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Connecticut Yankee Original revival Cast
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Dick Foran, Vivienne Segal, Vera-Ellen,
Shirley Ross, Hildegarde
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Music Sample
- Overture {A Connecticut Yankee}
- My Heart Stood Still [Lyrics] {A Connecticut Yankee} - Dick Foran
- Thou Swell [Lyrics]{A Connecticut Yankee} - Dick Foran
- On a Desert Island With Thee [Lyrics] {A
Connecticut Yankee}
- To Keep My Love Alive [Lyrics] {A Connecticut Yankee} - Vivienne Segal
- Can't You Do a Friend a Favor {A Connecticut Yankee} - Dick Foran
- I Feel at Home With You {A Connecticut Yankee}
- You Always Love the Same Girl {A Connecticut Yankee} - Dick Foran
- Finale {A Connecticut Yankee} - Dick Foran
- Nothing But You {Higher and Higher} - Shirley Ross
- Ev'ry Sunday Afternoon {Higher and Higher} - Shirley Ross
- From Another World {Higher and Higher} - Shirley Ross
- It Never Entered My Mind [Lyrics] {Higher and Higher} - Shirley Ross
- Careless Rhapsody {By Jupiter} - Hildegarde
- Jupiter Forbid {By Jupiter} - Hildegarde
- Ev'rything I've Got {By Jupiter} - Hildegarde
- Nobody's Heart[Lyrics] {By Jupiter} - Hildegarde
Original Release Date: June 29, 1944
Label: Polygram Records
Re-issue date: March 6, 2001
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| Reviews |
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Decca Broadway offers a fascinating reissue: the original 1944 Decca recording
of Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart's A Connecticut Yankee. Based on Mark Twain's
classic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the musical debuted
on Broadway in 1927 and featured such soon-to-be standard songs as "Thou
Swell" and "My Heart Stood Still [Lyrics]." The composers
revived the show in 1943 (it was Hart's last work on Broadway before his
untimely death five days after the opening night) where it starred Vivienne
Segal, Dick Foran and a lively comedienne and dancer named Vera-Ellen. For
the revival, Rodgers and Hart also composed a show-stopping solo number
for Segal, "To Keep My Love Alive." Decca recorded
this production shortly after the opening and issued an album of nine songs
a few months later.
Now here's where the story gets interesting…
The album of A Connecticut Yankee was recorded on lacquered glass discs.
While certainly a fragile and tenuous way to preserve recordings, this was
nevertheless a common practice during World War II, due to the shortage
of such supplies as aluminum. Sometime in the 1960s, Decca copied the recording
onto a 1/4 inch magnetic tape, but in the process - regrettably — destroyed
the original glass records. With no demand for its use, the tape sat on
a warehouse shelf gathering dust. When the Decca Record Company dissolved
in 1973 (purchased by MCA Communications Group), many archived recordings
were transferred to storage facilities across the country. It was at this
time that the only tape of A Connecticut Yankee known to be in existence
was lost.
Because the original masters were unavailable, subsequent releases of this
cast album on LP and CD could only be made from scratchy 40 and 50 year-old
78s. But as fate would have it, the lost tape turned up last spring. It
had been languishing in the basement of a residence on Long Island for the
past 27 years! Back home at Decca Broadway, A Connecticut Yankee recently
received a thorough restoration, using the latest 24-bit digital technology.
The result is the cleanest, brightest and finest-sounding original version
of Rodgers & Hart’s classic score in 57 years.
As a bonus, this release is supplemented by selections from two other rare
1940s Rodgers and Hart Broadway recordings: Higher
and Higher (1940), featuring its original Broadway star, Shirley Ross,
and By Jupiter (1942), featuring the popular nightclub
vocalist and Decca recording artist Hildegarde. Although hardly a household
name, Shirley Ross was an accomplished actress and singer; her rendition
of the classic "It Never Entered My Mind [Lyrics] " from this show still remains the
finest interpretation of this work. Hildegarde was famous for her silken
renditions of some the loveliest songs of the period including a famous
interpretation of the standard "Darling, je vous aime beaucoup," written
by her friend and sometime manager Anna Sosenko. She continued to perform
in public until recently. Collectors and music lovers will jump at the chance
to have these wonderful vintage recordings — available at last and now sounding
as if they were recorded yesterday.
http://www.iclassics.com
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A Connecticut Yankee
Revival 1943
TV Production
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