Customer Reviews

Mame

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

 

 

This is not the first, but the second CD imprint of the soundtrack to the 1974 Lucille Ball musical film, MAME. It had originally appeared on CD last year as a limited edition release of 2500 copies from Rhino Handmade. That initial limited edition release QUICKLY sold out, making copies of it highly sought after by fans of both Lucy and the film, and soundtrack afficionados alike. Hats off to Collectors' Choice Music for going ahead and licensing the soundtrack from Warner Bros. Records for a full re-release. The CCM disc has the exact same contents, song order, and disc mastering as the Rhino Handmade release (a comarison between the two--I have copies of both versions--proves this). This CD release, like the previous one, faithfully reproduces the 1974 LP cover art.

The contents of this disc are exactly the same as the MAME soundtrack LP released in February 1974. The transfer to CD (on both this and the RHM releases) is good, but not perfect. The higher fidelity digital format reveals the constant over-dubbing techniques used to get the most out of Lucille Ball's less than ideal singing voice. Many of Lucy's numbers were essentially glued together from pieces of several different takes, and it's not hard to tell on the CD. Additionally there is quite a bit of distortion in various places on the recording, especially during louder passages. My guess would be that the producers of this release utilized the LP masters for this rather than the original session master tapes, which may or may not still be stored away in the WB vaults.

Still, its great to have this on disc for the masses to enjoy. Although newcomers to the show will want to start with the original Broadway cast recording which stars Angela Lansbury and is available on Columbia, it goes without saying that fans of Lucy and of the film who missed out on the RHM release will be grateful to CCM for bring this to CD again.

And here's my vote for a DVD release of MAME and soon!

Okay, so we all know that Lucille Ball as Mame was panned by critics left and right. We all know that she was too old for the role, that she couldn't sing very well, and so on and so forth. But darn it, I just had to have this CD for some reason. And I listen to it still too! Jerry Herman is the reason why. His songs, though arranged much differently than the Broadway score, still shine through through Ball's low voice. Robert Preston is in fine form, singing "Loving You," a song written especially for the movie. This CD is really not all that different from the original Warner Brothers' Soundtrack LP in terms of quality. But there is interesting infromation in the CD booklet about the movie. So, if you want to hear Lucy in her last film, buy it. If you want to just listen to the music form Mame, then get the Broadway cast.

I originally bought the LP of this soundtrack after seeing the film in 1974. I always thought that the film was very entertaining (funny, with great songs) and that Lucille Ball gave a great performance.
Her singing voice was very limited and she was panned because of this flaw. However, her charisma made up for the shortcomings of her singing voice and in my opinion her rendition of "If he walked into my life" is very moving despite the vocal shortcomings. I have heard the Angela Landsbury broadway recording and her singing is far superior but Lucy' s interpretation brings a new and unique take to the role of Mame. I highly recommend this recording! However, I think that anyone interested in buying it should see the film first in order to really enjoy the CD. It is important to remember that this is film soundtrack and only after seeing the film can one appreciate the recording. This CD is not simply a recording of Lucille Ball attempting to sing hits from Mame! Context is the key in this case.

Before I go on, let's get the usual gripes out of the way. Yes, Lucille Ball was too old. Yes, she couldn't sing. Yes, she couldn't dance. Yes, her closeups were shot with an entire jar of Vaseline on the lens to hide her wrinkles. Yes, the incredible Angela Lansbury would have been far better for it, singing-wise, and it's very much a shame that she wasn't allowed to preserve her Tony-winning performance on film for all time. Now, let's get to the soundtrack CD review.

Mame was to be a grand big budget musical extravaganza in the vein of classics like My Fair Lady and The King And I. And because of this, Warner Bros. wanted some insurance, same as when they made Gypsy and My Fair Lady. Sadly, this insurance meant casting a big name star with little singinbg prowess in a major role, as opposed to casting the original Broadway star. In the case of Gypsy, this meant casting Rosalind Russell as Mama, a role Ethel Merman had become famous for on Broadway. (Coincidentally, Angela Lansbury would play Mama in a Broadway revival...and win a Tony for it.) For My Fair Lady, this meant passing up Julie Andrews in favor of Audrey Hepburn for the role of Eliza Doolittle. (Honestly, this worked out fine for Julie. It freed her up to later accept the title role in Mary Poppins, for which she won an Oscar. And when the producer of The Sound of Music saw a rough cut of Poppins, he decided that he needed Julie to play Maria.) However, both Roz and Audrey had something Lucy didn't - a professional singer to redub their vocals. Roz had a lady named Lisa Kirk (who has been said to have also been considered for dubbing Lucy in Mame), while Audrey had Marni Nixon, well known today for her work My Fair Lady as well as dubbing for Deborah Kerr in The King And I and An Affair To Remember and for Natalie Wood in West Side Story. After brief consideration, both Lucy and the producers decided it'd be more honest and in the best interests of the film to include Lucy's true singing vocals. Many are still shocked to know this isn't the first time Lucy had recorded her own vocals for a musical number in a film - due mostly in part to Lucy Ricardo's legendary inability to carry a tune. (Apparently, separating the actress from the character is a concept many people can't quite seem to grasp.) Although most of her singing in DuBarry Was A Lady was dubbed, that's Lucy's actual vocals in the song Friendship. And the song Breezin' Along With The Breeze from The Long Long Trailer also includes Lucy's real voice.

