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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 06:09 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - AlanScott 04:53 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
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| I own, on vinyl, a Mammoth/Evergreen album of Juanita Hall singing jazzy standards. I am not certain when it was recorded. The liner notes make reference to her being in the stage version of Flower Drum Song and the film version of South Pacific, so I would assume the late 1950s, but they go on to mention her death in 1968, so the omission of the film version of Flower Drum Song doesn't necessarily date the recordings. However, the last two cuts on the album are her studio recordings of Bali Hai and Happy Talk. Happy Talk is sung in a slightly lower key, but otherwise there is no indication that she would need to be dubbed. In fact, Bali Hai is belted with surprising strength. Ken Darby is quoted as saying she was concerned about the quality of her aging voice when she reported to the pre-recording sessions for South Pacific, but that with coaching and exercises he brought her voice to a stronger place than it had been in when South Pacific opened on Broadway. None of that mattered, however, because Rodgers was set on using Muriel Smith's voice. At its best, Juanita's voice was a sturdy character actress's voice, whereas Muriel's was grand and magnificent. As the composer, he had the final say and one can understand why he felt the way he did. It was probably more a question of preference than necessity. |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:02 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - TheOtherOne 06:09 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
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| Thank you for this info. I'm going to save this post. Do you mean the LP titled simply Juanita Hall? I remember that LP well from the years (oh so long ago now) when I worked in a record store. I never bought a copy although I was intrigued by it. I found a couple of copies on sale on ebay, and the pages had scans of both the front cover and the back, with the liner notes. I wonder if it was reissued again later as I don't see comments there from Ken Darby. The notes on this issue don't make it necessarily sound like the versions there of "Happy Talk" and "Bali H'ai" were made for the film. They are referred to as "distincly non-Tonkinese versions . . . to remind you that Bloody Mary once was enrolled at Juilliard." (Which also, of course, hardly indicates that they were not recorded for the film.) The notes indicate that all the tracks were previously unissued, and it does seem that the LP was issued after her death. Searching on the Times site for a review of the recording did not bring up a review, but did bring up Richard Rodgers's tribute to her after she died. He also mentioned that she trained at Juilliard. He did not, of course, mention that he chose not to have her singing voice used in the South Pacific film. A google search brought up a list of new releases, among which it was listed, from the Billboard issue dated June 6, 1970. A Worldcat page for the recording lists the year of issue as 1969 but with a question mark, and the dates of the tracks as being from 1922-1949. It could be that the dates are just guessed at, or if it's correct that the last track is from 1949, I wonder if the "Happy Talk" and "Bali Ha'i" tracks could be from some unissued 45 she recorded in 1949, unless your issue of the LP makes it quite definite that the tracks are the ones she recorded for the film. The notes on the linked page seem to suggest that she never got to record tracks for the film. |
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| Link | Bali Ha'i youtube |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Last Edit: TheOtherOne 08:45 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 08:37 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - AlanScott 08:02 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
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| To be clearer, Ken Darby's comments are not included in the album's liner notes, but I believe I read them on YouTube, where one can watch Juanita's performance from the film with her own vocals from the OBCR dubbed over Muriel's. Either there or in The South Pacific coffee table book which is available at the Drama Book Store. The album versions of the two songs were definitely not recorded for the film or for any stage production. The orchestrations, particularly for Bali Hai, make that plain. The arrangement of Happy Talk could have been, actually, but the sound quality is much better than that of the '49 cast recording so I assume it was recorded at least a few years later. She probably never did get to record tracks for the film, but I wondered if she didn't do these two recordings to prove that she was still perfectly capable of singing Bloody Mary's two songs. (Ken Darby's comments were indeed on YouTube, and I attached the link for you) |
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| Link | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JoKlDMYACQ |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 09:06 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - TheOtherOne 08:37 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
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| Thanks for the followup. That is the same link that I included in my post to you. The notes were why I attached the link. :) |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 09:08 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - AlanScott 09:06 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
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| Sorry, I hadn't looked yet. Obviously. I did read the "Band of Angels" review, however. :-) | |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 09:56 pm EDT 07/04/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - TheOtherOne 09:08 pm EDT 07/03/17 | |
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| I found out today that the Juanita Hall LP you owned has been issued on CD under the title Juanita Hall: The Glory of Love. I had always assumed that CD was taken from a different recording, but a friend emailed me about it. It has all the tracks that were on the LP but in a different order, plus four additional tracks. It also has info on when the individual tracks were recorded (well, it has info on all but one of the tracks). The two South Pacific songs were recorded in October 1950. | |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Last Edit: TheOtherOne 08:57 am EDT 07/09/17 | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 08:56 am EDT 07/09/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - AlanScott 09:56 pm EDT 07/04/17 | |
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| Wikipedia lists the bulk of the tracks as having been recorded in 1958, not that Wikipedia does not make frequent errors. 1958 could easily have just been the initial release date. But if any of the album was recorded in '58, it stands as proof that her voice was in good shape. (She does sound a bit off trying to harmonize on Flower Drum Song's "You Are Beautiful" that same year, however.) |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 02:58 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - TheOtherOne 08:56 am EDT 07/09/17 | |
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| On what wikipedia page did you find that info? On the page for Hall, I see this: "In 1958, she recorded Juanita Hall Sings the Blues (at Beltone Studios in New York City)," but I don't see anything about the album we're discussing. |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 05:58 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - AlanScott 02:58 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
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| I think it is the same album, but it's been reissued from time to time with different titles. Because albums often are reissued with different titles and an additional track or two (or even fewer tracks) it isn't always easy to be sure. I remember looking at what I thought were two albums of hers at Footlights and most of the content being the same. |
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| Not the same album | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:49 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - TheOtherOne 05:58 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
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| The LP issued on Monmouth-Evergreen as Juanita Hall was issued on CD, with the tracks in different order and several additional tracks, as Juanita Hall: The Glory of Love. All the tracks except one, for which no date is listed on the CD, were recorded 1950 (at least if the info is correct). Juanita Hall Sings the Blues is comprised of a completely different group of tracks. One song, "After You've Gone," is on both, but it's a different recording of the song, with different musicians and a different arranger. Click on the links for more info. Juanita Hall LP issue Juanita Hall Sings the Blues |
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| re: Not the same album | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 09:46 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
| In reply to: Not the same album - AlanScott 07:49 pm EDT 07/09/17 | |
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| Thanks again. Very different, and it sounds like a great album. | |
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| re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 02:12 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: re: 'Dubbing Through the Decades' in movie musicals & more: How many of these do you know? - AlanScott 09:56 pm EDT 07/04/17 | |
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| In which case, they give no indication of what she sounded like in 1957 when South Pacific was being filmed. Thank you! Good to know. |
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