The "Lanza on Broadway" Album
Joe Fagan
Mario's Discography but some aspects still puzzle me:
* Unlike the Coke radio programs ( which I guess , at the time ,
Mario did not realize would *become* permanent albums) , he DID know
the LOB recordings would be compiled into a new album release,
correct??
* Was there a possibility he was partly " under the influence" for
some or all the recording sessions?
* Were ANY retakes made at all?
* Were " Echo Chambers" used for some of these recordings?
* Even more mysterious, why did his management ( or the studio)
consent to release this album in its current state?
* I wonder if Mario himself had ever regretted or commented on this
album? I guess the need of quick money was the motivation at the
time.
( BTW, I , nevertheless, like some of the numbers)..Joe
Den
I don't think that any of your questions have ever been anwsered
There are some "raw" copies of these recordings, whether this means
with or without orchestra/echo chambers, I don't know
I do know that I like, Speak low,So in love and September song
from this outing
Dennis
Derek McGovern
I've written before, the only *marginally* redeemable tracks -- to my
ears -- come from the third and final recording session and these are:
On the Street Where You Live, And This Is My Beloved, and You'll Never
Walk Alone. Even so, Mario is a very long way indeed from being in his
best voice on these renditions. He's often piercingly sharp, his
normally excellent sense of rhythm is faulty (especially on And This
Is My Beloved), and he bellows and strains. And these are the best
tracks! I honestly believe that This Nearly Was Mine and Falling in
Love With Love are the worst recordings I've ever heard from a great
singer, and they prove just how hopelessly wrong certain well-
intentioned fans are when they claim that even on his worst days,
Lanza sang better than other singers on their *best* days.
I think the sheer fact that Mario allowed this album to be released
reveals his troubled state at the time (1956). It's easy to understand
why he was depressed: his comeback film, Serenade, had not been the
success at the box office he had hoped for (and desperately needed),
his finances were in poor shape, he was drinking heavily, and at the
bottom of it all he must have been painfully aware of the fact that he
was not fulfilling his incredible potential.
As for the recording itself, I believe that the following factors all
conspired to make the album the disaster that it was:
-The arrangements were awful
-The conducting was almost non-existent
-Mario was under-rehearsed and hungover
I think it's obvious that he'd been drinking heavily in the days
leading up to the sessions. There's a coarseness in his timbre that
can only have come from overdoing the alcohol, and this would also
explain why he mispitches so much. But I don't think he was drunk at
the actual sessions. On the raw tapes, you can hear him speaking, and
his voice sounds reasonably clear. The sound quality, incidentally, is
better on the raw tapes (before they added all that ghastly echo),
though it doesn't hide the fact that Mario is still singing badly.
Joe: I'm glad you brought this album up, as I think it is important
that we address it. I know that I sound very harsh on Mario in what
I've written, but I'm just trying to be honest. Besides, I'm pretty
sure that Lanza, had he actually listened to the album (and it's
debatable whether he did), he would have dismissed it in considerably
more unflattering terms than I just did!
Mike McAdam
full singing stance) was bloody ghastly. I'll always contend that
Lanza was 3/4 in the bag during these sessions. I used to hear my
alcoholic tenor uncle sing when he had a skin full and that is exactly
how he sounded!
This is the only LP by *anyone* that I actaually deliberately ran over
with my car until it was completely shattered. My mother still asks
how I could have hated a recording so much? I guess I felt pretty
strongly as the only other LP's I had of Mario's up until then were
"Love Songs and a Neapolitan Serenade" , "A Kiss & Other Love Songs"
and "The Student Prince & other Musical Comedies". What a sham the
Broadway album was after those three!
I agree with Derek on "This Nearly Was Mine". I actually thought this
song was a parody when I first heard it (as in the Seven Hills Of
Rome?).
Funny that Derek Mannering has been *very* silent about this album (of
course, it came out after the Coke shows where Lanza's output as a
tenor ended, right? :-)
M.