However, when she'd made those films, she wasn't over 60 and hadn't been smoking for as long. A lifelong smoker, by the time Lucy was 60, her singing ability was basically diminished by cigarette smoke and, frankly, being a post-menopausal woman. But she gave it her all, staying up late nights, recording her songs a few notes at a time so that they could be pieced together to create one good take. Although on the movie's video and DVD releases, as well as the original vinyl release, this is a bit less noticeable, this soundtrack CD makes it very clear that Lucy's vocals were not recorded in a single take, but in many many takes. When Rhino originally made this digital master, they chose not to use equalization in order to cover this up, but rather thought it'd be interesting to keep it like this in order to display the overdubbing and splicing processes required to get a "good" vocal take out of Lucy. The end result is pleasant enough. Lucy does a decent job on her songs. She's no Julie Andrews or Angela Lansbury, and when If He Walked Into My Life plays, no matter how much you love Lucy and love the film version of Mame and no matter how much of a guilty pleasure Lucy's recording of the song is, it's know that odd to find yourself praying for Angela Lansbury.

Lucy isn't the only presence on here, of course. There's also Kirby Furlong...who also wasn't really a great singer...as young Patrick. He sings on four of the album's tracks - Open A New Window, My Best Girl, We Need A Little Christmas, and The Letter. He does sound like a typical kid, though, so that's kind of a good thing in that it makes it a little more believable. (Like how Lucy's rough vocals are more believable to fit a woman who drinks and parties and smokes at all hours of the night.) Robert Preston, best known for his role in the Broadway and film versions of The Music Man, lends his vocals to the title song and Loving You, a song written by Jerry Herman specifically for the film. Original Broadway cast member Jane Connell returns as Agnes Gooch, lending her vocals to We Need A Little Christmas, St. Bridget during the film's main title, and Gooch's Song. Connell's voice is also odd on here, but in her case, it's supposed to be a little odd. And finally, Bea Arthur, best known for her Emmy-winning work on the classic TV sitcoms Maude and The Golden Girls, reprises her Tony-winning role as Vera Charles and provides vocals for The Man In The Moon and the classic Bosom Buddies. Frankly, Bea is the most impressive singer on this CD, which surprises a lot of people who wouldn't think that Bea could actually sing. *They must not watch enough Golden Girls. ;)*

As is usual with the movie versions of Broadway musicals, this soundtrack has its ways in which it's superior. Movie orchestration is always fuller and more grand than Broadway due to the simple fact that Broadway orchestras are limited to what can fit below the stage, while movie recording sessions can use bigger orchestras. The main title, which uses instrumental versions of Mame and Open A New Window mixed with a shortened version of St. Bridget, performed by Jane Connell, is an impressive overture for the film and a great example of the superiority of film orchestration over Broadway.

As was the order of the day for many soundtracks of the day, several of the tracks have been shortened by removing long instrumental portions. Specially recorded intros and outros were recorded for several tracks, small reprises were dropped altogether and very little instrumental score was included. However, one song on the CD is longer than its film counterpart - a few lines of Bosom Buddies were excised from the film, but are left intact on the soundtrack album. This CD basically transfers the original vinyl release to CD. Excised instrumental portions are not restored, reprises such as the Bosom Buddies reprise are not restored here, none of the instrumental score is restored, and neither are original intros and outros. My guess is that since Warner Bros. had been unable to recreate the film's audio in stereo due to the varying quality of Lucy's vocal tracks, Rhino figured they wouldn't be able to recreate the film's soundtrack to be more of a complete record of the music from the film, so the next best thing would be to simply take the original album masters and transfer them to a digital master. Although it's still a great listen, and sadly, the only source available to the public to hear the film's main musical numbers in stereo, a fan can't help but wish for something more complete. (Although if one wanted, they could simply record missing audio from their VHS or DVD and mix it in with the tracks from the CD to get a more complete soundtrack album. But that's another discussion entirely.)

