Raquel Welch

In 1965, at 25 years-old, Jo Raquel Tejada Welch made an inauspicious debut in a leading role, in a major movie: A Swingin' Summer. No Frankie or Annette at the beach for this outing, but that didn't keep a roster of B list acts (including Raqy) from contributing to the surfer music soundtrack.

In the flick (which I'm sure played at every drive-in cinema across the nation, familiarizing audiences with Raquel for her advent on humanity via Hollywood Sex Goddess stardom), Ms. Welch plays a bookworm (glasses) turned fun-luvin' gal (no glasses) in the ditty "I'm Ready to Groove." 

Michelle Williams

In my recent quest to find some truth in this world, I've come across a seemingly unlimited amount of documented information concerning the CIA's covert mind control operation known as MK ULTRA, or Project Monarch. It is highly speculated that Marilyn Monroe was one of the products of this hideous and subversive program. In the book Marilyn Monroe Confidential: An Intimate Personal Account, written by her personal assistant Lena Pepitone, Marilyn becomes a textbook case for Project Monarch.

There is also speculation that current movie star Michelle Williams may be of the same program. (Apparently, Williams' baby daddy Heath Ledger wanted out of the Hollywood occultist control-obsessed scene, paving the way for his unfortunate demise.) Ms. Williams has developed from teen actress on the popular TV show Dawson's Creek to one of Hollywood's biggest talents. In My Week with Marilyn, Williams earned an Academy Award Best Actress nomination for her insightful portrayal of Ms. Monroe. She even lent her own vocals to several Marilyn standards, including "I Found a Dream", which was one of the few movie tracks in which Marilyn did not sing. There is much debate about this, but I can confidently assert that her vocals were dubbed for this song in The Prince and the Showgirl. Netflix the flick (or watch the clip above if you're not on your mobile device). It's not her. And it's reported she sang the ditty live on set. Did Lawrence Olivier hate her enough to overdub her?

Anne Hathaway

Already controversial even before its release is Tom Hooper's uber-ambitious film adaptation of Les Miserables, the musical. Originally produced for the stage in Paris circa 1980, Les Miz (an affectionate nickname) quickly became a widespread sensation as it evolved into West End and Broadway productions en route to World Domination. This time around, however, Vitor Hugo's epic tale of revolution could prove itself relevant to a global culture mired in economic disaster, disparity between classes, and its own seeds of revolution brewing in the Occupy movement.

Central to the controversy is Academy Award winner Hooper's radical, revisionist concept for filming the "pop opera." The actors sing their songs live on set instead of lip-syncing to prerecorded vocal tracks. Wearing tiny earpieces, actors perform to a live keyboardist, positioned somewhere off-set. That keyboardist, in turn, also wears an earpiece, thus being able to follow the actor's lead. In post-production, keyboards are replaced by a massive orchestra, giving consideration to the scene's spontaneous rhythm. (A similar idea was pioneered by Peter Bagdonovich for 1975's At Long Last Love, but his actors listened to prerecorded piano accompaniments with set rhythms.) Hooper's main objective is to allow the actors more freedom in their performances... freedom from a set rhythm and from choices made in a recording studio months earlier... freedom from having to sync their lips convincingly... thereby allowing more emotional authenticity while executing the demanding score.

Even more central to the controversy is Anne Hathaway's "fragile" delivery of the ultimate martyr ballad "I Dreamed a Dream." This is a daunting endeavor. Her predecessors include Patti LuPone, Elaine Page and Susan Boyle; all of whom are vocal heavyweight champions. Anne approaches the song more from the viewpoint of her character Fantine, a woman whose grueling destiny is about to steal away her life.

Many have so far been disappointed by Anne's warbling in the movie's trailer. A behind-the-scenes featurette was created to let audiences in on the concept, hoping to change people's perception of what they were going to hear. A non-belting rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" could quite possibly achieve a cinematic profundity surpassing its theatrical counterparts. The woman is dying, so perhaps what seems to be a vocally weak rendition could be the most heart-wrenching of all.

Regardless, this is as raw as you get.

UPDATE:

December 9th

As the promotional machine rolls on for this film, a different take of Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream" has been used for the international trailer:

As I understand it, this is the take the world will hear in the upcoming release. It makes more sense, really. It's closer to the belt devotees of the stage production are accustomed to hearing (do I hear an Oscar calling Anne's name?). But you know I'll be chomping at the bit to get my mitts on the other takes...

Lauren Bacall

Lauren "Betty" Bacall put her lips together and blew out enough smoke to pollute both Los Angeles and New York combined. Her throaty rasp occasionally lent itself to a tune or two, most memorably on Broadway in Applause and Woman of the Year. But the movies gave her a chance to warble as well.

