Customer Reviews

The King and I (1956 Film Soundtrack)

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The 1956 soundtrack to the movie version of the musical "The King And I" is truely a classic.
The soundtrack has recently been remastered with a better sound quality, and bonus tracks, and most of all the complete movie version of the ballet "The Small House Of Uncle Thomas".

The soundtrack includes the voices Deborah Kerr and Marni Nixon as the singing voice of Anna. Marni dubbed the singing parts, and Deborah did the speaking parts of the songs.
Yul Brynner as the king. Rita Moreno and Leona Gordon as the singing voice of Tuptim. Leona Gordon slightly augmented some of Ritas parts on her songs. We have Terry Saunders as Lady Thiang. Ruben Fuentes who dubbed the singing voice of Carlos Rivas in the role of Tuptim. And features Rex Thompson as Louis.
Those are all the voices you will hear on the soundtrack.

The soundtrack starts off with the Main Title. Next is Anna and Louis with "I Whistle A Happy Tune", where Anna teaches her son what do when afraid. Next is the beautiful "My Lord And Master" sung by Tuptim, where Tuptim sings how this King knows nothing about her, and how he may think shes just for him, he'll never know she loves another man. Rita Moreno does a beautiful job with the song and sadly was cut out of the movie. Next is "The March Of The Siamese Children", where the children are presented to Anna. Next is the underscoring of "Anna And The Royal Wives", followed by Anna's "Hello, Young Lovers", which is one of the most touching song in the score, where Anna sings to the Royal Wives how she once had a love of her own. Next is the kings "The Puzzlement", where hes states his confusions about his conflicts. Next is one of the most popular songs from the movie "Getting To Know You", where Anna sings to the Royal Children and Wives about getting to know them. Next is the underscoring "Garden Rendezvous". Next is Lun Tha's and Tuptim's beautiful "We Kiss In The Shadow", where the two lovers sing how they barely have any time to be with eachother, and hope for one day to be free. The song is mixed with "I Have Dreamed", their other duet, how they have dreams of them being together. Next is Anna's comical soliquy "Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You?". This is one song where you will hear Deborah and Marni going back and forth with the vocals, you can barely tell the difference. Next is the extremely touching "Something Wonderful", sung by Lady Thiang where she tells Anna deep down the king is truely something wonderful. Next is the "Prayer To Buddha", where The King and everyone pray to Buddha about the British comming. The British have arrived and Anna and her old friend Sir Edward see eachother and dance to the "Waltz of Anna and Sir Edward". Next is the beautiful ballet "The Small House of Uncle Thomas", narrated by Tuptim and sung with the Chorus, the ballet is Tuptims version of the story of "Uncle Toms Cabin". Next is the "Song Of The King", sung by The King and Anna, where the King expresses how many women belong to one man. Thats followed by another popular song, "Shall We Dance", where the magic start to spark between the King and Anna. Next is the underscoring "The Letter". The closing track is the "Something Wonderful REPRISE" sung by the chorus. The bonus track is the LP version of the "Overture".

Those are all the tracks, and they are amazing. Only a few songs from the score are missing including "Royal Bangkok Academy", Lady Thiang and Wives "Western People Funny", The Prince and Louis' "A Puzzlement REPRISE", And a few other Reprises are missing.

Overall, this classic soundtrack is worth it! You just have to own this classic.

EXCELLENT WORK... However, we wanted to play this songs by ourselves, but there are no musical notes. That is the only missing part.

great and beautiful songs. It's a lovely soundtrack to a grand musical. Marni Nixon has such a beautiful and clear voice, so lovely and feminine. Yul Brynner has a wonderful masuline voice, very beautiful. All the tracks sound really good. It has some of the most beautiful and remembered songs on it, like, "Hello Young Lovers," and "Shall we Dance."

This is one of my favorite musicals and it is a delight to have this recording. The sound quality is lacking, however. They could have done a better job with the remastering.

This new remastering job for the film soundtrack of THE KING AND I is long-overdue, but has been well worth the wait. Angel Broadway have outdone themselves.

The CD features all the musical numbers (including those cut from the film), some of the background incidental music as well as some of the dance music. But the highlight is the complete music for "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet is included (oh happy day).

This score (like many of the R&H movie-versions) features a lot of dubbed voices. Deborah Kerr's was dubbed by popular Hollywood ghost-singer Marni Nixon (who would go on to dub for her again the following year in 'An Affair to Remember'). Carlos Rivas (who played Lun-Tha), had voice double Reuben Fuentes, and Rita Moreno's (who played the tragic Tuptim) voice was dubbed by Leona Gordon (despite that on many occasions Moreno has insisted that it is her own voice).

Terry Saunders remains a revelation as Lady Thiang, singing a heartfelt "Something Wonderful", and Yul Brynner, direct from the Broadway run, shows a new maturity of voice compared to the original Broadway cast-album.

The original session tapes have been cleaned up for this recording (there is a small amount of hiss and click, but with cast recordings this is quite normal), and the extensive liner notes are a fascinating read.

Highly recommended.

Its hard to make comparisons between this soundtrack and the Original Cast Album, but since I have never seen The King And I on stage, this is the preferred recording of the musical.