Derek McGovern
discussions took place at RCA's Head Office in the aftermath of the
Lanza on Broadway sessions. In the first instance, it's pretty obvious
that RCA knew that the album was substandard (to put it mildly)
*before* they released it, as they took the precaution of placing the
only partially salvageable recordings from the sessions at strategic
points on the album: ie, Side 1 began with On the Street Where You
Live, Side 2 with And This Is My Beloved, and the album ended with
You'll Never Walk Alone. The positioning of these tracks can't have
been a coincidence. But even then, RCA must still have weighed up the
pros and cons of what the other tracks on this album would do to
Lanza's reputation, as well as its likely impact on future Lanza album
sales -- the only thing that would have truly concerned them, I
suppose. It's been said that tenor Jan Peerce was aghast when he heard
the album and could not comprehend why RCA would consider releasing
it. "Why are they doing this to Lanza?," he's supposed to have
exclaimed. (I'd like to see verification of this story, though!)
I also have to wonder whether RCA would still have gone ahead with the
Cavalcade album if Mario's vocal condition had not improved in the
months following the Lanza on Broadway sessions. Perhaps they saw the
singles sessions (This Land, Earthbound, etc) that took place earlier
in August 1956 as an opportunity for a (vocal) test run?!
Many of us have wondered why on earth Lanza didn't simply forbid RCA
to release the Broadway album. (After all, he refused to allow the
release of the Albert Hall recording two years later.) But on
reflection, I suppose he wasn't in a position financially in 1956 to
have done such a thing. RCA would have demanded reimbursement of all
their expenses (the orchestra, the recording engineers, the
conductor's fee, etc), and I imagine that these would have amounted to
a small fortune!
Derek McGovern
> Funny that Derek Mannering has been *very* silent about this album (of
> course, it came out after the Coke shows where Lanza's output as a
> tenor ended, right? :-)
about this album. In his second book, he devotes almost two pages to
discussing it -- four times as much space as he gives the vastly
superior "Mario!" album, in fact. While I agree with his overall
verdict on the LP, I feel he's stretching things when he asserts that
On the Street Where You Live, "though mannered, is perfectly
acceptable in its own right." (Perhaps he felt he needed to justify
why he'd included it on his BMG My Romance CD?)
On the Street Where You Live is actually one of the songs from this
album that I most wish Mario had re-recorded in happier vocal times --
and with a much better arrangement, as well as a more appropriate
tempo. The others are You'll Never Walk Alone (I've always felt that
he could have improved on his two Coke versions, especially with his
later voice), And This Is My Beloved, and This Nearly Was Mine.
Vince Di Placido
Broadway" album & I agree completely with what you wrote. The last
thing Mario needed at this time was a dud like this album just as in
1954 he didn't need the "Shower of Stars" fiasco. Oh! How our boy
seemed to love sabotaging himself BUT at least he always had a good
comeback in him: The second "Shower of Stars show" & the "Cavalcade of
Show Tunes" show great character!
The "Lanza on Broadway" album is just a foggy, confused mess (not
unlike a hangover itself!) & aside from Mario's very obvious bad vocal
form, definitely the worst singing & phrasing I ever heard from Mario,
the actual recording & mixing is just terrible & then to plaster it
with that awful reverb is just improving things worse (as Harry Cohn
used to say!)
It must have been frustrating for Mario to be in the recording studio
with material he usually excelled with & I assume wanting to do well &
all that was coming out of him were below par vocals, if you are under
the weather, no matter how you focus & try to sing well it just
doesn't happen, a good vocal sound requires a healthy body & mind. I
really wish this album didn't exist!
Vince Di Placido
"Mario! album in his books. It is one of Mario's great artistic
achievements & I would think a classic album in anybody's book. In
fact I have discussed this album with Derek Mannering on Jeff Rense's
forum & found his reluctance to call the album a classic or
masterpiece, which I do have a tendency to do, absolutely baffling.
