Customer Reviews

Hello, Dolly! (1964 Original Broadway Cast) (Deluxe Edition)

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

 

 

Well, fellas, RCA Victor has given us the "Broadway Deluxe Collector's Edition" of "Hello, Dolly!" and its almost a "wow." The new remastering is a slight improvement over the original CD release, but the small error in "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" hasn't been fixed. I suppose after 39 years the mistake is part of "Dolly!" cast album mystique. However, it shows the lack of attention to detail that mars this new edition. (Sony has it all over RCA in this respect.) On page 10 of the album's new booklet the title character of the musical is identified as Molly Gallagher Levi. Adding insult to injury, the "M," the first letter of the first word of the paragraph, is about four times larger than the other letters. Yes, it's fun to hear the Mary Martin, Pearl Bailey and Ethel Merman tracks, but they are hardly rare recordings. What about the "lost" "Dolly!" songs, tunes that were discarded from the show on its rough road to Broadway smashdom? "Hello, Dolly!" will always be a five-star cast recording and the highlight of this new edition is the brand new -- and totally captivating -- Carol Channing interview (tracks 20-26). The 1964 original cast recording (on LP, original CD and now deluxe CD) remains a five-star achievement because you can't improve on its "opening night" freshness and energy. However, I had hoped this new "Deluxe Edition" would be a bit more deluxe. It demands color photos and an interview with the great Jerry Herman!

This CD is a special treat for those of us who love classic Broadway musicals like "Hello, Dolly!" The CD contains all of the songs on the original LP and CD. The cast sings with all their might and the result is a wonderful recording; the CD has excellent sound quality! I got goosebumps when listening to the title song with Carol Channing! GRIN "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "Elegance" are rousing numbers; "Ribbons Down My Back" is a beautiful tender ballad.

There are quite a number of wonderful extras: a 10 minute interview with Carol Channing; two songs performed by Mary Martin in the 1965 London production of this stage musical; and two more songs performed with Pearl Bailey when "Hello Dolly!" was done with an all black cast in 1967 on Broadway. Of special note are two recordings of Ethel Merman singing songs written specially for her when she was picked to be the original Dolly (she turned down the part). Ms. Merman put these songs out on a 45 rpm record since she was not part of the original cast recording on January 19, 1964 (three nights after opening night on Broadway).

The liner notes are extensive and the listener is treated to some great photographs, too. (These pictures, though, are in black and white; and the notes could have been a bit more attractively packaged. I agree with the reviewer who notes that this CD could have had better packaging.)

All in all, this is an excellent audio CD recording of the original cast with splendid extras. A must for musical lovers and fans of the ladies who played Dolly over the years!

Wow! Wow! Wow, fellas! What a time this is for 82-year-old Carol Channing! She just got married, the DVD of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" will be released on June 2 and now comes word that RCA will reissue the dazzling original Broadway cast recording of "Hello,Dolly!" (also on June 2) with cleaned up sound and bonus tracks by Channing's fellow Dollys: Ethel Merman, Mary Martin and Pearl Bailey. I wonder if they'll fix Channing's verbal error in "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" which has marred the recording for 39 years. No complaints! This 1964 recording is still the very best momento of one of the great theatrical experiences of a lifetime. Before you purchase the CD, make sure it's the new reissue.

HELLO DOLLY! is not the best musical Bradway has ever produced. It was not even the Best musical of the 1960s - but it has that brassy broadway sound that many people associate with the Great White Way.

This remastered original cast album sounds just fine, but then so did the previous Cd release. The "Bonus Tracks" provide welcome samples of Pearl Bailey, Mary Martin and Ethel Merman in the role, but the part still belongs to Carol Channing.

Jerry Herman's score remains a delight and the cast delivers the songs with gusto.

The packaging is awful!

WHY would RCA Victor resort to such ugly, generic packaging for this product which has been a best-seller for them for 40 years now. A cheap cardboard sleeve with a 16 page booklet glued in. The boolet for the most part simply reprints the liner notes from teh previous CD release. The disc sits in a tray opposite the booklet. This is not a good way to store Cd's at all.

It is the packaging that reduced this from a 5-star item to 4 stars.

Happily, nothing can dim Carol Channing's performance.

