Beatrice Lillie Inside U.S.A./The Band Wagon Soundtrack CD

In Europe, copyrights on recordings expire after 50 years, which allows record labels to press up their own unlicensed versions of vintage material, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. (Although nominally not available in the U.S., where copyrights last longer, such recordings usually are not difficult for Americans to obtain.) Here's a case of the copyright limit producing a valuable release. Britain's Sepia Records specializes in show music, and this album compiles tracks from numerous recordings of music written by composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz from a period of more than 20 years, much of it long out of print. The team's 1948 musical revue Inside U.S.A. was commemorated with a 78 rpm album released by RCA Victor Records featuring the show's principals, Beatrice Lillie and Jack Haley, as well as performances by non-cast member Billy Williams and Perry Como's hit recording of "Haunted Heart." This album was never reissued in the LP era, and the eight tracks surface here for the first time in more than half a century. But that's only the beginning. Pearl Bailey and Buddy Clark cut a 10" LP of the show's songs for Columbia Records, and its six tracks are also included. Schwartz and Dietz's 1931 revue The Band Wagon led to some RCA recordings featuring its stars, Fred and Adele Astaire, including a 12" 78 containing two medleys and an experimental 33-1/3 rpm record (17 years before the LP was introduced formally), and those tracks are here, too. In 1953, MGM released a movie adaptation of The Band Wagon starring Fred Astaire and featuring interpolations from other Schwartz-Dietz shows as well as the newly written "That's Entertainment." An MGM Records soundtrack LP appeared, and a few of those songs are included. The arrival of the film inspired RCA to record a studio cast album (also including songs from Schwartz and Dietz's The Little Show revues) featuring George Britton, Harold Lang, and Edith Adams, and four tracks come from that. The result is a 25-track, 78-minute Schwartz-Dietz compilation of rarities that should delight collectors of show music. ~ William Ruhlmann