Maybe I am a little bit too entusiastic about "Mario!" but I do think
it deserves more attention than it gets.
Derek McGovern
himself! Just as the excellent Cavalcade abum followed Lanza on
Broadway, so did For the First Time make up for The Seven Hills of
Rome -- both as a film and vocally, in particular. Even on his last
album, he managed to sound almost like the Mario of yore with his
impressive singing of One Alone, One Flower, and Azuri's Dance. (Now
imagine if his final album had been the depressing Christmas disc of
April 1959!)
Yes, he was certainly the comeback kid :-)
gary from N.S.
I just want to add a little point here on this discussion,and simply I
do not find these "comments" concerning Mario on this album as being
"harsh". It is refreshing to see that folks here have an honest
outlook on this album and Mario's poor output on the tracks.
It was obviously a low time in his all too short life. The fact that
fair appraisals are given, instead of whitewashing facts, proves to me
the "fibre" of this forum.
Cheers
Gary
Derek McGovern
reminded me of the occasion when Lindsay Perigo and I tried
(unsuccessfully) to dissuade the NZ division of the World Record Club
from re-releasing this disc. This was back in 1981. We'd heard in
advance that they were going to bring out Lanza on Broadway under the
hideous misnomer of "Pure Gold", & we were determined to do something
about it. First. we wrote to the World Record Club, pleading with them
to listen to it at least before they inflicted it on the public ("try
This Nearly Was Mine as a starting point ", we suggested :-)), but to
no avail. Then I went to the newspapers! The journalist whom I spoke
to just happened to know a thing or two about singing, so I actually
took a tape recorder with me to his office and played him This Nearly
Was Mine. His pained reaction was priceless!
A few days later his article appeared in the NZ Sunday News under the
headline "Lanza Fans Want to Bury Gold". This forced the World Record
Club to make some kind of comment, so they duly trotted out a
spokesperson who reassured the record-buying public that they had
indeed listened to Lanza's performances on this album and had found
"nothing wrong with them"! They even claimed that our "specialised
tastes" had made us unduly sensitive to Lanza's singing on this
occasion. (???!!!) Perigo then responded in print, saying archly that,
"I shall charitably assume that the World Record Club luminary who
claimed that there was nothing wrong with these performances is
himself endowed with exceptional charity."
Anyway, as I wrote earlier, it was all to no avail. The record came
out and was on the shelves for ages. But I've always wondered if any
of this negative publicity actually dented sales! Amazingly, though, I
never read any reviews of the re-release -- nor, for that matter, have
I ever read *any* review of even the original album. When you think of
the field day that Lanza's critics could have had with these
recordings, it's surprising that they seem to have overlooked the one
occasion when they could have legitimately criticised his singing.
On 4/21/08, Derek McGovern <derek.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Vince wrote:
>
> > I can't believe how little Derek Mannering has written about Mario's
> > "Mario! album in his books. It is one of Mario's great artistic
> > achievements & I would think a classic album in anybody's book. In
> > fact I have discussed this album with Derek Mannering on Jeff Rense's
> > forum & found his reluctance to call the album a classic or
> > masterpiece, which I do have a tendency to do, absolutely baffling.
>
> > Maybe I am a little bit too enthusiastic about "Mario!" but I do think
> > it deserves more attention than it gets.
>
> Vince: Your tremendous enthusiasm for the "Mario!" album is entirely
> warranted! It's one of Lanza's finest artistic achievements, and, in
> my experience, of all his albums, it's the one that's most
> likely to impress aficionados of great singing as an introduction to
> him. Mannering's criticisms of certain tracks on it (eg, Maria Mari' -
> which, preposterously, he maintains is inferior to the Coke version -
> and the "almost asleep" Fenesta che Lucive), while selecting the only
> *substandard* rendition from the entire album (Funiculi' Funicula')
> for his "Ultimate Collection", suggest that he's out of his depth,
> musically speaking, when it comes to assessing how Neapolitan songs
> should be sung.