In To Have and Have Not, she crooned "Am I Blue" (with Hoagy Carmichael) and "How Little We Know." This was the first film she would make with Humphrey Bogart. Notice his expression while watching her sing in the video below. It was love at first sight.

Then, decades later, came The Fan. A stalker thriller that was turned into a slasher, mostly in post-production, leaving Bacall cold when publicity time rolled around. According to The Terror Trap she disowned the film due to its amped-up violence. And trailers at the time had a disclaimer denying any connection to the John Lennon assassination, which happened between filming and release.

The flick also boasted several musical numbers (with Bacall as the centerpiece) written by Marvin Hamlisch and Time Rice. Can the dame sing? You decide. One thing's for certain: she's got the "raw" factor.

Natalie Wood

From 1961-1965 Natalie Wood made four movies in which she had the opportunity to sing. West Side Story proved a bitter first experience when she was cajoled into thinking her vocals were going to be used, only to have them overdubbed by Marni Nixon. Ms. Wood was devastated.

In Gypsy, Natalie got her way and did virtually all her own warbling. But when the Hollywood behind-the-scenes melodrama Inside Daisy Clover came along, she found her singing capabilities once again in question.

Jackie Ward was brought in to dub spots of Natalie's vocals. This would iron out the kinks in Ms. Wood's renditions of the Andre Previn songs. Ultimately, however, Jackie covered all the bases and Natalie was left getting the short end of the stick...again. (Jackie also dubbed Nat the same year in The Great Race, singing "Sweetheart Tree.")

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball decided she would be Mame, the grandest auntie of them all. She would co-produce the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was in turn based on the Broadway play Auntie Mame starring Rosiland Russell, who repeated her performance for a subsequent film version in the '50s. In Jerry Herman's Broadway musicalization, Angela Lansbury "doubled her fame" with a fiery, inspired performance that was also destined to repeat itself for the big screen and be preserved on celluloid till the end of civilization.

Alas, stirrings of a Mame movie didn't surface until Ms. Ball showed a financial interest in the project. But, of course, she wanted to star. It may have worked at one point, but by 1972 (when filming began) Lucy was starting to show some wear and tear. Any credibility she could muster in the role was alarmingly undermined by the fact she was huffing and puffing her way through her performance!

The talk around Hollywood was that Lucy's singing would be dubbed by Lisa Kirk, but it never came to fruition (rumors still circulate about the existence of possible tracks Lisa may have recorded).  Lucy did all her own singing and you can blame the movie's reputation on that fact alone. Here, she croaks out "If He Walked Into My Life," backed by searing orchestrations from the mind and soul of Ralph Burns.

Rosiland Russell

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:

Are you a good witch....

...or a bad witch?

Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons played Desiree Armfelt in the original London production of Stephen Sondeihm's A Little Night Music. Her rendition of "If I Were A Bell" in Guys & Dolls is painful. It's much nicer listening to her croon with Marlon Brando in the duet "Woman In Love," written for the film version of Frank Loesser's Broadway smash hit.

Suzanne Pleshette

Suzanne Pleshette actually had a very legitimate singing voice. Big surprise considering the rasp of her speaking voice, which sounds like she's been drinking whiskey and smoking hashish since she was four-years-old. Arthur Laurents talks about her auditioning for the role of Louise in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. He said she had no problem being sexy, but was at a loss with the tomboy aspect of Louise's first act persona. I find this hard to believe since there is nothing more butch than Suzanne Pleshette in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Suzanne bounced back from being snubbed from the original production of Gypsy. She replaced Anne Bancroft on Broadway in The Miracle Worker, which obviously took major acting chops. And before making The Birds, Suzanne played a nightclub singer in the Tony Curtis vehicle 40 Pounds Of Trouble, singing "If You."

Cyd Charisse

Bold, beautiful Cyd Charisse. A dancer/movie star synonymous with the golden era of the movie musical. Sweeping the world off its feet in most of MGM's major musicals, Ms. Charisse delivered an excellent Ninotchka in Cole Porter's Silk Stockings, leaving comparisons to Greta Garbo's original performance at the door. As was often the case in those days, however, Cyd's singing was also left at the door. But the woman is capable of busting out a tune and made her Broadway debut at 70 in Grand Hotel, doing her own singing (obviously) and taking on another Garbo role. Here is the demo for "It's A Chemical Reaction" using Cyd's real vocals.

Shirley Maclaine

It's not that Shirley Maclaine can't sing. She was spotted by a Hollywood agent (sent by Alfred Hitchcock no less) while filling in for Carol Haney in the musical The Pajama Game on Broadway. That resulted in Maclaine making her first film with Hitchcock. The rest is history. Or her story.