I'm a fan of Mame the movie all the way. Despite major shortcomings involving its star, Lucille Ball does a fine acting job. And despite her frog vocals, the soundtrack is one of my favorites and a very nice listen. I'm very happy to finally own this CD in my all too small collection of movie soundtracks. Soundtrack aficionados will definitely want it just for the curiosity of hearing Lucy's obviously overdubbed and spliced vocals, as well as simply for the relative rarity - this was only released on CD in 2004, and still isn't to be found in most big chain stores. Definitely pick it up if you're a fan of Lucy, film musicals, and film soundtracks.

NOTE: The Collector's Choice CD is the same as the extremely limited edition Rhino Handmade release. CCM even says "Manufactured by Rhino Entertainment Company" on the back. After Rhino's limited edition of 2,500 sold out quickly, they made the decision to license their digital master out to Collector's Choice Music, a label devoted to re-issuing out of print titles, many quite obscure, on CD. The Rhino release has more extravagant packaging - the liner notes suppsedly contain an incredible essay and a ton of photos from the film. However, it gets quite expensive now when people sell their copies on the internet. This CD is less extravagant - the insert is only two pages inside, which contain a different essay from the Rhino one on the making of the film. The front and back of the insert faithfully recreate the original vinyl album artwork, with the only change being the addition of the Collector's Choice Music logo on front. While Rhino probably had access to all the original artwork, meaning their cover was probably clearer, this looks like a really good scan-and-printjob of the album art. A really good high quality printjob, but a printjob nonetheless. It's not really a gripe, and most people probably won't notice it. Frankly, I think it's wonderful they wanted to preserve the original artwork. The back of the case also looks fairly cheap - like a custom cover I whipped up in Photoshop. But it does use the logo from the front cover on there as well, which is a nice touch. Again, not really a gripe - this is an independent company. They're more focused, as they should be, on getting rare titles like Mame out there on CD, not in making amazingly mind-blowing packaging. It's a satisfying package and does great justice to this soundtrack.

This CD print of the 'MAME' soundtrack is a great thing to have - as it has become something of a cult classic, especially for hardcore musical fans, and movie buffs alike - who all know that this was Lucy's last film.

Dear Lucy, i truly believe that she was so naive to think this was going to be the biggest box office success in some years.... i recently saw an old and very rare interview with her on a talk show just prior to the film's release, and they showed a very short clip of the movie, which Lucy was also seeing for the first time. She was so excited.

The movie flopped big time for many reasons, one of which you'll hear on this soundtrack! - she had a terrible singing voice, and she was so mis-cast in many many ways for this role. She was too old and really the role (for the musical) needs to be done by an actress with a strong singing voice.
I do really like the orchestrations for the score that Ralph Burns did for the movie. It just would have been even better with a stronger lead singer. lol. Having said that.... the others all do the score very well.

Bea Arthur and Jane Connell reprise their respective roles from the original Broadway production, and the film is even directed by the same director as that production - Gene Saks (Bea Arthur's then husband).

Bea Arthur said, only a couple of years before she died - that she didn't like the movie, and that it was a big embarrasment for her. Although she felt Lucy was not right for the role - she did say Lucy was one of the most divine human beings she ever met.

If you're like me - and grew up on this movie, loving it, and despite the critics and reviews, and how bad it really is... you loved Lucy in it, and Bea Arthur, and the others, then you will truly appreciate having this well transferred and well presented. It doesn't miss anything, - some songs have little 'bit's added where they appear out of dialogue in the film, they are given a musical intro here. Which seems to be tacky when you first hear it - but you get used to it, and it does actually work!

One of the main reasons i bought this was for the full version of Robert Preston's rendition of 'Loving You' written for the film, for him to sing. It's here in full version, which is just wonderful.

The soundtrack here is as you would expect it to be - if you know the film. You won't be short-changed i promise you.

MAME was one of the top musicals of the 1966 Broadway season, cementing Angela Lansbury as a musical theatre star to be reckoned with, and earning her the first of several Tony Award's. Lansbury campaigned heavily to reprise the role of Mame Dennis in the Warner Bros. film version, though producers said she didn't have the box office clout (a laughable notion, considering that Lansbury started out in the movies and only segued into theatre quite late into her career!). Lucille Ball gamely stepped up to the plate, middle-aged and with no singing voice to speak of (she had starred on Broadway in WILDCAT but its run was notorious for Ball's frequent illnesses and vocal problems).