> >
>
Derek McGovern
the field day that Lanza's critics could have had with these
recordings, it's surprising that they seem to have overlooked the one
occasion when they could have legitimately criticised his singing."
On second thoughts, make that "legitimately *attacked* his singing"!
This album most certainly wasn't the only occasion on which critics
could have legitimately "criticised" Mario's singing. The 1959
Christmas album, for example, while never descending to the depths of
the Broadway album, makes for sad listening. Yet even then, far from
being attacked, it was actually singled out by Time magazine as one of
the best albums of 1959!
In general, though, I find it extremely frustrating that much of
Lanza's best singing on disc was overlooked by record critics during
his lifetime. Why didn't the reviewers of Gramophone magazine, for
example, who in the early 1950s had been legitimately tough on some of
Mario's lesser operatic efforts, ever bother to write about the
outstanding operatic singing that was included on the Serenade
soundtrack album? Apart from one then-contemporary review of this
record that Armando has posted from an Australian periodical, I've
never read a single review published in Lanza's lifetime of his great
recordings of the Lamento di Federico, Otello Monologue, Di Rigori
Armato, etc.
Joe Fagan
harsh with Mario when he was living. Some of those reasons being: 1) How
dare this "upstart" get so much attention 2) he has never been on an
operatic stage ( overlooking his NO Butterfly performance) 3) he hasn't paid
his dues 4) he is a film singer only 5) his voice is electronically
amplified...........etc etc. But, I have always thought that "history"
would be more kind and more objective. In one way it has since we and many
others STILL listen to and debate Lanza after 50 yrs~~~ however, I had hoped
that NEW generations of critics would see the Lanza PHENOMENA for what it
is: Sensational, A Statistical Miracle, A Standard by which to compare all
new tenors etc. THIS is exactly why, as Derek so fastidiously points out, we
should have compilations of his *best* work readily available!
Armando
>
> - Show quoted text -
Den
I mentioned in an earlier post the "raw" recordings of this album
Has anyone on the forum heard these? and if they have what is the
difference, if any?
Dennis
Derek McGovern
Yes, I have heard the raw tapes (without the added reverb or the Jeff
Alexander Angelic Choir): they're on a Damon Lanza Productions CD
entitled Guardian Angels. All I can say is that the sound is a mite
warmer, but *nothing* -- and I can't emphasize this enough! -- can
mask the fact that poor Mario's in the worst vocal form of his life
here.
Here's the proof of the pudding: the "raw" version of the dreadful Why
Was I Born? (sorry, Joe!!). I'd hate this to end up on youtube, so
it'll only be available at the following link for a very short time:
http://www.4shared.com/file/44969199/5d642aa4/Why_was_I_born.html
Do let me know what you think of it, Den (and anyone else, for that
matter, who hasn't had the "privilege" of hearing this rendition
before :-))
Den
Thanks for that, I have just listened to the track, there is a little
difference
and I do mean "little"
I think that this could put an end to this discussion, there is never
going to
be a good word for this body of work
Joe, try this for something a little different
http://www.4shared.com/account/dir/6056392/afccab29/sharing.html?rnd=4
Dennis
Joe Fagan
to his unhappy fate. I know, I am the *only* one who hears this...silly
me....lol.............Joe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek McGovern" <derek.m...@gmail.com>
To: "The Mario Lanza Forum" <mario...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 6:12 AM
Subject: Re: The "Lanza on Broadway" Album
Hi Den
Yes, I have heard the raw tapes (without the added reverb or the Jeff
Alexander Angelic Choir): they're on a Damon Lanza Productions CD
entitled Guardian Angels. All I can say is that the sound is a mite
warmer, but *nothing* -- and I can't emphasize this enough! -- can
mask the fact that poor Mario's in the worst vocal form of his life
here.
