Customer Reviews

Wicked: From the Hit Broadway Musical - Hits You Can Sing Too!

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

To be fair, if this were the only one Wicked Karaoke CD available, I probably would have given it a higher rating. I happened to buy both the Wicked Karaoke CDs (this one and the one from Pocket Songs), because there were some missing songs on both. This CD has the only copy of "No One Mourns the Wicked" and "Something Bad", while it lacks "Dear Old Shiz" and the reprise of "I'm Not that Girl", which the Pocket Song version has. So, to get everything, I bought both (I have quite a Broadway karaoke CD collection of just about everything that was made - it's great for my husband, who's a theatre teacher).
The instrumental background on this karaoke CD is fairly synthesized sounding. There are plenty of background instruments, but the main instrument sounds like a keyboard (kind of choppy as opposed to a smooth piano sound). Each song is complete, with every bit of lyric that is both sung and spoken to each song. I was amazed at how complete this CD was, since many other karaoke CDs have shortened versions to make it into a duet or solo. However, this CD includes everything on the original soundtrack (which will vary a bit from the Wicked sheet music, which adapts some songs such as "The Wizard and I" and "Wonderful" to be a solo). One drawback: the music seemed a little fast. It was slightly faster than the Broadway Cast Recording, which can throw you off if you're used to the tempo of the original. The complete lyrics are enclosed in the booklet, and on a CD-G karaoke player, all the words appear in color.
Now, for the vocal tracks. I was impressed. The guy who sung for Fiyero was pretty bad, and Galinda was just so-so (well, compared to Kristin Chenoweth, "who isn't?"). But Elphaba was quite good, and offered a few nice changes for someone who doesn't want to sing it exactly like Idina Menzel. The man who sung for the Wizard was, well, "Wonderful." He had that Joel Grey style without sounding just like him. Overall, I would not buy the CD for another version of the Broadway Cast Recording, but if you're looking for a good listen on how some new people sing the same songs, it's really not bad. It's not in stereo, of course, because you can turn down the volume on one side and get just the background, which helps you check if you're on-key or not.
Hope this wasn't too comprehensive, but I wanted to give a really detailed review so people knew exactly why this karaoke version may or may not be good for them. As I previously stated, I think the Pocket Songs has a better-sounding background than this 2 CD-set. But if you need the vocal tracks to help you practice, or if you need one of the songs that's only on this CD, then you should get it. It's still a very good karaoke CD.

I wish I had read the other reviews for this album before I bought it. I was just so excited to have the fantastic music from "Wicked" in karaoke format that I made an impulse buy. And wow, did I make a mistake. To start with, the sound quality of the album is terrible. Some of the tracks are crackly, and almost all of them have poorly done synthesized orchestrations. Some of the chord progressions are actually incorrect. Tempos are strange. To top it off, the singers are just awful. They sound bland in the ensemble numbers, and some of the solos and duets are painfully off key. I am so utterly disappointed with this purchase. Unfortunately, Footlight is unable to give me a refund, and the rep who responded to my email said they have sold over 200 copies of this album and have not received a single complaint. I have contacted Stage Stars, the manufacturer of this album, and given them my opinion as well. Hopefully I'll have more luck getting a refund with them. I'll certainly never buy a Stage Stars recording again, now that I know the quality of work they produce.

This recording is not at all like the original cast recording. It is someone else's arrangement and not even done well. They are out of tune, the tempos are inconsistent, and sometimes the instruments even hit wrong notes! It is way overpriced for such poor quality. I have been nothing but disappointed with this CD.

Firstly, the vocals are terrible, the singers are really bad. And the actual karaoke is bad too, it doesn't sound anything like the background music of the OCR (original cast recording). The only good thing WAS that it had NOMTW and SB and pocket songs didn't. (No one mourns the wicked and something bad.) But just now a new one has come out with those two songs and more that actually sounds like the OCR. So I think you should get the pocket songs one, and the other one with NOMTW and SB. And by the way, I'm not a kid i'm 13 I just didn't feel like signing in... :)

Avoid this disc! The tempos on are too slow, the instrumentals are very synthisized, and the orchestrations are less than accurate. A friend of mine bught it and asked me to work "For Good" with her, neither of us could hear where we were supposed to be and it was just SLOW. The only plus is this is the only version you can get with graphics. The Pocket Songs version is better and the most complete of all available versions. If you can find it, Priddis put out what I think is the best version on 2 discs. The tempos and orchestrations are nearly exact to the show. I think it may be discontinued as I've only been able to find a few of the Wicked songs available through Priddis on a disc with songs from the Wizard of Oz.

