Customer Reviews

Silk Stockings

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

 

 

The fact that this CD is issued with a (highly recognisable) picture of Cyd and Fred in THE BAND WAGON (rather than in SILK STOCKINGS) on the cover shows a depressing lack of interest from the company issuing this CD. What did they do, leave it to some office temp to do a google search? Heaven knows whether anybody actually listened to it... and if they did, would they know enough of care enough to notice if the tracks are abridged, in stereo or even the advertised titles?
So one star to them - a tragedy, when Andre Previn's musical direction of this great Cole Porter score from MGM's classy Freed unit should have me debating between foud and five stars!

The sound quality on this budget label reissue of the SILK STOCKINGS soundtrack album is decent enough, but the musical numbers are jumbled out of show order and the tracks seem to have been taken not from the MGM studio recording sessions, but the actual *soundtrack* from the film itself (often with lead-in dialogue that loses all it's meaning because the songs aren't in the right order, and dialogue interruptions).

If you want the cleaner, studio-authorized soundtrack you'll have to seek out Rhino's splendid SILK STOCKINGS package, which came overflowing with extended musical sequences and rare outtakes (long out-of-print but recently reissued in the UK via Sony Classical - Silk Stockings).

I have no issue with Delta's range of budget musical re-releases (I've got quite a few of them in my collection now), but wish they'd pay more attention to preparing the overall packages in a better way. The front cover has Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, but in costume from their 1953 pairing in "The Band Wagon". The bonus tracks are enjoyable - a range of Fred Astaire tunes (mainly from the RKO Fred & Ginger days). For the price offered this is a good package - just enjoy it for the sheer brilliance of the Cole Porter score.

The mechanical copyright laws in the UK allow labels to merely make digital dubs of Lp records and release them as CD's without paying any royalties to the rights holders.

Sometimes this can be a boon to collectors when titles neglected by the originating labels are released, but SILK STOCKINGS has had several legitimate CD issues: Two taken from the original LP master one on British EMI and one on British CBS. Sony Special Products released a CD dubbed from the video master soundtrack including some additional material, and Rhino riposted with a sensibly produced CD drawn from the original studio masters.

All of these releases took care to present the songs in order. This is important since the original album included dialogue segments at the start of each track to help tell the story.

This sloppy release jumbles the songs into any old order, rendering the dialogue meaningless and drops two numbers: The instrumental "Silk Stockings" and the movie's Finale. Also, as the previous reviewer noted, the cover art does feature Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, yes but in a scene from THE BANDWAGON!

If this label has such disdain for the products it manufactures I see no reason why we collectors should support them by buying these discs.