The Paul Simon Album: Broadway Sings The Best Of Paul Simon

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 8, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B00000AG9U
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,845 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Kodachrome

2. Bernadette [From The Capeman]

3. Still Crazy After All These Years

4. Red Rubber Ball

5. America

6. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

7. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright

8. Feelin' Groovy/At the Zoo

9. The Sound of Silence

10. Keep the Customer Satisfied

11. I Do It for Your Love

12. The Graduate Medley

13. Homeward Bound

14. Bridge over Troubled Water

15. Bookends/Old Friends

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars My goodness, what a terrible idea., December 18, 2003

By 

Ceejay (Chesapeake Beach, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Paul Simon Album: Broadway Sings The Best Of Paul Simon (Audio CD)

Don't get me wrong - I adore Broadway musicals, and the performers on this CD are not untalented. I also think Paul Simon is one of the musical geniuses of the late 20th/early 21st century. But his songs are subtle, occasionally abstruse, and witty in a sly, understated way. Asking Broadway-style singers to tackle his repertoire is akin to asking a knuckleball pitcher to paint the outside corner of the plate - one requires an entirely different discipline than the other. The stock in trade of the Broadway performer is immediate, in-your-face emotion... something for which Simon's songs are ill-suited. The beauty of a Paul Simon song is how its seeming impassivity quietly works its way into your psyche, until you suddenly realize that he's uncovered a subliminal truth. There's something deeply human and breathtakingly honest couched in all those clever words and images - but it's the kind of thing that's revealed only with a delicate touch, as opposed to a sledgehammer. A Broadway-style approach doesn't reveal those elusive truths so much as beat the stuffing out of them.

As much as I appreciate the desire to pay homage to Paul Simon's many musical gifts, this was an idea that never should've made it out of the production booth.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars some things are better left alone., February 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Paul Simon Album: Broadway Sings The Best Of Paul Simon (Audio CD)

One could not say this is a bad CD, but the only bright spot was "The Sounds of Silence".

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars yick!, April 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Paul Simon Album: Broadway Sings The Best Of Paul Simon (Audio CD)

In the light of the failure of Simon's "Caveman", this seems to be pouring salt in the wound. None of the singers, particularly Lauren Kennedy, seemed to know what they were doing with this music. The choice of the singers was poor as far as style, and many of them were mediocre singers at best.