Recently I played Minnie Fay in this musical, Hello Dolly. Immediatly I went out and bought and read everything that had anything to do with it, including both the film and the original soundtracks. When I first listened to Carol Channing I thought she sounded like a frog, her voice wasn't very pleasent to listen to, and I preferred to hear Barbra Streisand instead. But after a while I started to like Carol, even on the soundtrack you could sense her charm and feel her natural stage presence. I realized that Dolly needed a character, not just a voice. The rest of the cast is also very good, although Cornelius's vibrato is very fast and it makes him sound like a nervous sheep at times. Irene has a very deep voice, which is shocking at first, but it is very well trained and beautiful. Minnie Fay sounds like Minnie Mouse, her voice is just so cute. I like both the film and the original version CD's, although I think that the original music sets the mood better, and the harmony sounds really good on this version. All in all this CD is worth all five stars, it is truly a classic musical.

Carol Channing and Dolly Levi are inseparable images in the American psyche. This is her great tour-de-force role, and this classic recording preserves all of it's fun and melody for everyone to enjoy. I saw Channing perform the role on stage two years ago, and she is still brilliant! The years of living with this character have produced comic nuances and subtleties that are unmatched by any other artist. A sublime performance! A sublime recording!

HELLO DOLLY remains oner of those pinnacles in the Broadway musical theatre where you ask yourself: "Does it get any better than this?....Probably not!".

This is still regarded as the BEST recording of the score; the original Broadway cast headed by the best-ever Dolly Gallagher Levi - CAROL CHANNING.

She is supported by a dreamlike ensemble; headed by Charles Nelson Reilly as Cornelius, David Burns as Horace Vandergelder, Eileen Brennan as Irene Molloy and Sondra Lee (the original Tiger Lily in PETER PAN) as Minnie.

Recorded on the Sunday after the opening (as was the custom back then), the cast is still incredibly-fresh and obviously still reeling from the euphoria that caught them at the premiere. Stand-out numbers include "I Put My Hand In", "Ribbons Down My Back", "Elegance", "Put on Your Sunday Clothes", "So Long Dearie" (one of the great 11 o'clock numbers) and the showstopping title song (you can just picture Carol coming down that Harmonia Gardens staircase in that scarlet ballgown).

Carol Channing later returned to the character she had made famous in two different Broadway revivals; in 1978 and most recently in the sell-out 1994 production which subsquently toured regionally.

My mom went out and bought the LP of "Hello, Dolly!" on the day that Richard Nixon was inaugurated. She needed something to help her get through the day, and badly. It helped!!!
Since then this cast recording has been the ultimate pick-me-up for me and everyone in my family. We are all cast album junkies (I'm the worst) and this is my VERY favorite. The exuberance of the performances is astounding.
I am very happy with this Deluxe Edition, though the bonuses are a bit disappointing, with the exception of the interview with Carol Channing, which is wonderful.
As for Carol Channing not being able to sing, in the role of Dolly: no-one can or ever will be able to top her.
Carol Channing Rules!!!!

I have to say this deluxe edition is a welcome add-on to my CD collection...I now have the Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, and Mary Martin versions on CD...I believe Arkiv Music is the only vendor for the Mary Martin "London" version, but if you go to their website you can get that version as well as the Pearl Bailey version for $13.99 per copy...there are not any liner notes on either one, but was nice to finally replace my LP's with the CD's...I also purchased Jerry Herman's "The Grand Tour" for that price too!! I must mention the extra's on this Deluxe version are outstanding and liner notes are formidable!! It was nice to hear the numbers that Jerry Herman created for Ethel Merman, and to hear Pearlie Mae's rendition of So Long Dearie.....If there were only recordings made of some of the other Broadway star's Dolly's..like Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, and Ethel Merman (the complete shows of these performers), although they only performed the role for a few months..I know Phyllis Diller, and Eve Arden also performed the part...When I was at Southern Illinois University in the sixties, I got to see Dorothy Lamour as Dolly in a roadshow on our campus (1967)....she was very good even though she was in her 50's at the time...What I most remember about her performance is what she said at the end of the show...she gave special thanks to our fighting men in Viet Nam and saluted them for all of their efforts!! Well, again a very well done album, and show, which we will all remember for years to come Amen!!

This is the original recording, with all of the best names included. Wonderful, wonderful music.