Customer Reviews

Show Boat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1951 Film)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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?

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.

'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.

This soundtrack of the 1951 MGM film version is my favorite recording of SHOW BOAT, even though, in typical Hollywood fashion, several songs from the stage version are truncated or completely missing. Kern's complex melodies cry for a symphonic sound far beyond the capabilities of a Broadway pit orchestra and Conrad Salinger's orchestrations played by the incomparable MGM Studio Orchestra with its superb string section are astonishingly beautiful, especially evident in the generous instrumental underscore cues included on this Rhino expanded CD. Howard Keel has the perfect voice for Ravenal and makes the best case for this role being sung by a baritone rather than a tenor. Although some may have issues with Kathryn's Grayson's excessive vibrato she is vocally at least as good as any previous Magnolia at the time, and better than most, surpassed perhaps only by Jan Clayton in the 1946 revival, but especially superior to Irene Dunne's boring renditions in the 1936 film version. Even more importantly, Grayson's voice blends nicely with Keel's and their vocals of "Make Believe" & "You are Love" are the finest performances ever of these songs. Especially moving is Salinger's treatment of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" as a sultry torch song when initially sung by Julie, which makes for an interesting contrast when the song is later performed by Julie, Magnolia and ensemble in the syncopated style usually heard in the stage version. The first rendition is Julie's white persona and in the later one she can't help but celebrate, even for a few minutes, the mixture of black within her that she is usually careful to hide. This is conveyed visually in Ava Gardner's stunning and poignant portrayal of Julie on the screen. Sadly, MGM chose to use Annette Warren's vocals for Julie instead of Ava Gardner's in the finished film. Gardner's vocals, which have long been available on all versions of the soundtrack album, are clearly more appropriate to the character and are the best performances of Julie's songs ever, in my opinion. Gardner's vocal of "Bill", is especially heartbreaking. Both Gardner and Warren's vocals are included on this CD. No one has ever performed the two upbeat specialty numbers, "Life upon the Wicked Stage" and "I Might Fall Back on You" better than Marge & Gower Champion in this film. Lastly, William Warfield's definitive, magnificent performance of the classic "Ol' Man River", orchestrated to perfection by Salinger, set the standard for every subsequent singer in this role and although imitated, Warfield's vocal has never been surpassed.

If I want to hear SHOW BOAT in a more complete version, the 1971 London Cast recording Show Boat (1971 London Revival Cast) with Cleo Laine as Julie, which uses fuller orchestrations comparable but not as good as the MGM soundtrack, is wonderful. John McGlinn's authentic, but little else, 1988 studio recording, Kern & Hammerstein II: Show Boat - Frederica von Stade, Teresa Stratas, Jerry Hadley, Bruce Hubbard, John McGlinn, London Sinfonietta & Ambrosian Chorus which recreates the original 1927 stage version note for note and includes all of the songs originally composed for SHOW BOAT and some additional ones written for the 1936 film and 1946 stage revival, is fine to have as the ultimate documentation of SHOW BOAT from a historical perspective. But McGlinn's recording also exposes painfully the trite and inappropriate 1920's jazz age orchestrations, which undermine all of the songs, especially the love songs, and are so embarrassingly dated that Robert Russell Bennett redid them completely for the 1936 film version and 1946 revival of SHOW BOAT. Authenticity, in this instance, is not a good thing. Normally Frederica Von Stade, Jerry Hadley & Teresa Stratas are fine singers but in this recording their staid, operatic singing lacks the energy and panache that Kern & Hammerstein's score requires.

Although the sound quality is not equal to a modern recording, the 1951 MGM soundtrack, especially in this beautifully remastered Rhino expanded edition, serves Kern & Hammerstein's landmark score better than any other version of SHOW BOAT I have heard.

