Cole Porter's Aladdin Demo

Back in television's early days in the US, the networks scheduled prestige programming on an occasional basis, including new musicals from the leading lights of the theatre. The CBS network presented Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1957 and Cole Porter's Aladdin in 1958.

While neither were considered the best that the composers had to offer, Cinderella was better received than Aladdin, which was Porter's final score.

While the music for Aladdin is not well remembered, in truth it is not as bad as its reputation would suggest. This may be because the songs were presented on the program by character actors (Cyril Ritchard, Dennis King) and weak singers (Sal Mineo, Anna Maria Alberghetti). The music itself is far better served by this single-sided promotional LP that CBS issued some time before the telecast, using unidentified but quite good vocalists and elaborate choral and orchestral arrangements, presumably the work of Robert Russell Bennett.

It's not at all clear how this LP was to be used for promotion. The show was scheduled for the DuPont Show of the Month, but the LP doesn't mention the sponsor at all, so it wasn't DuPont's doing. Because the show was part of an ongoing series, the LP probably wasn't used to drum up a sponsor. It could well have been instigated by Porter himself, in the twilight of his career, and the LP is introduced by the great man himself.

If you have the CD reissue of the Aladdin LP issued by Columbia after the television show, you will have heard these four promotional recordings, but not Porter's brief introduction. So what's new here is Porter's voice and the record covers. Perhaps a meagre offering, but a fascinating one - and one of the personal favorites from my collection.

For our non-US friends, the giant orb below is the CBS logo, as seen on the LP's back cover.

REMASTERED VERSION - JANUARY 2015