If there were any qualms about Ball being miscast, they were kept quiet. Madeline Kahn was originally announced for the role of frumpy secretary Agnes Gooch, but Ball was afraid the trained opera-singer would steal the picture. After considering Ruth Buzzi, producers resorted to Jane Connell, who had played the role in the 1966 original cast. Likewise, Bea Arthur thankfully got to reprise her Tony-winning role of boozy barb Vera Charles, with Broadway favorite Robert Preston (THE MUSIC MAN) as Mame's loving Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside. Cherubic little Kirby Furlong played the young Patrick Dennis.

Jerry Herman simplified all Mame's numbers in order to accommodate for Ball's shortcomings. The score for the film version of MAME is vastly different to what audiences heard during the show's almost 5-year run on Broadway. The Overture now included Gooch's number "St. Bridget", and Mame's introductory number "It's Today" isn't the brassy showstopper it should be. Apparently in order to get the most out of Ball's voice, an electronic device was implemented to adjust her pitch and so forth, during the recording of the numbers. This is glaringly obvious on this reissue of the soundtrack, where her voice often sounds overdubbed or multi-tracked. Jane Connell gives a splendid reading of "Gooch's Song" (perhaps even better than on the OBC) and Bea Arthur is at the peak of her formidable musical talents. Robert Preston is heartbreaking with "Loving You", the only new number written especially for the film by Jerry Herman. Apart from the odd lyric-change, the numbers are almost exactly the same (the only glaring omission is Mame's Act 2 showstopper "That's How Young I Feel", though given Ball's musicality, perhaps it was a mountain she'd preferred not to have tackled).

This Collector's Choice reissue is the same as the limited edition Rhino Handmade disc.

I love the movie from which this soundtrack comes from. I also love the music of Jerry Herman. That being said, I think the producers kind of dropped the ball on this album.

Lucille Ball never claimed to be a singer, and as such, her vocals had to be recorded in sections, and sometimes had to be spliced on top of one another. This is barely noticeable in the film, which is a monaural mix of the music. The soundtrack, however, is in stereo.

The stereo mix is glorious, but the equalization used on Lucy's vocals are less than pleasing to the ear, making it painfully obvious where the splices and overlaps are. But the technology in 1974 was there to make this less obvious. I'm a singer who's done studio work, I know how these splices are done, and if the engineer is fast-fingered, it's near seemless. Also, when the mix down happens, if you turn the treble all the way down, as they did on Miss Ball's vocals, you can hear the splices.

In short, I love the soundtrack because I love the movie, I just dislike how in was put together. That is not to say that there aren't some wonderful moments on these recordings, the best of all being Beatrice Arthur. What a singer! And the rest of the cast turn in stellar vocal performances, especially Robert Preston, who is a gem as Beau.

So, would I recommend buying this? Depends. If you're a fan of the musical Mame, a fan of Lucille Ball, sure. If you could care less, don't bother.

I've been a huge fan of Lucille Ball for years but she just isn't Mame or Auntie Mame for that matter. It's not just that she was too old for the part or lacked a singing voice, she was terribly miscast, plain and simple.
If Angela Lansbury had played the part and Lucy had taken a "Guest Star" role as Vera Charles, this might have been a classic.
The score, with a couple of exceptions, is mainly ho hum, and drags in places where it needs jazzing up. So if you want a more energetic and fun version I suggest as others have, get the Broadway Cast CD which has a lot more life to it.

It was said that if Judy Garland had lived the role would have been hers - if you could gotten her on the set every day. But there was no doubt that she would have been the perfect age for the part and that her voice even while she was struggling in the late 60's would have been anything but better than Lucy's. If only....

The main reason for buying this CD is to hear Jerry Herman's lovely score.It's always worth listening to,but this version is
like the movie itself-a major disappointment.There are a few
good things on the disc-the title track,Robert Preston,Beatrice
Arthur,and Jane Connell.But the rest of the cast simply can't
sing,and Fred Werner's musical direction is mediocre at best.
And the worst thing of all is Lucille Ball.Sure,she tries hard,but
let's face it-as "I Love Lucy" proved,she simply was not a musical comedy performer(and I'm a Lucy fan!)There is no doubt
that Angela Lansbury should have played Mame,but just as they
did with "My Fair Lady" and Julie Andrews,Warner Brothers didn't
consider her a big enough name for the box office.Overall,this is an acceptable soundtrack,but if you want the best "Mame"
album,get the Broadway cast recording instead.