Showing posts with label Marge Champion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marge Champion. Show all posts

27 July 2008

Three for the Show


I saw this 1955 musical a very long time ago and don't remember much about it, except it wasn't very good. But Mercury saw fit to issue a soundtrack album and here it is. It hasn't been reissued, as far as I know, so this is a rarity.

The music is a hodgepodge of contributions by the Gershwin brothers, Hoagy Carmichael, Tchaikovsky, and George Duning, who seemed to spend a lot of time on such thankless tasks.

This was Betty Grable's final musical, and she has quite a bit of singing to do, only passably. Marge Champion also sings, barely passably. And Jack Lemmon can be heard as well on I've Got a Crush on You.

Lemmon was a good musician (although, again, only a fair singer). In my collection are two records of his singing and piano playing and one other of solo piano, and he may have made more.

The person who owned this record before me was either a heavy smoker or was inclined to coat his or her records with shellac. I had a devil of a time cleaning the item, and some minor noise remains, but probably not enough to spoil whatever enjoyment you may derive from this tepid entertainment.

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