Customer Reviews

Dyed Blonde

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

 

 

This is an awesome cd of vintage tracks by those legendary big blondes of the 1950's, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. There are 23 tracks of Marilyn and 14 tracks by Jayne. This is an absolute bargain given the price and the rarity of many of the tracks, especially those by Mansfield. This collection is easily the best buy of the three CDS available with Jayne currently available; almost everything on the other two is here plus you get some real rarities. Many of the tracks are from her 1960's album JAYNE MANSFIELD BUSTS UP LAS VEGAS, there are also a number of songs from her movies ( including German songs from her ultra-elusive 1964 film HOMESICK FOR ST. PAUL, a German film that is almost impossible to locate) and a few single releases she recorded in the 1960's. Contrary to what a previous reviewer wrote, I do believe it's Jayne singing on "As the Clouds Drift By" although I too was skeptical the first time I heard it a decade ago. This is mainly because it was recorded with a double-track vocal (like Patti Page or Skeeter Davis often used on their hits) giving Jayne an unusual sound and too, Jayne is singing in a slightly softer pitch than usual. However on several lines of the song she sounds exactly like her other songs on this album (and the fact that this single was released in England on a major label at the time of her death strongly suggests it is indeed her.) Jayne isn't quite as good a singer as Marilyn but she's enthusiastic and her tracks truly capture her endearing personality.

There are scores of Marilyn CDS out there but this was has 23 tracks, a good many more than most. The other reviewer is quite right in saying "When I Fall in Love" is sung by a rather unconvincing imitator in the Monroe style, how on earth this bogus track keeps getting repeated on Monroe CDS is beyond me. But that still leaves 22 songs by the real Monroe including some rarities like the title song to SOME LIKE IT HOT that didn't make the movie or the soundtrack album, "Everybody Needs A Da Da Daddy" from her little scene 1948 B movie LADIES OF THE CHORUS, a few non-movie songs she recorded but were never released during her lifetime like "A Fine Romance" etc. This is a great CD by two of the most charismatic glamour girls the silver screen will ever know.

Same thing happened to me when I purchased this CD set as the other reviewer! Got 2 cd's but they had the same songs on both! Both labeled 1 and 2. Big mistake at the factory. The people that got both cd's as advertised.....you are lucky!!!! Plus the song "When I fall in Love" is NOT Marilyn Monroe!!!

I would not advise anyone to buy this CD. The CD would be fine if it were as advertised. The quality is ok and the tracks are fun to compare the vocal stylings of Marilyn and Jayne. BUT the CD has two CDs with the same tracks on both CDs, even though one is factory labeled CD ONE, and the other is factory labeled CD TWO. So, you do not get half the songs advertised on the jewel case. When I contacted the seller, his reply was to send it back at my expense for a refund of the CD cost only. I would not advise anyone to buy this CD, it appears to be mislabeled and a factory mistake.

'Dyed Blondes' is a 37 track assortment of songs compiled by some of the most talented blondes from early 20th century hollywood. Best tracks include 'Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend' and the infamous 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' by Marilyn Monroe, and 'Too Hot to Handle' by Jayne Mansfield. This is not an absolutely essential CD, but not a total waste of time for fans neither.

I bought this CD ten years ago, a music freak friend of mine and I were patrolling the various shops in LA when I took a look at this one. He recommended it but warned, even then, that although the second disk was marked CD 2, it was identical to CD 1. Given the price I figured it was a fair enough deal for the first half of the set. And sure enough, my purchase verified his warning - both CDs are exactly the same content even though they're marked differently. Apart from that the sound is fine. It comes with an eight page booklet that repeats the track listing from the back but adds songwriting credits.

Update: The currently available mp3 download of Busts Up Las Vegas includes all Jayne Mansfield songs listed here, including the five songs on this set's second nonexistent disk, plus an interview and a couple other tracks.

I find it strange that these 2 should share an album together. I find them totally different. Yes, they were sex symbols of the 1950s-early 1960s buit what a different approach each one of them had. Marilyn had a sensitivity which Jayne simply did not have. Marilyn suffered to be a good actress, a good singer, a good dancer. She demanded the best directors i.e. Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Lawrence Olivier, Joshua Logan, George Cuckor. Her songs were selected from the best songwriters Irving Berlin, Jules Styne, Cole Porter, Gus Kahn, Jerome Kern. Lionell Newman, She demanded good musicians, great Choreographers such as Jack Cole,> She liked quality. Like she said in an interview "director approval is very important to me". She hung around with intellectuals such as Truman Capote, Carl Sandburg, and even married one, pulitzer prize playwright Arthur Miller. She chose the best drama teacher, Method guru Lee Strasberg as her personal coach. She even was planning to play Shakespeare roles. Jayne is supposed to have been a person with a very high IQ, yet she chose to play the "dumb blonde" , with an exagerated figure 40-22-36. Her singing was nothing to write home about, her choice of songs shows she did not even make an effort to select top songwriters, and some of her interpretations seem more like "jokes" or " is she putting us on". No intellectual curiosity on her part, she was successful in her own way. But I can never put her in the same category as Marilyn/. Marilyn may well be the most original actress of the 1950s. Concerning the song, When I Fall in Love, supposedly sung by Marilyn, did anyone ever try to change the speed of the song, that is, play the song at a slower speed, and then Marilyn's true voice will surface, that is, that voice of her which we are most familiar with.