Customer Reviews

Let's Make Love (Original Sound Track Recording)

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High quality sound. I bought the LP 20 years ago when I was 18. Now I have this great CD which has 13 tracks (instead of the 8 or 9 tracks included in former soundtracks).
Jazz, latin music, unforgettable duets...
AND...a never released before version of LET's MAKE LOVE (trio with Montand and Vaughan with Monroe singing lyrics unheard in the other well known version of this song). How come they never released this version before? But what an excitement to discover something new!!
Plus another short version which is the opening credits of the movie. I love it..This CD highlights the obvious flair Marilyn had for singing.

By the time Marilyn Monroe made "Let's Make Love" she was a truly awesome legendary figure who was at her peak both artistically and musically and sings magnificent in her own seductive and soulful way in a great set of songs that include a stunning Cole Porter classic plus an impressive selection of originals composed especially for this great musical by none other than the legendary team of Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen and sadly they don't write them like this anymore! Studio orchestrations are richly varied going from a loose jazz sound with classic latin rhythms to lush romantic backings for Marilyn and her excellent co-stars that include British Pop Singer Frankie Vaughan and French Actor Yves Montand in his first starring role in a major US film. Opening with a fun and playful version of the luscious title song "Let's Make Love", Marilyn then lauches into a classic reading of the Cole Porter masterpiece "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" and brings things out of this standard and goes places that nobody else ever thought of...an amazing soul-stirring performance that easily stands as one of the very finest of Miss Monroe's all too short but totally brilliant career. When this film was released in 1960 it was a huge success with us baby-boomer teens who went to see it and many of us had the original vinyl soundtrack (I still have it!) and fell in love with Marilyn who did this wonderful romantic musical comedy and the classic "Some Like It Hot" back to back!!! With this wonderful score now on compact disc sounding better than ever with additional bonus songs I am sure that many will discover or re-discover that magic of Marilyn who still is incomparable and the brightest star of them all being pure magic on the Silver Screen...and way ahead of her time creating a work that is clearly the forerunner of films such as "Cabaret" and strongly influencing artists such as Madonna...Marilyn is at her best with Frankie and they are superb together in "Specialization" and the jazzy interlude "Strip City" has great keyboards mixed with an awesome kettle drum arrangement that is amazing. Marilyn and Frankie are sublime in a terrific duet version of the title song and "Let's Make Love" features a sultry Marilyn vocal that is tops and wonderfully complimented by a big band studio arrangement that flows and becomes latin for its introduction of Yves Montand whose French charm fits well into the mix...a charming and romantic Frankie Vaughn is captivating with Marilyn in the tour-de-force "Incurably Romantic" which again finds Marilyn superb and in top form...this song is reprised as a duet with Yves and Marilyn who are charming and winning together making this a collection a keeper...instrumental interludes such as "Christmas Eve Waltz" are fascinating and add to the great feel of this superb soundtrack classic which somehow has strangely been overlooked except by us real Marilyn connoisseurs who know that entertainment like this will never happen again as there was only one Marilyn Monroe! Closing is an intoxicating version of "Let's Make Love" by Marilyn and Frankie that show that talent like this is a once in a lifetime thing and I am glad greatness such as this was in mine!!!! Bravo Marilyn Monroe~your voice made love to us unlike any other and your beauty is eternally breathtaking...and you are loved and missed so very much!

As a high school student (almost 40 years ago!) I visited a friend's house --his parents' place, more accurately-- and was wowed by the various statues and modern art works that adorned almost every wall and corner (the boy's mom was curator at Yale Art Gallery). When I noticed the family record collection, and being a vinyl junkie of some standing, I just had to leaf through it.

I discovered among the Moussorgsky and Mahler platters a monaural LP of COLUMBIA's "Let's Make Love" soundtrack album. It had the same photo you see here as a cover. My friend (a rabid Zappa freak) thought his guest crazy for wanting to play this obscure disc, but obliged me.

What an album-- I was absolutely floored! Besides an amazing rendition by Marilyn of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in which she speaks some French, there was a searing instrumental heavy with exciting rhythm ("Latin One"). As I thrilled to this exotic music, Mrs. R. came into the den, wanting to know why we were listening to her old LP-- one she no doubt hadn't played in ages. To shorten a fond memory, I was presented with the record as a gift!

Fast forward eight years:
Now proprietor of a small record shop in an even smaller Connecticut town, I rediscovered my old mono "Let's Make Love," and determined to network and find a stereo copy. Two weeks later I'd purchased the prize, a well-loved disc, from another dealer for $20 (a hefty sum in 1979), and for several days my store was filled with the sounds of Monroe, Montand and especially Vaughan.

Ah, Frankie Vaughan! A HUGE star in Britain, a near-unknown here. For those who've never heard his voice, Frankie sounded like Tony Bennett, a bit rougher perhaps but with greater clarity and power. Listening to him sing "Incurably Romantic" opposite Monroe in the film is a most tender moment. His version here is equally moving and surprisingly, Yves Montand does a fine job with the lovely ballad, as well.

As anyone who's seen the hundreds of Ammy reviews published under my name can affirm, I don't usually talk about myself. Yet, some things evoke such powerful memories, it's impossible NOT to dare sharing them.

If you like Marilyn Monroe, if you've seen the movie LET'S MAKE LOVE (1960) and wonder what the soundtrack is like, if you enjoy cool jazz, Cole Porter, musical parodies and especially if you savor heart-touching love songs, you too will adore this CD.

And now, from memory, I leave you with:

INCURABLY ROMANTIC
I'm susceptible to stars in the skies
I'm incurably romantic--
If they're told to me all covered with sighs
The wildest of lies seems true

Each time a lovebird sings
I have no defenses
My heart is off on wings
Along with my senses

I'm a set-up for the moon when it's bright
I'm incurably romantic
And I shouldn't be allowed out at night
With anyone quite like you--

But, oh! Your arms are nice
And it would be awfully nice...
If you turned out to be starry-eyed like me-eeee
And incurably romaaaaantic, too.....