Customer Reviews

Hair / German O.C.R.

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

 

 

This is the German original recording of the play, not the movie.

Good recording. Probably needs to be re-mastered, but still sounds good. On the inside of the booklette it lists the singers. Dona is one of them. Who is Dona? None other than Dona Summer. From my research I gathered that this, at the age of 19, was her first recording. It's not bad, but there are less songs here than on the English equivalent. If you like Hair, even if you do not speak German, this is at a minimum interesting.

I recently added this to my collection of other HAIR recordings--
London, Broadway, Off-Broadway & the 1979 Movie Soundtrack.

The musical arrangements are very similar to the Broadway recording,
but the sound quality seems more clear, and they've apparently added
a few extra touches of echo and reverb during the studio recording.
The tracks have also been mixed for full sterophonic effect--
more than a few songs feature background vocals which bounce back
and forth between the left and right speakers. Some of the songs
crossfade into each other, and a couple of them fade out at the end.

The cast members sing well, and they seem to be enjoying themselves
on this album, particularly on songs like "Hare Krishna", "Black Boys"
and "Good Morning Starshine."

This recording is of particular interest due to the presence of a young
Donna Summer (listed in the credits as "Donna Gaines"). She's instantly
recognizable as the lead singer on "Aquarius" and "White Boys," and she
has a lovely solo during "Walking in Space" sung in her high, breathy
falsetto (forshadowing the sound of "Love to Love You Baby" by about
five years). She can also be heard wailing in the background near the
end of "Let The Sun Shine."

The CD info is a bit of a disappointment. It's just an insert with a list
of songs and cast members. It would have been nice to have had a booklet
with some cast photos and the German song lyrics.

Aside from that, I was very pleased with the German Cast Recording.
In fact I think I might like it better than the Broadway Recording...

The sound quality of this cd is fairly good, though could be better as far as mixing goes. The main value of this cd is the fact that the "Donna" doing vocals, is Donna Summer who went on later to become queen of disco. This is the earliest recordings of hers to ever be released. She does a nice job with taking lead vocals on "Waserman" (Aquarius) and "White Boys". Both are in German. If you know some of Donna's history, you will know that she was in a band CROW, but the band never released anything. Then in 1968, she appears in the original German cast of Hair, did several other stage productions in German, met Giorgio Moroder and worked with him to record Love to Love You Baby. From there she became a star. If you are a Donna Summer fan, this CD will let you hear her first recordings ever to be released!