Hi Vince: Yes, I agree with Lou -- very nice splicing job! Of course,
the edits would be less audible if I'd given you a copy of Take #1
from the same rough audio source as #2, but this certainly gives us a
good idea of how the final version might have sounded. Overall,
though, I still prefer the second take -- and that goes for the more
dramatic piano part as well.
Actually, it's tempting to speculate whether there were any other
takes of the song. The recording logs aren't much use to us here,
since they show only a single take (with piano) on 15 July 1955:
http://www.rense.com/excursions/lanza/recordinglogs2.html
This must be the same song, as the length is 1:26 -- the same as Take
#1 (give or take a second). The different Serenade in the movie is
about 30 seconds longer. (Actually, I wonder if the fact that the
unreleased Serenade was so short had anything to do with it being
canned? From RCA's perspective, at least, it probably would have been
too short to be released as a single.)
If you scroll down this same log, you'll see quite a number of other
"Serenades"s -- all with orchestra -- but I'm assuming that these were
all recordings of the song that was eventually used in the movie. You
never know, though! One of the later sessions with orchestra may have
been *this* Serenade.
As always with Lanza, there are so many puzzles -- especially when it
comes to the documentation of his recordings!
Cheers
Derek