Customer Reviews

Oklahoma! (1955 Film Soundtrack)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this new recording of Oklahoma is unbelievable it's the first time that I
have had a CD with the complete soundtrack on it and it is one of the best
I have ever heard and if your a movie buff as I am I am glad that they are
now recording the full soundtracks too these wonderful movies.

Morris

This is by far THE BEST movie and sountrack. The music is beautiful, but still fun and entertaining. It deserves more than 5 stars!

The score of "Oklahoma" is, quite simply, one of the true masterpieces of the modern world--funny, simple and yet perfectly, elegantly, constructed. Say what you will about other recordings, I can't find much wrong with this one. The vocal performances and orchestration are almost chillingly beautiful. I nearly wept when I heard Gordon McRae's smooth, crooning baritone voice singing "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top"...and that was only the second song on the CD.

This new expanded version of Oklahoma is long awaited for conisseurs of the marvelous 1955 film. It includes not only all music (which has been remastered) from the previous release, but many previously unreleased tracks as well.

On this album we have Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones in the lead roles that would put them over the top. This is the film for which they probably are both most famous. They were paired up again for Carousel the following year. Jones went on to appear in the 1962 film The Music Man. Gloria Grahame is nice as Ado Annie, but she pales in comparison to Celeste Holm from the OBC album. The cast here is in top vocal form and excellent performances are had throughout.

My only gripe is the presence of extra sound effects in the previously unreleased material. Hand clapping, foot stomping, extra dialog, and shouts and cheers have no place in a soundtrack album. As another reviewer stated, if we wanted the effect this CD gives, we can grab a copy of the movie and fast forward it to those parts. Many of the best soundtrack albums on the Angel and Sony labels have been plagued with this lately. Extraneous sound effects are had on the remastered and expanded editions of Oklahoma, Carousel, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, and others. While I can see the reissue producers' desire to include the music as it would be heard in the film, more effort should have been made to locate the original recording session masters where they exist.

On the plus side, though, all of the selections on this CD sound better than ever. We have the Overture and Main Title as heard in the film itself and they have never sounded better, although I do like the original Capitol Records version of the overture better (it appears as a bonus track at the end of this album). The Entr'acte is featured as well, but the Exit Music has not been included.

I absolutely recommend this album. It is a worthy addition to any Broadway fan's collection. But those who still have their copy of the previous (1993) CD release - hang onto it, you will not regret it! That is how a soundtrack album of Oklahoma, presented with all its integrity, should sound.

From the electrifying overture to the finale, this is one for the ages. The rich, strong, at times tender baritone of MacRae complemented by the sweet soprano of Jones, grace the CD throughout. The character actor-singers Greenwood, Nelson, Grahame, Steiger, and others, are perfectfully rendered. (Steiger, though, may not have been up to the movie-deleted "Lonely Room", which would have added considerable depth to his loathsome but pathetic character). There's the fine reprise of "People Will Say We're in Love" and the turn-of-the-century style feminine music of the "Many a New Day" ballet, neither heard in other CDs of the movie.

This is Americana at its most nostalgic, but by no means saccharine. The orchestrations and sound effects of the "Out of My Dreams" ballet, also new in this edition, with their sordid proto-Curly and 'dance-hall' girls, add a dark dimension conjuring up Agnes DeMille's at once menacing and masculine cowboy choreography, not to mention even the sullen sky and landscape. The musical direction under conductor Blackton is crisp and sweeping. Purists have criticized the 'non-musical' foot stomping, clapping, and short dialogues. But who can resist Will's "Kansas City" ragtime, the "Farmer & the Cowboy" dance, and Laurie's calling upon the "elixir of Egypt" to grant her wish? Yes, you can see these on a DVD, but can you play it in your car and let your imagination wander? Or can you see it in a drive-in or a big screen anymore, which is the only way to do it visual and musical justice?

Hammerstein's first lyrics to which Rodgers ever put music began: "There's a bright golden haze on the meadow..." Truer words could not be said of this master work.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's score was given its full juctice through the movie soundtrack. The original, empty- sounding broadway score was embellished and expanded to be fit for this insightful and technologically stunning movie version!
This new Angel Records CD remaster of the soundtrack could be better if only the extra material was presented in its musical form only. You see, all of the tracks were mixed using six track STEREO machines. One track was the orchestra, the next was vocals etc.....
The tracks on this CD are taken from the unmixed six track masters. Unwanted sound effects (such as foot shuffles and clapping) and dialouge (only suitable when used in the actual film) are evident on this recording as a consequent result.
The LP overture is better than the original one that was used in the film. I would go with the CAPITOL RECORDS version of this soundtrack which is the REAL, UNINTERRUPTED, AND PROPERLY MIXED AND EDITED rendition of the score.It is hard to find but you should be able to track it down. It is still in print
I hope FOX and Angel Records will re- release "Oklahoma" as Capitol did. They will realize the true beaty of this timeless score if they listen to the ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK :)

THIS IS A LOVELY CD AND HAS THE WHOLE SOUNDTRACK ON IT! THIS IS TRULY A FUN CD. I SMILED WHEN IT CAME TO (POOR JUD IS DAID). LOVE THE OVERTURE AND SHIRLEY JONES SINGING AS WELL. THIS IS A MUST BUY!