Shirley Maclaine does remind us now and then that she is a musical performer, primarily a dancer of comparable skill. Not known as a terrific songstress, her voice is thin yet distinctive. The closest she's ever come to recording in a contemporary "pop" fashion is here with "Where Am I Going?" from Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity.

Bette Davis

Bette Davis bludgeoned her way through a six-decade career in Hollywood as not only a woman of significant star quality, but also as an actress of indelible versatility. Never afraid of taking unsympathetic roles, she proved time and time again how utterly fascinating murderous, damaged, deranged women can be.

In Thank Your Lucky Stars, Bette performs a one-joke song entitled "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" in which she laments the loss of any decent-aged studs to the draft. In 1976, she released an album bearing the name Miss Bette Davis where she reprised the ditty in stereo.

Adhering to my rules, however, I am using the original mono track from the source film soundtrack.

Joan Crawford

I believe I remember Christina Crawford saying she hated Torch Song in her memoir Mommie Dearest. It was Joan's return to MGM and her first Technicolor film.

Dubbed by India Adams, Joan Crawford took a stab at singing her own vocals. The main ballad is "Follow Me." The posters are way cooler than the flick itself. They have a Bauhaus neo-noir tinge to them, I guess due to the fact that the protagonist's love interest is blind...?

Still, the promotions hinted to much more genius than Torch Song could possibly deliver. The film's reputation is that of high-camp/BAD-movie entertainment. YouTube "Two Faced Woman" for one of the worst musical numbers put on screen, followed by a frightful ripping-off-her-wig moment that is as intense as a Tallulah Bankhead drag act bidding a bar full of truckers one final adieu...or fuck you....

Catherine Deneuve

That was not her singing on the soundtrack to The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg). Nope. Danielle Licari did those honors, although it sounds so right when heard to Catherine Deneuve's lip-syncing.

Catherine is also a very begrudging participant in Bjork's musical reveries, the technicolor subtext, of Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark.

Finally, Ms. Deneuve lets loose in 8 Women (8 Femmes), a nifty holiday musical/who-done-it flick where each woman gets her moment on trial and each woman gets her song. Catherine sings "Toi Jamais" as a woman of true worldly knowledge.

Jessica Lang

When Jessica Lang took on the role of Big Edie in the HBO produced Grey Gardens, based on the Maysles brothers' documentary of the same name, she decided she was "going to be reckless" and do her own singing -- something she had never done before, although her lip-syncing to Patsy Cline was exquisite in Sweet Dreams.

She does quite a bit of her own singing in Grey Gardens, and three of those tracks make it onto the soundtrack CD. One is a mono, old time recording of "We Belong Together," something Big Edie could certainly have recorded back in her day. The track I use, however, is the duet version with Malcolm Gets.

Meryl Streep

Merrrrrrrrrrrrryl!

What can you NOT do, Ms. Streep? I owned the soundtrack for Death Becomes Her (on cassette!) because of your number at the beginning. Weren't you doing a musical version of Sweet Bird Of Youth in that flick? And you sang in Postcards From The Edge...a Ray Charles song and newly written honky-tonk ballad, no less. And I heard you belt it out live as Mother Courage at Shakespeare in the Park. THEN came MammaMia!

"Her singing." quoteth my roommate, very gravely. Michael Musto said she should "Stop singing!" And if you watch it in the movie (as opposed to listening to the cavernous echo of the CD soundtrack), "The Winner Takes It All" ends up being a sweepingly epic screech-a-thon. Really watch and listen to her. When Letterman showed a clip from it on his show, the studio audience barely applauded. It's bad. Overwrought and awkward at the same time. And she hooooooooooooooowwwwwls! 

Deafening. 

And raw.

Vanessa Redgrave

Joshua Logan didn't mind one bit replacing Broadway's Guinevere Julie Andrews with Vanessa Redgrave when he filmed Lerner & Loewe's Camelot. He said something to the effect of "Can anyone imagine a country going to war over Julie Andrews' face?" Diss.

Vanessa's, of course, a consummate actress and gives Guinevere her personal brand of pathos. She does a very melodramatic "I Loved You Once In Silence" so I opted for "The Simple Joys Of Maidenhood."

She apparently wore a dress made entirely of pumpkin seeds for this movie. I tried to grab a pic but no dice.

Helena Bonham Carter

I think the story goes: Hal Prince wanted Stephen Sondheim to write a music-hall number for Angela Lansbury on Broadway in Sweeney Todd. Hence "By The Sea." Helena Bonham Carter squeaks it out in Tim Burton's movie version.

Catherine O'Hara

Wonderfully talented, beautiful and infinitely funny is Catherine O'Hara, who's created the soul and the schtick of some of Christopher Guest's best characters. (I was going to use "God Loves A Terrier" from Best In Show for this blog when I had no idea she'd done "Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas.)

The pic of her at top is from her stint in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Had no idea she'd done that either =P