'Fancy Free' and 'On the Town'

The young Leonard Bernstein

Back in February I featured an early Robert Shaw Chorale LP, which led in a roundabout way to a discussion in the comments section of the competing albums that had resulted from Leonard Bernstein's 1945 Broadway musical On the Town. I was familiar with some of the recordings but not others, so theater music experts JAC and Andy Propst were kind enough to fill me in on what I had missed.

This led to my own exploration of the two On the Town sets as well as the ballet Fancy Free, which had inspired the musical. I sourced the original recordings from needle drops on Internet Archive, and cleaned up both the music and the scans. I thought some of you might be interested in these materials as well. Here is some background on the productions and recordings.

Fancy Free

Jerome Robbins choreographed Fancy Free for the Ballet Theatre to lively and witty music by Bernstein. It opened in April 1944. Decca recorded the score in June with the composer conducting the Ballet Theatre Orchestra.

Bernstein's wonderfully quirky opening ballad "Big Stuff" is heard from a radio on stage before the three sailor-protagonists burst on the scene. It is said that Bernstein wanted Billie Holiday to record the song for the production, but didn't think he could get her, so used his sister Shirley's voice instead. But Holiday did eventually record the song, several times. The first of her four tries was in November 1944, with a band led by Toots Camarata. This version was not approved so she tried again with Camarata and a different group the following August. No luck again, so she did it again with a different ensemble in January 1946. Finally in March of that year she achieved an acceptable take with a small group that included Joe Guy and Tiny Grimes, and Decca released that version in its 78 album of Fancy Free. I've included all Holiday's recordings of the song as a bonus.

The download includes additional production photos, some from the collection of Harold Lang, who danced one of the sailor roles in the ballet, and who later became a musical comedy star himself, notably as Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me, Kate and as Joey in the hit 1952 revival of Pal Joey.

On the Town

Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, Adolph Green

The story is that Oliver Smith, who designed the Fancy Free sets, convinced Robbins and Bernstein that the scenario could be made into a successful musical. Perhaps so, but the team must have been thinking in those terms all along, because On the Town opened in December 1944 - only eight months after the Fancy Free opening. This was hardly enough time for Bernstein to compose the music, Robbins to choreograph the dances, Comden and Green to write the book, and George Abbott to cast and direct the production. But whatever its provenance, the musical was an artistic and commercial success.

As was often the case in the 1940s and on into the 50s, there was no integrated original cast album for On the Town. Instead, the principals were split between RCA Victor and Decca recording sessions, both beginning in February 1945.

Victor split the recordings between Bernstein and among young whiz, Robert Shaw. The composer conducted a studio orchestra in recordings of the ballet music. This is much different in some ways than the kinetic music that Bernstein wrote for Fancy Free; the "Lonely Town" Pas de deux is heavily indebted to Aaron Copland's Quiet City and Lincoln Portrait from a few years earlier. Regardless of its influences, the music is glorious. "Lonely Town" in particular is remarkably fine.

Rather than having individual singers assay Bernstein's songs, Victor made the unusual decision to turn the vocal music over to Shaw, who arranged the pieces for chorus and conducted those particular recordings. The result is enjoyable, while not resembling what could be heard and seen on Broadway. For that you could turn to the competing Decca recording.

For their recordings, the Decca company contracted with Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Nancy Walker of the original cast, leaving out John Battles and assigning his two big numbers ("Lonely Town" and "Lucky to Be Me") to Mary Martin, who was a Decca recording artist at the time. The musical backing varied - Lyn Murray for the opening scene and the Comden and Green numbers, Camarata for Mary Martin's songs and Leonard Joy for Nancy Walker. Martin handled the ballads well, even though Camarata's tempo is much too fast for "Lonely Town."

The download includes cleaned-up cover and label scans, the insert booklet and production stills for Fancy Free, and a January 1945 Life Magazine feature about On the Town. Vivid sound on all the recordings.

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Mary Martin, Ella Logan, Plus a Bonus for January

Last month when my transfer setup was down for the count, I went off into the wilds of Internet Archive in search of material to process. I came up with the Christmas 78s found here, and two albums by singers best known for their stage appearances.

Today we have those two sets - Mary Martin in an Album of Cole Porter Songs and Majestic Presents Ella Logan - both remastered for much better sound. And we have another compilation from our friend David Federman themed to this time of year.

January Evenings in Ardmore 2019

David's latest is titled "January Evenings in Ardmore 2019: The Power of Positive Thinking, or Transcendental Medication." For it, he has selected 30 songs ranging from 1914 to 1949. It's a special escapist mix, he tells us: "It is amazing how frequently music of this time lifts spirits." The link is in the comments to this post.

Mary Martin in an Album of Cole Porter Songs

Mary Martin first achieved success in Cole Porter's Leave It to Me! in 1938. She soon became identified with "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," her big number in the second act.

Decca ushered Martin into the studio in early 1940 to inscribe that song and five other Porter numbers, all quite famous with the possible exception of "Katie Went to Haiti," slightly bowdlerized here. It was Martin's first album.

Inside cover of the 78 set

About the time Decca issued the set, Martin was heading to Hollywood for a co-starring role with Bing Crosby in Rhythm on the River. But her biggest successes were on Broadway in years to come - South Pacific, Peter Pan and The Sound of Music.

Decca's sound is fairly good, and Ray Sinatra's backings are workmanlike. Martin is transcendent. I posted two of her LPs in the early days of this blog. They are still available.

Majestic Presents Ella Logan

Ella Logan was not an "overnight success" when she achieved fame in 1947 as a member of the original cast of Finian's Rainbow. Born in Glasgow, she had been a band singer both in England and the US. In the 1930s, there were a few singles for Parlophone in London, and quite a good number for Columbia and Brunswick in the US.

But her first album was made for the small Majestic label in March 1946 - before her Finian's Rainbow stardom. Majestic came up with a odd assortment of material for Logan to warble - everything from "Loch Lomond" to "Give My Regards to Broadway." One notable item is Willard Robison's "Book at My Bedside" (attn: David F.). The sound is OK, as are the backings by Frank De Vol.

Logan only made one more LP on her own - a 1954 Capitol album where she took on songs from Finian's Rainbow. (She also appears on the original cast LP, of course.) Capitol's record appeared on this blog several years ago and is still available.

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Mary Martin Sings for You

I recently saw the outstanding revival of South Pacific at New York's Lincoln Center. As a tribute to the original cast, I'm preparing posts featuring 10-inch LPs from the show's leads, Mary Martin, Ezio Pinza, and Juanita Hall.

Here is the first one, Mary Martin Sings for You, which was recorded while South Pacific was in rehearsals in February 1949. The dated sounding arrangements are by Broadway orchestrator Ben Ludlow.

This is quite a good record in better sound that Columbia usually offered. The cover is by Alex Steinweiss.

The first Mary Martin record featured here was quite popular, and I suspect this one will be as well.

NEW LINK (remastered)

Merman Meets Martin

Two of the great Broadway stars got together to celebrate Ford's 50th Anniversary one day in June 1953, and Decca was there to record the occasion and later issue it on this 10-inch LP.

Ethel Merman and Mary Martin were both in excellent voice and barely pause to take a breath as they rush through what seems like half the tunes in their extensive repertoire. This kind of applause-inducing medley-mongering was very common in the television variety programs of the day, and they do it well - although maybe not quite so well as the plastered-on applause might have you think.

The television recording takes up one side of the LP, with the reverse being devoted to familiar items, including Merman's amusing set piece, Eadie Was a Lady.

NEW LINK (remastered)