Athena was a most peculiar movie, with Louis Calhern as the patriarch of a physical culture sect that included his daughters Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds as well as (among others) future sword-and-sandal stalwart Steve Reeves. This was certainly the only musical from Hollywood's heyday that featured a body-building contest as part of the plot.
Powell and Reynolds were among Hollywood's most charming commodities and the film is fun to watch - and listen to, with its fine score from the distinguished Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. The studio may not have thought much of the tunes, however, for they brought back the team's "The Boy [here, Girl] Next Door" from Meet Me in St. Louis for an encore. I find it most enjoyable, with wonderfully relaxed and effective performances of the gorgeous "Love Can Change the Stars" and "Venezia" from Damone, and the terrific "Imagine" from Damone and Reynolds. On the other hand, Powell's waltz feature "Vocalize" was surely inspired by her breakthrough performance of "It's a Most Unusual Day" in A Date with Judy. And Reynolds's hectic "I Never Felt Better" is reminiscent of "I Cain't Say No" from Oklahoma!
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The program concludes with Powell's version of "Chacun le sait" from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. In truth, she is a little squally, and the track has several clumsy splices.
For some reason, M-G-M ceded rights to the soundtrack to Mercury, which provided its usual gravelly pressings for this 1954 10-inch LP. The sound is perfectly fine, nonetheless.
Note (June 2024): I have much improved the sound for this version, removing the high frequency glare and mastering it in ambient stereo.
18 comments:
Links (Apple lossless):
https://mega.nz/#!zM1lnL7D!gczu484AdPnkFsrkzmMjlSZ8_5o8-BwQ7kJJg6furq8
http://www.mediafire.com/download/28sw42cd6fog805/Athena_%28OST%29.zip
Thanks Buster. A fine start of the day. It's 9.00 AM here.
A return to an actual 10" record? Nice. Never seen this one, though I did stumble across a copy of your recent Pan Am share last week. Funny how such things appear... Thanks for the share!
Ron - You're in Western Europe?
Ernie - I like to change things up every once in a while.
mille grazie.
cool cool!
As always, Thanks for another soundtrack!
Mitch
Mercury lent their artist Vic Damone to M-G-M for the "Deep in My Heart" soundtrack, and they got this one in return. ("Diskers Glow With Lend-Lease Spirit" by June Bundy, Billboard, Nov. 20, 1954.)
Thanks for the notes, everyone.
saintrussell - Thanks! That makes sense.
Many thanks, Buster. I've got the movie around here, but would enjoy having just the soundtrack.
Love the music much more than the film as a whole.
Thanks very much!
Thank you for all your posts. Can someone post Julius LaRosa in remembrance of him?
Paul - I have lots of LaRosa records. Tried to find them the other day and could not. I will look again.
Hi, it´s me, Denys...
Now you got your gift.
your remastered version of Athena, selected directly from the film, copy stereo fake as usual that time. Never been processed to normal stereo.
link:
https://mega.nz/#!FU5XBKrI!DISoGrI4dF1YkaNm3wVT8sMfqKyVgZEDrbLQ1PqbgYc
copy will last only one month, my account there is too full, I need to empty soon.
Hugs and enjoy too much, the sound is 24-Bit
48000 Hz.crystal clear.
Denys P.R.
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Thank you, Denys - that link, however, is to the Vic Damone LP.
Yes, this link is your lp (Athena 1954 8 songs, Mercury) now remastered from the film. I realized that song no 4 (with Vic Damone) is not on film, this is a version to public.
the order of the songs is different from yours because I put them like appear on the back cover text.
Hugs
Denys P.R.
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