Here's the proof of the pudding: the "raw" version of the dreadful Why
Was I Born? (sorry, Joe!!). I'd hate this to end up on youtube, so
it'll only be available at the following link for a very short time:
Do let me know what you think of it, Den (and anyone else, for that
matter, who hasn't had the "privilege" of hearing this rendition
before :-))
http://www.4shared.com/file/44969199/5d642aa4/Why_was_I_born.html
On Apr 22, 9:24 pm, Den <dennis.w...@uwclub.net> wrote:
Derek McGovern
desperate, heartbroken man, singing through tears and resigned to his
unhappy fate"!
Jan Hodges
|
I have never before heard any of the Lanza on Broadway tracks and after listening to the one Derek posted all I can say is "Oh dear!" It was way over the top. There were a couple of very nice sounding notes but the singing...well. Thank goodness he made Cavalcade of Show Tunes.
Jan | |||
|
|
Derek McGovern
This Nearly Was Mine -- it's even worse than Why Was I Born! I know
I've said it a thousand times before, but what sort of record company
would release such sad material of one of its most important artists?!
It's simply unconscionable. Perhaps Lanza would have been better off
if he'd signed with Columbia Records instead; their standards might
well have been higher -- and they could scarcely have been any lower.
When you think of the atrocious sound quality on many of the 1959
recordings, coupled with the numerous poorly chosen compilations,
bargain basement LP and CD covers (in many instances), inaccurate LP
liner notes, etc, you'd be hard pressed to think of any other great
singer whose recorded legacy has been handled so incompetently.
Joe Fagan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek McGovern" <derek.m...@gmail.com>
To: "The Mario Lanza Forum" <mario...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: The "Lanza on Broadway" Album
Aline staires
|
Derek; "Why was he born???" Certainly not to sing this kind of crap!!! Further and more to the point why was the idiot who produced this ever born or allowed into the music business? My God!!! Poor Mario. How he must have suffered when he heard it!!!
-------Original Message------- |
|
|
Derek McGovern
On 30 August 2010 Tony wrote:
I've a
question though, since we're discussing Lanza's recorded legacy. Is
LANZA ON BROADWAY a total wash? I think most would agree that "And
This Is My Beloved" is the best take from that album. But I would
particularly like to know from Derek, Armando and Mike - with each of
their respective specialities and knowledge, if you will, just what
each of their thoughts are. I've been listening to A CD from England a
friend sent me years ago and it's got the complete LOB album on it.
It's entitled 16 TOP TRACKS. My gut feeling tells me it is a rather
hopeless cause but, hope springs eternal.
Ciao, Tony
**********************************************************************************************************
Hi Tony: Please don't limit your question to me, Armando and Mike, as I'm sure some of our other members would like to comment as well!
Here's my short take on Lanza on Broadway (borrowed from another thread):
I've always maintained that And This Is My Beloved is the best thing
on the LOB album, though as Vince has pointed out, Mario is still a long way
from being in top form here. I just find this rendition OK. While the
soft touches are quite beautiful (and I agree with Vince about the
outtake), overall there's just a little too much strain in Mario's
singing here -- and that includes the ending, which is a bit of a
belt. The uncertainty in the middle of the song when his usually
excellent sense of rhythm falters ("Music!...Mystery!", etc) doesn't
help matters either; Aaronson must have been asleep at the wheel!
Here's how I'd rate the 12 selections on the album from best to worst:
2/ On the Street Where You Live (just passable)
3/ You'll Never Walk Alone (just passable)
4/ Younger Than Springtime (poor)
5/ More Than You Know (bad, but with a couple of appealingly Lanzarian
moments, surprisingly enough)
6/ So In Love (bad)
7/ September Song (bad)
8/ Speak Low (very bad)
9/ My Romance (awful)
10/ Why Was I Born? (awful)
11/ Falling In Love With Love (appalling)
12/ This Nearly Was Mine (appalling)
Cheers
Derek