For those of you who want to know who sings on this CD, here you go.

The Stage Stars recording features vocal performances by Julie Garnye (Elphaba), Sarah Farnam (Galinda/Glinda), Andrew Arrow (Fiyero), Michelle Lane (Nessarose), Miles Phillips (Wizard), Marilyn O'Connell (Madame Morrible), Rob Langeder (Dr. Dillamond), and Michael Lavine (Boq).
Lavine also music directed the recording.

The first disc includes the full vocals so you can practice along with the singers (instrumental tracks on the both channels, vocals on the right so you can adjust the relative volume of the vocals to the instrumental parts). The second disc in the set is instrumental only.

It is recorded with keyboard, woodwinds, percussion. They followed the score, although there are some original orchestrations.
The original keys from the Broadway score of Wicked are used.

My daughter needed the karaoke version to perform one of the songs for a show at her school. This version is absolutely horrible. Neither one of us can even stand (or sit)to listen to this cd. What a terrible waste of good hard earned money. Everyone who has purchased this should receive their money back plus 10% and an apology for being subjected to hearing this. Shame on the people who produced this cd and are making money from it.

I bought this karaoke cd because I was told it was the only one available for the musical and even though I had heard it was bad I figured it couldn't be all THAT bad. I was wrong. It's so bad that it hurts the ears of anyone with an ear for music and can throw off even the best trained singer - even when watching the cd+g graphics. I don't know what solution to offer instead since it's the only karaoke track that I know of... but you may be better off just going without.

I bought this CD from the local Wal-Mart for a hefty sum. I was a little nervous, as I always am when I purchase something without listening to it first, but figured what the hey, it's Wicked, it CAN'T be bad. I really just wanted an alternate take on some of my favorite songs, since I can't afford to go see the musical in person yet.

I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. I realized I wasn't going to be getting the same level of performance as in the OCR release. But, after reading the reviews when I got home, I opened it. I popped it into my CD player, and my ears were immediately assaulted by their Gahlinda's warbling. Yes, Gah-linda. No other name fits so well. It's plain the group assembled to sing was trying, in part, to emulate the original cast's performance, and sadly, they failed miserably. Gah-linda's voice was off pitch and screetchy, frequently. Thinking perhaps I was merely comparing her unfairly to other performers, I played it for a friend, who all but begged me to turn it off. It was plain to us both that she was trying to sing far above her natural range. The other cast members, save their Fiyero, were decent. Their Elphaba was amateur good, and their Nessarose was surprisingly talented for the few moments time she got.

On to the music itself.

I have a reasonably high quality speaker system, yet the background music sounded like a midi file someone had made of the real music. Like something out of an old 16 bit game, or perhaps a talented teen trying to coax music out of an old keyboard. Thinking perhaps it WAS the sound system, I tried it in another media player. Same sound. Realizing that perhaps the guide CD might have simplified music apart from the karaoke CD itself, I swiftly switched to CD2. But wait. There was no CD2, because I had recieved two copies of CD1.

This was the final insult, for me. I contacted Stage-Stars and asked for my money back, explaining the variety of reasons I thought I deserved it. The woman I spoke with was polite and understanding, and, after getting my address, overnighted me a new copy of the title, shrink wrapped. It went immediately back to the store, and I got my money back.

On another note, on hearing the samples given on various sites of the CD2 music, I must conclude that it is the same quality on both CDs. In all honesty, you'd have more fun just setting the money on fire. Don't waste it on this purchase.

First, the demo vocals are cheesy like any karaoke demo vocals, so take that with a grain of salt.

I got this CD for working on audition repertoire, and while it serves that purpose (original keys, original tempos), the listing for this CD is very misleading.

The "Full Orchestrations" are done with a high-end Casio Keyboard, at best. There are no real instrumentations - instead, the background CD uses keyboards and synthesized orchestra parts. The flow is shoddy, at best. There are also numerous instrument picks that are ridiculously out of place - for example, strange "horn" instrumentation in "For Good" was really bizarre and distracting.

If you're looking for a instrumentation CD for practing with, by all means, try to find a used one, think twice about spending full retail on this item.

If you're looking to perform or use for any type of audition - please think twice. A good accompanist is worth the $30.