was just issued. It is a faithful reproduction of the original 1957 edition and I'm pleased to have it.

It's fantastic that Manhattan Tower finally got released on CD. But this version from DRG is not as complete as the version from Sepia. Most confusingly, they both have the exact same title, "The Complete Manhattan Tower", but the DRG release has 12 tracks, while the Sepia release has 24 (which includes 10 bonus tracks).

I haven't heard the DRG version, so it may be that they both may have the exact same Manhattan Tower, just combined into CD tracks differently. But even if that's the case, the Sepia contains some nice bonus tracks, and - here's the kicker - it's less expensive. (At least as I am writing this.)

Bottom line: If you're interested in the Complete Manhattan Tower, instead of this shorter DRG CD, consider buying the Sepia version instead. (As of this writing, both versions are available on Amazon.)

Caveat: The only thing that the DRG version MAY have going for it is sound quality. I am not unhappy with the Sepia CD, but I haven't heard the DRG. If they were mastered independently, it certainly is possible that the DRG release sounds better, but I have no way of knowing that.

(The 3-star rating is simply because the Sepia version contains more content.)

Wanting a fresh version of this masterpiece to replace my badly worn LP, I chose the longer version offered on Amazon. Big mistake. Too much added "filler" material spoils the simplicity of the original.

Still great after all these years.The cd certainly sounds better than my old scrathed LP.

Thank you Sepia Records.

I order two copies of the Manhattan Tower remake in early January, 2009. One for me and one for my younger sister. I fell in love with New York, sight unseen, the first time I heard this song story in 1958.

I begged my parents to let me go to school in NY by using the excuse that NYU had the best nursing program in the country. My younger sister wore out the copy of Manhattan Tower that I left behind in Ohio so that she, too, could also fall in love with New York - she was 12 years old at the time.

After not hearing the tunes for more than 40 years, they all came right back to me, particularly during the second time I listened to the album.

This is a must have album for anyone who treasurers memories of being in New York in the 50s and early 60s.