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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great music and great singing!, October 1, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Show Boat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1951 Film) (Audio CD)
Show Boat was MGM's biggest money maker in 1951 and has this soundtrack to explain why. It contains the singing of Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, William Warfield, Annette Warren and even outtakes of Ava Gardner (she had a decent voice). It also has a 28 minute page companion booklet. It's an excellent movie soundtrack, what more can I say?
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great version of landmark musical, March 3, 2005
This review is from: Show Boat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1951 Film) (Audio CD)
MGM's 1951 version of the landmark Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical featured some of the finest voices and talents on the lot. Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel are a vocal match made in heaven, and if William Warfield's rendition of "Ol' Man River" doesn't move you to tears, you're probably dead. Marge and Gower Champion stop the show every time they break into a song-and-dance number. Annette Warren's voice was dubbed for Ava Gardner's, and if Warren's performance has more polish, Gardner's renditions of "Can't Help Loving Dat Man" and "Bill" have greater dramatic impact. Luckily, both singers' versions are included on this CD. One could wish that Howard Keel's prologue to "You Are Love" (available on the old MGM Records album) had been included, and that the missing choral passages on some numbers had been somehow restored. Still, this is one of the all-time great soundtrack albums.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll cry and cry., February 7, 2001
This review is from: Show Boat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1951 Film) (Audio CD)
'Show Boat' is the great American stage work of the twentieth century, drama or musical. Its downbeat daring; richly complex and austere scoring, which comments on, as well as provides, a narrative it subverts; above all, its treasurable songs, heartbreaking even at their most seemingly carefree (if you don't die when you hear 'Bill', you probably already have), make it one of the few musicals that never cheats on life in all its arbitrary-happy-sad ingloriousness. Despite some operetta-ish singing and too many softening strings, this is a highly creditable recording that surpasses the film it soundtracks, with some instrumentals that scorch the heart.
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