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Mulan: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack
(more) »rank: 5909from: Walt Disney Records
: :Lea Salonga, best known as the voice of Jasmine in Aladdin, steals the show here as the title character in Disney's Mulan. The former star of Miss Saigon adds touching elements to the feature, especially on introspective numbers such as 'Reflection.' Unfortunately, the voice of Donny Osmond, relegated to anthems such as 'I'll Make a Man Out of You' doesn't really enhance the story line, a saga set in ancient China. Jerry Goldsmith provides the Far East tinge to the score, almost reminiscent of early Les Baxter. While Mulan is a far cry from the memorable Beauty and the Beast, it ...
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Christmas with Julie Andrews
(more) »rank: 6782by: Julie Andrews
: :Julie Andrews's clear and highly articulated vocal manner is both a blessing and a bit of a distraction on this 14-song reissue of her 1982 holiday album. Set against orchestral refinements and a genuinely inspired choice of less popular material, including 'In the Bleak Midwinter,' 'The Holy Boy,' 'See Amid the Winter Snow,' and others, Andrews creates a dazzling Christmas mood full of somewhat concocted sentiment. Christmas with Julie Andrews boasts big production numbers that are long on satisfaction and arch theatricality. Her pitch is remarkable, but one wonders if she's ever sung with any grit. For fans--and they number millions ...
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Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook, Vol. 1
(more) »rank: 3877by: Tony Bennett
: :During the 20th century, American songwriters produced songs that became the standard for vocalists around the world. While many have recorded versions of these songs over the years, Tony Bennett is in that rare class of artist who actually took part in their original interpretation. Tony Bennett Sings TheUltimate American Songbook features fifteen of the best-knownsongs from this large body of work. At the end of the 20s, into the 30s and 40s, there was a revolution in popular music that will never be topped. Like a renaissance period that was pure magic, it will become our classical music, and ...
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Holly & Ivy
(more) »rank: 1856by: Natalie Cole
: :During the 20th century, American songwriters produced songs that became the standard for vocalists around the world. While many have recorded versions of these songs over the years, Tony Bennett is in that rare class of artist who actually took part in their original interpretation. Tony Bennett Sings TheUltimate American Songbook features fifteen of the best-knownsongs from this large body of work. At the end of the 20s, into the 30s and 40s, there was a revolution in popular music that will never be topped. Like a renaissance period that was pure magic, it will become our classical music, and ...
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Her Life In Music: 1940-1966 (3CD)
(more) »rank: 6705by: Doris Day
:Album Description:60 classics on 3 CDs! originally released to coincide with her 80th birthday (she was born April 3rd, 1924). She was one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 1950s and especially the 1960s. The Doris Day Show was a television success from 1968 to 1973. Because she has been in retirement and out of the public eye for the past two decades, many people forget that Doris Day was an altogether wonderful singer for such pop hits as `Secret Love' and her Oscar-winning `Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)', which became her signature tune. Includes 20-page booklet with ...
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Swingin' Miss 'D'
(more) »rank: 25681by: Dinah Washington
:Album Description:60 classics on 3 CDs! originally released to coincide with her 80th birthday (she was born April 3rd, 1924). She was one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 1950s and especially the 1960s. The Doris Day Show was a television success from 1968 to 1973. Because she has been in retirement and out of the public eye for the past two decades, many people forget that Doris Day was an altogether wonderful singer for such pop hits as `Secret Love' and her Oscar-winning `Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)', which became her signature tune. Includes 20-page booklet with ...
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The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits
(more) »rank: 1792by: Dionne Warwick
: :Dionne Warwick's vocals were never more strong, more vulnerable than when she sang the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David--and, oh, yeah, 'Who Can I Turn To' and the theme from 'Valley of the Dolls,' the two non-Bacharach/David songs included among the 24 singles collected here. Both technically and emotionally, this was an unstoppable team: from the drama of 'Don't Make Me Over' to the tongue-in-cheek backing singers on 'Are You There (With Another Girl),' the barely veiled civil-rights message of 'Reach Out for Me' to the deceptively bouncy 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose,' this CD sheds ...
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A Star Is Born
(more) »rank: 7896from: Sony
: :Hollywood loved this story so much they remade it every 20 years or so for much of the 20th century; Barbra Streisand imbued it with so much forceful persona in 1976 that they haven't touched it since. The romantic/musical pairing of Streisand and Kris Kristofferson (chosen when no less than Elvis Presley turned the role down) may have been one of the era's strangest but, anchored by Streisand's elegant, Oscar-winning hit theme 'Evergreen,' it nonetheless yielded the biggest-selling album of the singer's career to date. That neither star is particularly convincing as rock icons--particularly Her Divaness--seems beyond the point of this ...
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Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
(more) »rank: 2998by: Ella Fitzgerald
: :Long considered a jewel in Verve Records' very impressive crown, Fitzgerald's songbook collections of various composers--a series that was started by the success of this set--are all wonderful, but her natural wit and intelligence was at its most perfect with Cole Porter's erudite, urbane songs. While not as scat-oriented as her small group outings, these Porter sets offer her most realized pop performances. Also, the gold remastering does a fine job of bringing out the nuances in the arrangements, making this a treasure for the serious collector and the casual listener alike. A true American music gem. --Skip Heller
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The Fantasticks (Original 1960 Off-Off Broadway Cast)
(more) »rank: 8835by: Harvey Schmidt, Tom Jones, Jerry Orbach
: :On May 3, 1960, a chamber-sized variation on Romeo and Juliet by composer Harvey Schmidt and writer-lyricist Tom Jones opened off-off-Broadway at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. On May 3, 2000, The Fantasticks opened again at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, celebrating 40 continuous years of performances and having long since become the longest-running musical in the history of the world. And while many cast members have come and gone, it's the original cast recording that has become an indelible part of our memory, from the dual pianos dotting the overture and Jerry Orbach's rich reading of 'Try to Remember' to the fathers' lament 'Never ...
