Best Selling Musical Cast Recordings of All Time- Page 2

Posted: 5/21/15 at 12:49pm

Updated On: 5/21/15 at 12:49 PM

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/21/15 at 1:36pm

The OBC of CANDIDE does have remarkable sound for such early stereo, and some amusing sheet-turning/chair squeaking noises at some quiet parts (especially during "Glitter And Be Gay").  

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 12:03am

If I had to guess about why My Fair Lady did not go back and release the OBC vinyl recording in stereo, and didn't release the London cast vinyl recording in monaural, it could have been that there was a great deal of overlap between the two casts -- Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, and Stanley Holloway all reprised their Bway roles in London. I'm not sure about any of the others, although Robert Coote (Pickering) may have appeared in both original casts as well.

Those of us who remember the days of vinyl, let alone monaural vinyl recordings, are getting up there in age. The My Fair Lady soundtrack came out in 1964 or 1965. If I recall, the mono version was $6.99 and the stereo version was $7.99 -- a hefty chunk of change for a kid whose allowance was 25 cents a week!

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 1:59am

yes carlos alberto

the west side story movie cast recording is triple platinum with over 3 million units sold, and is tied for eight on the all time list for movie musical cast recording sales....

 

AH liebross, that was a lot of money back in the sixties for an LP

and you are right, Robert Coote played Pickering in London as well.

I happen to prefer the london stereo cast recording slighly, although I love them both very very much.....

seeing My Fair Lady in london with Laura Michelle Kelly was a musical theatre highlight for me...it was breathtaking....

[Fantod]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 3:06am

I don't know why they didn't bother to record the OBC of My Fair Lady in stereo. I believe Columbia payed the entire budget of the show for the rights to record it, so it surprises me that they didn't spend the extra money for stereo. Not only that, but the OBC isn't ever particularly good mono, and I can think of several recordings released several years earlier that sound way better (the original Oklahoma! for example)

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 3:44am

"I don't know why they didn't bother to record the OBC of My Fair Lady in stereo. I believe Columbia payed the entire budget of the show for the rights to record it, so it surprises me that they didn't spend the extra money for stereo."

In March of 1956, when the OBC of MY FAIR LADY was recorded, the Stereo LP was nowhere near ready for public consumption so there was no real reason to bother with multi-track recording (stereo had been around for years in the movie business and was making for big attraction paired with widescreen pictures at that precise moment but hadn't been grasped for home LP technology yet).

The first experiments with multi-track (in regards to cast albums at Columbia at least) happened later that year with such shows as LIL ABNER being recorded with the orchestra in one track and the vocals in the other (termed binaural at the time though that term I believe has a different meaning today). This technology was still never intended for public consumption but instead to aid the mixing process for more control over audio levels.

The first two cast albums recorded in true stereo came in December 1956 with CANDIDE and BELLS ARE RINGING. However these albums were still released in mono because at that point the stereo LP technology was still being developed (much in the way the soundtracks for the films of Carousel and Oklahoma were released in Mono despite the films featuring full stereo).

By late 1958 stereo LPs had finally been tweaked for public consumption so Columbia started re-releasing the albums they had been recording with multiple tracks the last two years in full stereo, starting (for cast albums at least) with WEST SIDE STORY, recorded in late 1957. There seems to have been no rhyme or reason to the order of re-releases but most of them were released in stereo versions over the next few years (as well as a great many popular mono albums in "duo phonic").

So anyway, while technically it would have been possible to record the MY FAIR LADY OBC in stereo, it just wasn't thought about yet. It really is a pity though, seeing as that album (and the sublime-but-mono MOST HAPPY FELLA) missed out on the technology by just a few months.

Irrelevant tangent finished.

[Fantod]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 3:51am

interesting stuff. thanks for sharing.

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 4:08am

For some reason I find the switch to stereo fascinating. And know an obscene amount about it.

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 9:38am

hey Mr Nowack

fascinating additions to the cast recordings discussion-had never read or heard about the history anywhere else.  Has anyone you know of ever written a book on cast recordings and their history and development?

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 2:48pm

I don't believe such a book exists, but it would be a fascinating subject. Since I've never lived in NYC where the big shows are and am too young to have experienced many of the shows of yesteryear cast albums are my main link to musicals, and I've always had a special love for them and their unique history.

If someone were to write a book about their history I would buy it up so fast! 

