Shirley Jones Brigadoon Soundtrack CD

Shirley Jones/Jack Cassidy 1959

Composer: Frederick Lowe.
Personnel: Jack Cassidy , Shirley Jones (vocals).
Columbia Records president and producer Goddard Lieberson, who, in addition to bringing many original Broadway cast albums to Columbia from the mid-'40s on also made a point of recording studio cast albums of vintage Broadway musicals that had never been recorded before or had been recorded by other companies, had good reasons to put together his own version of Brigadoon ten years after its Broadway premiere. The show had been recorded by rival RCA Victor Records shortly before the advent of the LP era on five 78s, so the original Broadway cast album contained only ten tracks and ran less than 33 minutes. The show had been turned into a movie in 1954, but the resulting original soundtrack album released by MGM Records was even shorter, less than 28 minutes. Further, by 1957 the 12" LP era had dawned, and with it so-called "high fidelity" recording. Thus, Columbia was able to promote its 45-minute studio-cast recording of Brigadoon, made in July 1957 and released in 1958, as a "new performance which contains many hitherto unrecorded selections," adding that it "presents the exciting...score for the first time in high fidelity and for the first time at such length, providing at last an extended survey of its riches." There would be longer and higher fidelity recordings of Brigadoon to come, but in 1958 this one, starring the husband-and-wife team of Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, and also featuring Susan Johnson (a veteran of the stage show) and Frank Porretta, could claim to be the best as well as the longest version yet. Among the "hitherto unrecorded selections" were a couple of minor songs and a major one that had proved too risqué for RCA and MGM, the hilarious "The Love of My Life," sung delightfully by Johnson, who also did a wonderful job with the raucous "My Mother's Wedding Day." Porretta handled the romantic ballad "Come to Me, Bend to Me" effectively, and Jones and Cassidy displayed some audible chemistry on "Almost Like Being in Love." Lieberson and conductor Lehman Engel, who had handled many cast albums, brought their usual quality control to the performances and the recording. As a result, this is one of those rare studio cast albums that is superior to both the original Broadway cast and original soundtrack albums. ~ William Ruhlmann