This is quite the oddest recording quality for a major C.D. release I've ever heard. The film was a mess but a big hit nevertheless. Isolated from the movie, the soundtrack reveals the truly lush qualities and sterling artistry in the performances. Conrad Salinger's arrangements, per usual, are amazing and unmatched. The talent represents as assemblage of peerless artists. So why is the sound here so muddy, muddled, off balance and just strange? I don't get it. The original 10-inch M-G-M L.P. sounded better! Annette Warren is a remarkable singer, but Ava Gardner's vocals are also tremendously moving. The lady who should have gotten the part of Julie is Lena Horne but the powers at M-G-M were too chicken to cast her. Still, her good friend Gardner is devastating in the role. Worth having, worth hearing, worth complaining about.

As other reviewers have said - this is a wonderful show - Jerome Kern's masterpiece. And it must be admitted that the performances are, on the whole, magnificent. Ava Gardner's own singing was overdubbed on the soundtrack itself - whoever decided this was necessary was obviously tone deaf - and the fact that we have her original versions is great.

SO why do I give this soundtrack version only 4 stars (actually if we had half stars I think I'd make it 3.5!

1. The arrangements are very "rich" - of course you are welcome to prefer them to the clearer, brighter orchestrations of just about all the available stage versions if you like - I for one don't!

2. The remastering is a little strange. They have rechanelled the original mono sound track into stereo - and although this is by no means so dire as usual in such cases (they were actually able to use the output of separate microphones!) it DOES sound just a little peculiar. Or is it just my aging ears? Anyway - the sound is really not outstanding, even taking into consideration that is is after all a fifties soundtrack.

3. The film bowdlerised the play quite a bit - as well as "sexual explicitness" - the anti-racist message of the original stage version was considered a little too blunt for fifties Hollywood. While the effect on the soundtrack is not great - there are one or two key songs missing. And changes to the lyrics like "I've got talent but it ain't been tested" instead of "I've got virtue but it ain't been tested" take away half the humour without necessarily making the show any "purer".

If you are a real fan of Show Boat itself, or of Jerome Kern, or even just of musicals in general you will probably NEED to own this CD, if only for the sake of completeness.

On the other hand, if you have a good stage version of the same show this one probably may not get played too often.

I'm not even close to being an expert on music, but this album is so marvelous, so uplifting and beautiful, that it will send you singing the tunes all day. How can you not sing along with some of the best music of the 20th century? Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel blend so perfectly, and Grayson's range is stunning. Ava Gardner puts her whole body into her songs and you can just picture her sultry eyes.

No doubt, this is the best purchase I've made all year. This is real MUSIC.

I have made my feelings clear that the 1946 Show Boat is the best of all the revivals. Despite all the civil Rights violations against Paul Robeson and "Joseph Toner, Broadway Legend", the 1946 revival was the longest since the original, and was described by Hammerstein himself to be closest to the original production, to date! It is the best selling by far around the world. Why? Robeson sings the most famous version of Ol' Man River known, and "Joseph Toner, Broadway Legend"
stars, both under pseudonyms. Go there! See what the fuss is about!

I have this film and I know the track, and it is just totally inferior. It is also too happpy. Show Boat is NOT supposed to be glad tidings. It is NOT a musical. It is operetic and tragic, and jazz. This is a joke. Even the film was an hour and a half too short, so no real meaning was there. If you want a songfest, ok, but you are not buying Show Boat. Show Boat (1946 Broadway Revival Cast)

I enjoyed the movie, but the score as sung by Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel, independent of the film, is better! It's a shame that they didn't use Ava Gardner's real voice, it's earthy and sexy.....but you get to hear it on the outtakes.
Almost every song on here is a Jerome Kern classic, from "Old Man River" to "Make Believe" This is possibly one of the most lyrical scores ever, and even as the movie itself doesn't quite live up to it's potential, this sondtrack does!

The best quality CD . CD recordings are the isolated music from the studio. All you get is the Song and singing that was important to the song, not the movie. If any CD has that gold stripe on top of the case (Seen on picture) then you got a good CD.