Customer Reviews

12 Songs From Call Me Madam (1950 Studio Cast) With Selections From Panama Hattie (1940 Original Cast Recording)

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

 

 

There may indeed be no business like show business. RCA was a major backer of this musical, and fully expected to record the original cast album. Decca, Merman's recording label, wouldn't allow her to appear. The solution the two compnaies decided on was an original cast album on RCA featuring Dinah Shore doing Merman's numbers, and this mediocre studio album.

Decca was never a winner when it came to modern recording techniques. Merman's voice has no echo or reverb to enhance her performance. The arrangements are by Gordon Jenkins, which fit Ethel's style like it was a dress bought in a bargain basement. It is a shame that in the later years of her life, Ethel didn't choose to revisit this score and re-record it, as she did with Annie Get Your Gun twice.

The selections from Panama Hattie are a nice rarity, but they are taken from scratchy shellac originals. There are several compilations that include these numbers with no annoying extraneous noise.

The so-called "original cast recording" of CALL ME MADAM is not satisfying because, due to contract problems, RCA Victor was forced to substitute Dinah Shore for Ethel Merman and it is not an ideal replacement. Decca's studio album with Ethel Merman singing 12 songs from the score lacks theatricality.

Fortunately the movie version retained Merman, surrounded her with a great set of performers (Donald O'Connor, George Sanders) and retained most of the score from the stage show. Even the changes are mostly improvements: The lugubrious "Once Upon a Time Today" is replaced by the lively "What Chance Have I with Love?" giving O'Connor his requesite eccentric dance routine. We lose "Washington Square Dance" (heard in the film as an instrumental background to a Washington party scene) and the showstopping "They Lke Ike" (Eisenhower's election in the fall of 1951 made the song unusable, and besides it had nothing to do with the plot) but the film gains from the redistribution of songs. It takes some of the emphasis off Ethel Merman, though she remains ver much the star. Her second act opener "Something to Dance About" is shifted to O'Connor and Vera Ellen and sets up an entertaining dance sequence. George Sanders is perfectly cast as the foriegn minister Merman falls for and here has a chance to display his warm baritone.

The orignal release of this album was on a 10-inch Lp (the standard format for most movie soundtracks in the early 1950s) and Decca ensured that all of the songs were included. Not all of the dance music would fit, but a good amount of it is heard nonetheless. Best of all this little album has the theatricality missing from the two stage cast albums, and consequently was the preferred version of the score. The problem was that the 10-inch format went out of vogue by the mid 1950s and this version of CALL ME MADAM vanished from the catalogues. It was briefly reissued on one side of a 12-inch Lp in 1981, but aside from two tracks on Rhino's Cd IRVING BERLN IN HOLLYWOOD, it has not been available on CD until now. (Part of the problem is that Decca no longer owns the rights to these tracks, since they are owned by 20th Century Fox. At one time a few years back there were rumous of a new complete and expanded soundtrack album to be released on CD but as of this writing that has not happened. It may yet - the movie was finally released on DVD in 2004.)

This CD comes from Hallmark in England and appears to have been issued through the legal loophole that places recordings in England that are more than 50 years old in the public domain. The CD was not remastered from the original tapes but appears to have been taken from a poor tape of the original LP. There are numerous drop-outs and phase problems: The sound refuses to stay centred in pure mono. There is also a loss of the crisp highs and the detailed bottom end that characterized Decca's original album. The CD is also short, containing just the 28 minutes of music on the original album with no extras. The short playing time I could accept, but the sound quality is so poor that this CD isn't even a mixed blessing. Best to wait until Rhino (or some other label) brings out a new and expanded MADAM.

As noted in another review, there was a serious glitch with the cast album of Call Me Madam, Merman recorded for Decca and RCA thought they had the rights to the cast album, so when the show seemed to be a smash, there was a war on. Like most wars, no one really won. The original orchestrations are quite wonderful and fit both the story and Merman's style, but Decca couldn't use them. RCA had to find someone to cover Merman's role, but honestly who could possibly fill Merman's shoes? So, here we get what is essentially Merman's great stage performance, with the second best broadway score Irving Berlin wrote, just behind Annie Get Your Gun. The Annie Get Your Gun cast album is kind of a mess, albeit one with a great performance from La Merman, but this cast album is a little better. When Merman did revisit Annie in the revival 20 years later, the voice wasn't all that steady any more. This is simply one of the best recordings, along with Happy Hunting that Merman did. For all the faults, this is the Call Me Madam to have. If you want to hear the original orchestrations, may I suggest the Encores concert cast with Tyne Daly in the Merman role. She may not be Merman but she acquits herself with bravura style. The selections from Panama Hattie are wonderful, the transfers only so so. I have not heard better transfers, and I have 3 of the four tracks on a comprehensive Cole Porter career survey. The problem was Decca was VERY LATE coming to using tape. Even as late as the first Annie Get Your Gun cast album, Decca was recording onto wax. Therefore the selections here exist only as Wax Masters. The same problem occurs with much of Bing Crosby's recorded output, its almost impossible to get the quality of transfer that he so richly deserves because there are no studio tapes. Get this album for the great Merman singing a heck of a Berlin score.

Very Good CD
I had this on record many years ago. Was so glad that I came across it on cd.

Yet another budget CD from Britain, using well-worn Public Domain materials. This film soundtrack from CALL ME MADAM is barely listenable, despite the fact that it features Ethel Merman in fine form as the "hostess with the mostess on the ball" herself, Sally Adams.

The 1953 film version of CALL ME MADAM - produced by Twentieth Century-Fox - allowed Ethel Merman the chance to lay down her definitive performance as Sally Adams (a role that had won her great acclaim on the Broadway stage). In his first and only movie musical, George Sanders played her love interest (with a possibly dubbed singing voice). Hollywood hoofers Donald O'Connor and Vera-Ellen (dubbed by Carole Richards) supplied the juvenile romance.

O'Connor and Vera-Ellen enjoyed a rare on-screen chemistry and would have been paired again the following year in WHITE CHRISTMAS, but illness forced Danny Kaye to replace him at the last minute.

Ethel Merman's brash vocal style was best suited to the zippy music of Irving Berlin, and the CALL ME MADAM score was especially-tailored to her special vocal brand. "The Hostess with the Mostess on the Ball" is a fantastic opener, and things get better with "Can You Use Any Money Today?", "Marrying for Love", and "It's a Lovely Day Today". Merman doing pensive or romantic ballads was always an uneasy combination, but "The Best Thing for You" is actually the one number I adore most in this score.

This soundtrack album has been poorly-transferred to compact disc for the budget Hallmark UK label. But having this soundtrack on disc at all is a blessing. For some reason, Amazon no longer carries this title, but it's still readily available through Footlight.com.

[Hallmark 750252]