[Jose]

Posted: 5/23/15 at 6:36pm

At one time I collected OBC recordings on 78s.  I have only a few.  What some of you may not know is that some of these 78rpm album sets came with booklets containing the lyrics for each recorded song.  Photographs from the original Broadway production were printed on the inside of the front and back covers of some albums as well. The shows which I have on 78 are:

Allegro

Annie Get Your Gun

Call Me Mister

High Button Shoes

One Touch Of Venus

Porgy and Bess, sets 1&2

South Pacific

St. Louis Woman. 

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/24/15 at 8:12pm

cool jose

did not know this many shows were done as 78 rpm packages!

 

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/24/15 at 8:51pm

I also have a few 78 sets, HIGH BUTTON SHOES, ST. LOUIS WOMAN and the 1943 revival of A CONNECTICUT YANKEE. They are quite elaborate!

Pretty much any show recorded before the advent of the LP in 1948 was released originally as a set of 78s, as well as many shows recorded till maybe 1951. 48 EP sets were also common during that period.

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 12:03am

Here is the first ever compilation Ive seen of the 

top selling movie musical cast recordings of all time:

(please add any you see missing or question numbers that dont seem right to you. These are mainly from riaa database or other articles quoting total unit sales)

 

The Sound of Music			10M
The Lion King			10M
Grease			8M
The Little Mermaid			6M
Evita			5M
A Star is Born(1973)			4M
Mary Poppins			4M
Frozen			4M
Pocahantas			3M
Alladin			3M
West Side Story			3M
The Wizard of Oz			2M
Chicago			2M
Tarzan			2M
Oklahoma			2M
Beauty and the Beast			2M
Dr Doolittle			2M
Xanadu			2M
Certified platinum 1Mil:   Phantom of the Opera
Hairspray
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dream Girls
Mamma Mia!
Moulin Rouge
The Prince of Egypt
Jesus Christ Superstar
Funny Girl
Camelot
Annie
Carousel   Certified Gold 500k:
Les Miserables
Anastasia
Hercules
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Hair
The Who's Tommy
Godspell
Cabaret
Paint your Wagon
Gigi
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Porgy & Bess
Joseph
Oliver
Funny Lady
My Fair Lady
The Music Man
An American In Paris

[chernjam]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 12:11am

Interesting information about how much the cast gets paid per day of recordings... a couple ALW questions come to mind:

1- For The Woman in White, they recorded the show live on opening night at the Palace Theatre - does the cast get the same compensation even though they didn't have to spend a whole day in the recording studio?

2 - Is that another advantage to the "concept album" (reduced costs?) ala Love Never Dies (even parts of the World Premiere Recording of Sunset Blvd came from the Sydmonton workshop?)

Was always curious why ALW would issue/record these scores in these types of set ups --particularly when he usually continues to revise them at least a few weeks after the show opens (i.e. Aspects of Love, "There is more to Love" was added a few weeks into its run)

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 5/27/15 at 11:34am

i dpnt know why when i embedded a table above i have all that blank space.

any posters with tech expertise know how to correct that?

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 7/28/15 at 12:33am

I have raised the following question once before, but not as formally: Does anyone know why there are TWO versions of the Phantom of the Opera so-called OLC two-CD and two-LP recordings? Adding in the 1-discb "highlights" concept album, that makes three.

I've researched the POTO discography and found out that the album was re-released years later, but the discography sites don't even agree on the dates. The album covers on the two releases of the two-disc recordings are slightly different. If I recall, one version uses the concept album version of MOTN. The clearest distinction is that, on one version of the 2-disc recording, Joseph Buquet is sung by a bass who sings in the musical equivalent of the Phantom's fifth cellar. That singer has a heavy-duty foreign accent. The other album has a less distinctive-sounding Buquet.

The two versions are not easily identifiable by looking at the album covers. I'm mystified by this whole matter, and I'd love to write an article about it for my new Web site, All Things Phantom dot com. Any information would be greatly appreciated, and will result in an acknowledgment on the site, using your real name or your discussion board name -- whichever you prefer.  

Audrey (AKA Madame Half-Mask on my Web site)

[ZellMorrowsPledge]

Posted: 7/28/15 at 12:39am

Frozen soundtrack sold over 10M in 2014 alone

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 7/28/15 at 10:47am

hi there

whats your source for the 10M number?

 

nielson is the gold standard on music sales, and as of april 2015, they say 4 million sales

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6524148/billboard-200-frozen-four-million?mobile_redirection=false