Although I certainly agree that Marni Nixon is a better singer than Gertrude Lawrence, I do have trouble listening to the voice of Eliza Dolittle singing "Getting to Know You" and "Hello Young Lovers." But get beyond that and you have a simply wonderful soundtrack recording of one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest scores. Lovingly restored and remastered, it has never sounded better. Same with Carousel and Oklahoma, which are on the same label. Deborah Kerr (sung by Marni Nixon) stars as Mrs. Anna and (who else?) Yul Brynner as the King. Brynner would continue to fulfill the role of the King right up to his death in 1985. If you're new to The King And I, this is the place to start

This recording is a wonderful treat. Alfred Newman's arrangements of this classic score are breathtaking. My only complaint about this release is WHY IS THE OVERTURE A BONUS TRACK AT THE END? Why not put it in the beginning where it belongs? It is a beautiful, sumptious, arrangement and does not deserve to be put at the end of the cd as as bonus track. Now, most importantly, I noticed many reviewers metioning various technicalities regarding the remastering process, but here is my question. If anyone knows the answer, please email me. Was this overture ever used in the roadshow version of this movie? It isn't on the DVD. The only thing I can think of is it wasn't used because it has "I Have Dreamed" which was cut from the film.

As I recall, the original 1956 LP release of THE KING AND I soundtrack was the first soundtrack to certify gold in its sales. It was originally released in mono and later in 1960 remixed for a stereo addition. Added here was Louis' voice in I WHISTLE A HAPPY TUNE and the actual whistles; lost was one and a half stanzas to GETTING TO KNOW YOU (remixed to feature only two renditions of the song, rather than the three and a half it gets in the film; combined were WE KISS IN A SHADOW and I HAVE DREAMED - heretofore discreet bands on the LP. What is new: The Main Title rendition of the March, Anna and the Royal Wives scene - Newman's wonderful underscoring only (this was used as an overture in the recent THX restoration print)-this segues neatly into the LP take of HELLO, YOUNG LOVERS; the Garden Rendezvous - again Newman's underscoring only, segueing into the LP take of WE KISS IN A SHADOW/I HAVE DREAMED with again Newman's underscoring to end of scene; Newman's underscoring of the Waltz; added music following the three LP stanzas of SHALL WE DANCE, seguing into the massive full orchestral rendition; Newman's underscoring for the Letter reading scene (which contains the musical into to the LP finale); more introductory music to the LP Finale; and two portions lifted from prints of the film itself as opposed to using background scoring tapes: PRAYER TO BUDDHA and THE SMALL HOUSE OF UNCLE THOMAS. Intact as heard on the original LP are: OVERTURE; I WHISTLE A HAPPY TUNE; MY LORD AND MASTER; MARCH OF THE SIAMESE CHILDREN; A PUZZLEMENT; SHALL I TELL YOU WHAT I THINK OF YOU?; GETTING TO KNOW YOU; SONG OF THE KING; SOMETHING WONDERFUL. It's marvelous sound and a more complete soundtrack than ever.

A few gripes though - we wish the Letter scene had started earlier with the high violin and ghostly rendition of GETTING TO KNOW YOU as Anna gazes out into the garden (a lovely piece of musical scoring) as well as giving us the atmospheric music accompanying Anna's first view of the King as Tuptim is presented to him (another masterstroke of scoring, setting not only the foreign dramatic tone in its orchestrations, but the hushed reverence in which we first see the King).

Also the liner notes have errors: 1. In the plot delineation with the numbers highlighted to show where they occur, I HAVE DREAMED is omitted; 2. The text states that three numbers were "omitted" without describing in detail their status (recorded but never filmed, partly scored, not filmed, filmed and deleted) as in the liner notes of the previous CD incarnation; 3. the writer can't count - stating the film was nominated for nine awards (it was nominated for ten) and stating it won seven (it won six)- where are the editors that should catch these things - even the writer should have been able to add up the categories he mentions and find his math wanting.

If you love the show and the film, add this to your CD library. It is one of Hollywood's finest aural hours.

This so-called expanded CD of THE KING AND I is not nearly as good as it could have been mainly because the source used for this CD is plagued with Foley effects and dialogue which don't make much sense separated from the visual elements of the film and actually detract from the musical enjoyment of this great score.

The original discrete stereophonic "music and vocal only" separation soundtracks for the KING AND I (also CAROUSEL, OKLAHOMA and SOUTH PACIFIC) are in the 20th. Century Fox studio vaults and could have been made available to the producers for these re-masterings if anyone had cared enough to ask. In fact, the deluxe laserdisc of THE KING AND I contained a CD of about 76 minutes including the complete vocal score and Alfred Newman's excellent underscoring, all completely free of extraneous sound effects and dialogue. Why weren't these tracks used for this CD release? These performances are important enough to use the best and cleanest sound source in existence and I don't think it is childish to comment on this omission. These original tracks should have been used exclusively for the expanded versions of these albums. The end result would have much more musically pleasing. As a long time audiophile myself I don't think this is asking too much and other Amazon reviewers of musical soundtracks in which the producer of this CD, Didier C. Deutsch, was involved have commented on the sound effect and dialogue snippets that marred the expanded versions of WEST SIDE STORY and MY FAIR LADY.

I can't imagine any intelligent person who would want these intrusions on a music only recording if an alternate source without them were readily available.

This recording of THE KING AND I as well as the film soundtracks of CAROUSEL and OKLAHOMA are musically the finest recorded performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals. These recordings deserve and could have gotten a far better sonic presentation than the producers and EMI-Angel gave them. I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with my personal observations concerning these releases. That is what this forum is all about, after all and from a musical standpoint I cannot recommend these soundtracks more highly. I just wish the producers had been more careful in their execution of these releases.

Having purchased the recent remastered reissues of Oklahoma, Carousel and The King and I - all are CD's to praise for their excellent remastering. They are wonderful stereo recordings, with lush orchestrations, and great vocal interpretaions that take your breath away. Unfortunately, the remastering of the King and I has an (VERY) occasioanal harsh sound on some high-end octave passages. I'm sure the engineers used the best available source material, but the original source material must have deteriorated on occasion. This is small qualm to the excellence of this CD. Oklahoma and Carousel are perfect in performance AND remastering. While your buying don't forget that the motion picture soundtrack of South Pacific has recently been remastered for CD and has never sounded better.