Okay. This is a good one. Rosiland Russell won the screen role of Mama Rose in the film version of Gypsy
. Ethel Merman created the role on Broadway, where she sang the Hell out of it. Rosiland did sing on Broadway in Wonderful Town, but certainly did not have the chops to sing Mama Rose. She had recorded the Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim songs for Gypsy's soundtrack, but the renditions were subpar. Like notoriously bad. Ethel actually possessed the Roz recordings and would play them for party guests when they were drunk! You can listen to Roz's original tracks today. In fact, Lost Vocals is a great place to view an "un-dubbing" of Roz in Gypsy. But she's bad. Real bad. That's where Lisa Kirk comes in. Lisa had sung on Broadway in Kiss Me Kate and was brought in by Warner Bros. to dub the singing for Ms. Russell in Gypsy. The concept was that Lisa would partially dub Roz's voice, resulting in a ghostly blending of the two. I am deviating a bit from this blog's rules--yet sparing you unwarranted pain--by using the track for "Rose's Turn" that was heard in the film itself, but not used on the LP release. "Rose's Turn" is mostly Lisa on the LP version, providing guaranteed listening enjoyment from your home stereo sound system in 1962, whereas you hear more of Roz's vocals when you are literally watching her sing in the movie. Basically, more Roz and less Lisa here...but enough Lisa to ease the pain. Chalk it up to Hollywood witchcraft. Can you tell which is which?
Roz's doppelgangers:
. Ethel Merman created the role on Broadway, where she sang the Hell out of it. Rosiland did sing on Broadway in Wonderful Town, but certainly did not have the chops to sing Mama Rose. She had recorded the Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim songs for Gypsy's soundtrack, but the renditions were subpar. Like notoriously bad. Ethel actually possessed the Roz recordings and would play them for party guests when they were drunk! You can listen to Roz's original tracks today. In fact, Lost Vocals is a great place to view an "un-dubbing" of Roz in Gypsy. But she's bad. Real bad. That's where Lisa Kirk comes in. Lisa had sung on Broadway in Kiss Me Kate and was brought in by Warner Bros. to dub the singing for Ms. Russell in Gypsy. The concept was that Lisa would partially dub Roz's voice, resulting in a ghostly blending of the two. I am deviating a bit from this blog's rules--yet sparing you unwarranted pain--by using the track for "Rose's Turn" that was heard in the film itself, but not used on the LP release. "Rose's Turn" is mostly Lisa on the LP version, providing guaranteed listening enjoyment from your home stereo sound system in 1962, whereas you hear more of Roz's vocals when you are literally watching her sing in the movie. Basically, more Roz and less Lisa here...but enough Lisa to ease the pain. Chalk it up to Hollywood witchcraft. Can you tell which is which?Roz's doppelgangers:
Are you a good witch....
...or a bad witch?
But where is the link to Roz singing "Rose's Turn?" I don't see it in your post.
ReplyDeleteActually, there was no real blending of the two voices in the film. Roz sings everything up to "I had a dream..." and then Lisa takes over. So it's just one cut from Roz to Lisa.
What? Even in this track??
ReplyDeleteI knew you were gonna give me more trouble ;) Be patient, it'll keep improving.... Along the right margin, toward the bottom, there are mp3 snippets of each song along with a link to the Amazon store. But your link is there! Click on your name....