Hairspray [Enhanced, Import]

This is an outstanding CD from an outstanding musical film!

I totally loved the movie. "Hairspray" makes a seamless, wonderful transfer from the Broadway stage to the silver screen.

The soundtrack perfectly captures the film, including all the music and snippets of dialogue, creating a complete satisfying experience.

It is impossible to overstate what a find Nikki Blonsky is. Watching her is like shaking a bottle of Pepsi, and waiting for it to fizz. Bubbly is an understatement. Her vocal performance matches her screen performance beat for beat.

"Good Morning Baltimore" launches us into this very specific (60's, working-class, Baltimore) era, using hysterical lyrics and time-capsule-like music.

The music of "Hairspray" sounds like every single early 60's pop song you can name off the top of your head dumped into a blender, and then poured over a CD. Motown, Brill Building, surf, Spector, Stax, Sinatra, girl groups, doo-wop...seriously...it's all here.

It's like one day,you unexpectedly have the best chocolate milk shake you've EVER tasted. You had tons of 'em before, but MAN was that one good!

Same here. Instantly familiar yet wholly original and of the utmost quality. The tunes are more infectious than head lice at preschool. The lyrics are smarter than you are.

Anyways...back to Blonsky. Her showcase songs, "Baltimore" & "I Can Hear The Bells" , along with her cast pieces like "Without Love" and "You Can't Stop The Beat" reveal her to be a world class entertainer. Her character's personality spills out of your speakers like the foam of a root beer float filled too full.

The entire cast is a dream. James Marsden (Cyclops? Really? Is that you?) fully imbues his plastic Corny Collins character with a winking shine; he knows he's considered superficial but he also know he isn't.

Zac Efron will get all the tweens/teens aflutter, but he's great. Honestly. "Ladies' Choice" positively thunders out of my car stereo, and is merely one of several, cardiac-arrhythmia-inducing energizing moments during the show.

Queen Latifah, as usual, is nothing but pure class. She as regal as her name. Powerful vocals without being overpowering.

And what about Travolta? He's terrific in the movie. As Tracy's mom, Edna, he goes for something different than the previous incarnations. Before, they were clearly big men in drag. Loud ad abrasive. Here, Travolta goes for a different tack. It's clearly Travolta, but his Edna has this pig-eyed sweetness, this down-trodden nobility, that I haven't seen before. It works like gangbusters. His vocal input here is limited, and that's perfectly OK.

Michelle Pfeiffer represents evil in this movie, and it comes across in her "Miss Baltimore Crabs" song. Listen, I love Miss Pfeiffer. She's my favorite. I'm her number one fan. Love her to death. I would lie down in front of a moving train for her.
But she's positively horrible here...and in the best possible way. She is so good at being so bad, her input here is unpleasant. Which is a roundabout high compliment. I never have to listen to her songs again. I'll just go back to "Ladyhawke" or "Baker Boys."

The REAL find her might be Elijah Kelley. During the film, you can't take your eyes off of him. On this soundtrack, he soars. Every time he shows up, you KNOW it. "Run and Tell That" is frankly amazing. It moves and grooves with such delightful energy, you cannot avoid doing that weird looking dance you do while sitting in your car with your seatbelt on.

The best moment, of dozens, is "You Can't Stop The Beat." When I say people were dancing as we left the movie theater, that is not hyperbole or exaggeration. It is fact. It is what people were doing, filing out the exits.
They were dancing.

To this song.

An unbridled tornado of musical electricity, "You Can't Stop..." shake you from your very foundations, finding some deep, repressed desire to shake your booty that may have been hidden long along, and brings it, uncontrollably, to the surface. I felt like somebody clamped a car battery to my tail bone. The ensemble singing will lift you off of your chair (I'm warning you: pull over if you listen to this in your car), and the band exhibits such crisp, tight musicianship, coupled with a healthy, wild abandon...it is futile to resist.

The ending is simply thrilling with the stop-start chorus and explosive band breaks.

I'm spent just RECALLING the experience!

One other thing. Definitely check out the last song on the disc. "Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now" is a song from the original show that didn't make it into the film. Rikki Lake (from the original non-musical film), Marissa Jaret Winokur (the original Broadway Tracy Turnblad) and Nikki Blonsky come together to do a hilarious, fun, riotous version of this very funny song. There's a brief, hysterical vocal cameo by...well...I'll save THAT for you to discover on your own.

A higher recommendation does not exist. Thanks for taking the time to read this...

I refuse to compare the Broadway Cast with the Soundtrack Cast because they each stand on their own dancing feet and each makes you feel as high as Tracy Turnblads hair-do. And who could have known that John Travolta would make his 3rd or fourth movie comeback playing a two-ton woman named Edna Turnblad. The photos make it look like he swallowed a volkswagon but I can't wait to see him in the movie.

The CD starts with the jubilant "Good Morning Baltimore" and the finale is the driving.pulsing "You Can't Stop The Beat" and sandwiched in-between is a raft of tasty morsels like Blonskys(Tracey) "I Can Hear The Bells' "Welcome to The Sixties" "Without Love" and the afore-mentioned "Good Morning Baltimore" and "You Can'tstop The Beat"

Zac Efron playing Traceys love interest Link Larkin shines on "It takes Two" and a new rocker written for the film "Ladies Choice" and Queen Latifah soars on her big number "I Know Where I'm Going"

Although John Travoltas role has not much singing he and Christopher Walken duet on the charmingly off-beat "You're Timeless To Me"

"Hairspray" is fun,it rocks,it rolls,and to be cliche-it just darn well makes you feel good.

I just got this soundtrack today and right away in my mind i was comparing it to the original cast, and i also flashed back to the stage performance and I knew i had to stop that because no matter who redid it will never match them. I am disappointed many of the songs from the musical didn't make it onto the soundtrack, and i could do without the new songs they added in. Overall to me the whole soundtrack is very good. ONly real complaint i have is how they butchered the song "without love" that's one of my favorites out of the whole show and the rendition of it is terrible! in my opinion. Either way i really do like this sountrack and can't wait to see it in theaters this Friday (opening day first showing.. lol). Either way Hairspray is just a fun expereince and i'm glad they did it in movie form to bring it to alot more people who aren't really into musicals as i am. Hairpsray is like my top fav. So yea... good buy.

p.s: i also love the fact they let Ricki Lake onto the soundtrack in number 19 "mama i'm a big girl now"

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