I loved the CD, it was just as great as the movie. Plus this extra edition, had the overture AND reprise for People Will Say We're in Love. I borrowed an old version of Oklahoma CD, and it didn't have these extra things. if you loved the movie, you'll adore this CD just as much!

I've so far owned two LPs and three CDs of this Rodgers and Hammerstein movie soundtrack -- the same goes for their other great musical, Carousel. And the new 2001 remastering of both Oklahoma and Carousel not only brings us so much more music than ever before, but brings us the music with an unsurpassed warmth and clarity. I have never heard these great musicals to better effect. The result is breath-takingly beautiful; just how these musical masterpieces should be presented. The spine-tingling effect of having the original overture bridge into 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning' so perfectly is worth the price of the disc by itself. With about half-an-hour's extra music including the lovely reprise 'Let People Say We're in Love', this 'Oklahoma' is right out of our dreams.

Now we only need to have the films themselves, in equally fine versions on DVD! Carousel was shot in large-format Todd-AO and Oklahoma in Cinemascope 55; anamorphic processes giving an unprecedented sharpness and clarity. But for tthe existing DVD transfers, Fox has ignored this, and has made a mediocre non-anamorphic widescreen transfer not worthy of the efforts of the original film-makers. The sound side has been well looked after -- now get the image right as well!

My disappointment with this expanded soundtrack reissue of OKLAHOMA is based on my belief, which is shared by many other people who grew up with and have grown to love these magnificent performances for their musical excellence, not as a mere souvenir of a movie for casual listening. If I want to experience the movie, I watch the movie on DVD or tape. If I want to enjoy the music on a recording, I want the music to be allowed to speak for itself without sound effects mixed in meant exclusively for the visual presentation. The film versions of the three Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals from which these Angel CD reissues are derived, showcase the finest performances, before or since, that these magnificent scores have ever received. The additional music on the expanded editions of these albums is NOT from the original multi channel vocal and music separation soundtrack master recordings stored in the 20th Century Fox vaults but instead recorded directly from a final mix print soundtrack complete with foot stomping and extraneous sound effects, which besides having no place on a music only recording, actually detract from the listening experience rather than enhance it. If this were 42nd. Street, the foot stomping would make sense, since it is an integral part of the musical presentation, but without the visuals these random sounds don't make any sense in OKLAHOMA, where the superb arrangements of Robert Russell Bennett should be allowed to speak for themselves without intrusions from foley effects. If this were a live recording, such sounds would be an artifact of the original and impossible to remove and therefore have to be acceptable if one wanted to hear the score in its entirety. But in the case of OKLAHOMA (and for that fact, CAROUSEL, THE KING AND I and SOUTH PACIFIC) a wealth of unmixed original musical material exists in the studio vaults which could have been made available for this remastering and even more music could have been included on this album (probably enough to fill 2 CD's). For instance, THE OUT OF MY DREAMS BALLET could have been presented in its ENTIRETY, with the extra verse of the song which was on the original album but on this CD replaced by a much shorter version used in the film, without any worry about the sound effects intruding at the beginning and especially at the end. THE KANSAS CITY, FARMER AND THE COWHAND DANCE MUSIC AND THE FINALE could have been presented minus the foley intrusions that almost drown out the music entirely. That is the saddest part concerning this release. The original studio vault material could have been made available if anyone at EMI-Angel had cared enough to present OKLAHOMA with the integrity that this classic recording deserves and should have gotten. If you can get past these aberrations (in addition to some amateur sloppy fade-ins and fade-outs cross cutting the old and new material) the sound on this CD is very good and offers an energetic and beautifully orchestrated performance of the score by Gordon Mac Rae, Shirley Jones and the entire supporting cast. In fact, this performance is superior to the Broadway original in every respect. But even so, try to find the previous CD version of this album, which may not have the additional music but does include the entire vocal score (including the longer version of the song OUT OF MY DREAMS) without all the intrusive sound effects and sloppy edits making for a far more enjoyable listening experience. Let's hope that someday EMI-Angel will give all three of the Rodgers and Hammerstein soundtracks their due and re-release them with added material from the untainted studio vault separations. That would really be SOMETHING SPECIAL.