Customer Reviews

M-G-M's Brigadoon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1954 Film)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

BRIGADOON is one of the more important musicals by the legendary team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (whose more popular works are PAINT YOUR WAGON, MY FAIR LADY, GIGI, and CAMELOT and of course, BRIGADOON). It is a musical fantasy about two Americans who stumble across a Scottish town that appears for only one day every hundred years (for the rest, you'll just have to see the play or the movie). It opened on Broadway in 1947 (the other hit musical that season was the longer-running but more quickly dated FINIAN'S RAINBOW, which was also a fantasy). In 1954 BRIGADOON went to Hollywood and M-G-M. It starred Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse. The movie version is different from the Broadway play in that quite a bit of music from the score was discarded to add more focus on the dancing abilities of the film's stars. On the plus side, though, this soundtrack album features most of the music that was cut, all in stereo. All of the important songs are included on this CD, as well as much underscoring and dance music. The stereophonic sound quality is great. And along with the Original Broadway Cast recording, this is the best Brigadoon out there!

I picked up this recording on a whim, and now I can't put it down! The songs are simply beautiful. Whether they were arranged to overcome Gene Kelly's vocal limitations, to accomodate the movie's emphasis on dance -- versus singing -- or simply to compliment the gorgeous melodies, the orchestrations are sublime and have a surprisingly contemporary sound, especially considering the recording dates back to 1954. "Heather on the Hill" has never sounded better. I'm not crazy about "Almost Like Being in Love" (I think I overdosed on this one about thirty years ago), but even it's quite tolerable on this recording. Among the most pleasant surprises are songs such as "There But for You Go I" (which I'm rather surprised didn't ever become a wedding "favorite" as its lyrics would be very appropriate -- and a nice change from "Sunrise/Sunset!") and "From this Day On" that were cut prior to the movie's release: What on earth were the powers-that-be at M-G-M thinking? Guess we'll never know but thank goodness someone had enough sense to save these precious recordings.

If you like the movie "Brigadoon", then your really like the soundtrack as well. There are some songs included in it that aren't in the movie, and well as a little booklet about the film.
I'd give it more stars if I could. The songs are all very beautiful.

This is Hollywood's reworking of the classic stage musical fantasy. The original LP was quite short with only nine cuts. This expanded CD version uses outtakes and dance music as well as scene underscorings to fill up the disk. It's a "different" BRIGADOON than the stage show. Emphasis here is on dance, not songs. Almost half the original score was discarded to make room for dance numbers. The film is charming and the story is hard to ruin despite the cuts. Buy this only if you either loved the film or love Gene Kelly's voice.

This soundtrack restores many numbers which never made it into the final film version. Listening to it makes me long for a new version of the film with the cut scenes restored. That'll never happen, but I can dream. Fortunately I did get the visual elements of "From This Day On" following a broadcast of this film on Turner Classic Movies. What should have been a great song and dance film is instead a nice dance film with songs. The orchestrations are lush and provide a very soothing listening experience and the CDs sound quality is flawless. We'll never see the full film, but we are fortunate enough to have this wonderful soundtrack.

At last we have an almost complete recording of Brigadoon. Sadly the Meg Brockie numbers were completely cut from the film recording because they were considered too racist at the time (seems almost comical now). To hear Kelly sing "There But For You Go I" and the amazing voice of John Gustafsen singing "Come To Me, Bend To Me" makes one wonder why MGM cut these songs in the first place and where on earth have these out-takes ended up. Will we ever see a fully restored version of this movie with all the missing songs put back where Lerner & Loewe intended them to be? Possibly not but at least with the release of this recording we can hear what was intended to be. A must for any fans of the movie.

Cyd Charise, Van Johnson and Gene Kelly what a cast, what a movie, what a Musical. Having seen the Broadway play years ago I can appreciate the wonderful job done making the transformation to the Big Screen. What memorable songs and story line. Definitely for romantics at heart.

On this CD, the main disadvantage are the voices. The girl who dubbed the singing voice of Cyd Charisse is shockingly talented, but Gene Kelly's voice is, as always, flat and gray and incredibly boring to listen to, and while Gustafson has a very pleasant voice, he falls far short in his attempt to sound like an old-fashioned Gaelic tenor.

However, some music is so good that it can salvage any voice that sings it. Such is the music of Brigadoon. Musical highlights include...

The hymn-like, extraordinarily beautiful "In thy valley there'll be love"...

The rowdy, rousing "bachelor party" number, "Go home with bonnie Jean"...

"There but for you go I", a song so beautiful that even Gene Kelly's voice sounds lovely singing it...

The grim, sharp-edged "Harry Beaton" (which is, incidentally, the trademark number of my favorite character)...

"From this day on", which, I'm not ashamed to admit, made me sob uncontrollably the first time I heard it, and still makes me misty-eyed to this day...

"Brigadoon", I have always maintained, has the finest musical score Frederick Loewe ever came up with (though I also argue that "Camelot" far outstrips it lyrically). It is beautiful after the fashion of the old Presbyterian hymns of Scotland, and its emotional power in phenomenal, especially in its stunning opening chorus--

"Let the world grow cold around us,
Let the heavens cry above,
Brigadoon, Brigadoon,
In thy valley there'll be love!"

This is a great soundtrack. it is fun and enjoyable to listen to, the best songs on this cd are all of them

Actually the newly released CD is probably better than the actual film. They restored several songs that were cut from the final print of the film, and the soundtrack includes all of the dance music, which is spectacular, particularly the music for the Heather On The Hill dance sequence. Absolutely gorgeous. Overall the soundtrack is lovely!