"Hello, Dolly" 2017 Cast Recording

[AKarp2013]

A Pre-Order has just been listed on Amazon with a release date of April 21 from Masterworks Broadway. This is exciting!!!

Edit: Sorry guys, looks as though the listing has been removed.

[nealb1]

Thanks for the link!  I've got tickets for Sat, May 6th - evening show.  Really looking forward to seeing it.

You may have read some of the postings here on the site that rumors are saying that perhaps "I Put My Hand In," has been replaced with "Just Leave Everything To Me" from the film.  Who knows if that's true or not.  But, we'll find out soon.

 

[GavestonPS]

Oh, let's hope so. "Just Leave Everything to Me" is a better lyric.

I don't need a list of the parts of Dolly's hand.

[matineeidol2591]

I was at the box office earlier in the week, and for what its worth I heard Bette and the cast singing "I Put My Hand In" on the stage. 

[GavestonPS]

I can't wait to see the Divine Miss M's gestures during:

When I use my fist a little
Some young bride gets kissed a little,
When I use my thumbs
Matrimony comes.

[jacobsnchz14]

Would love some Donna Murphy bonus tracks!

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

matineeidol2591 said: "I was at the box office earlier in the week, and for what its worth I heard Bette and the cast singing "I Put My Hand In" on the stage."

How did it sound?

[fashionguru_23]

I remember reading in Jerry Herman's memoirs, "Just Leave Everything to Me" wasn't written for the opening spot in the film. Maybe it's going in the original spot...whatever it is.

[ljay889]

matineeidol2591 said: "I was at the box office earlier in the week, and for what its worth I heard Bette and the cast singing "I Put My Hand In" on the stage."

 

Well that's good news. "Just Leave Everything to Me" is generic. "I Put My Hand In" has such a terrific period sound to it. 

[dramamama611]

Oh, I much prefer I Put My Hand In to Just Leave Everything to Me!

[GavestonPS]

dramamama611 said: "Oh, I much prefer I Put My Hand In to Just Leave Everything to Me!

 

"

Okay, ya'll sent me back to listen to both songs. Though I prefer "Just Leave..." to "Hand" as a musical comedy number, I see jay's point that the latter better sets up the sound of the play's period.

Moreover, "Just Leave..." is specifically cinematic, since film can cut (or pan) to all the many occupations Dolly claims to have. "Hand" focuses much more specifically on Dolly's job as matchmaker, which is of course the point of the play.

Re the lyric I quoted above, I notice that Herman rewrote that quatrain for the London production and improved it enormously. Let's hope they use those lyrics rather than the ones he gave Channing to sing. The revised lyrics follow the course of a courtship rather than merely tracing the geography of a hand.

[theatreguy]

Gaveston, I assume you're referring to the "When my little pinky wingles, some young maiden gets the giggles ..." lyric. Both that and the "fist a little" lyric have always been in the show - the recordings don't reflect how the song is performed on stage. The first section comes during the main part of the song. Then the ensemble exits, Dolly and Ambrose have some dialogue and the scene ends with Dolly alone singing the pinky/maiden lyric.

The 1994 Carol Channing recording includes both sections.

[Stage Door Sally]

Thanks for the tip, I just purchased several CDs to give to my guests going to the show. Perfect.

[GavestonPS]

theatreguy said: "Gaveston, I assume you're referring to the "When my little pinky wingles, some young maiden gets the giggles ..." lyric. Both that and the "fist a little" lyric have always been in the show - the recordings don't reflect how the song is performed on stage. The first section comes during the main part of the song. Then the ensemble exits, Dolly and Ambrose have some dialogue and the scene ends with Dolly alone singing the pinky/maiden lyric.

The 1994 Carol Channing recording includes both sections.

 

"

Ah, I see. I have the Channing, Martin and Streisand recordings, but I've only seen the stage version once, when Channing brought it to NYC in 1978. Obviously, I don't remember it clearly enough to know all the lyrics that were used.

So even more lines about parts of the hand! I hope they do the thumbs and fist lines in full SMBD gear.

[Dollypop]

Link doesn't work for me.

[ljay889]

Looks like it was taken down!

[A Director]

Here are the lyrics for I PUT MY HAND IN.  They give Dolly something to act and the director to stage.  The lyrics have to do with Dolly as a matchmaker. This is what the show is about.  As for Just Leave Everything To Me, it's a generic list song with nothing to act and the lyrics are all over the place (Perhaps Jerry Herman used the hand and its parts in the lyric as a way to wink at a  certain members of the audience, but who cares.)

I Put My Hand In lyrics

Dolly
I have always been a woman who arranges things 
For the pleasure and the profit it derives
I have always been a woman who arranges things 
Like furniture and daffodils and lives

(Hands purse to Ambrose)

When a man with a timid tongue
Meets a girl with a diffident air
Why should the tortured creatures beat around the bush
When heaven knows mother nature always needs a little push
So I put my hand in here
I put my hand in there
And a girl over 6 foot 3
Loves a man who comes up to her ear
Surely it's obvious she'll never be seduced
'Til some kind soul condescends 
To give her beau a little boost
So I put my hand in there
I put my hand in here

I have always been a woman who arranges things
It's my duty to assist the Lord above
I have always been a woman who arranges things
Like luncheon parties, poker games, and love
My aplomb at cosmetic art
Turned a frump to a trump lady fair
She had a countenance a little bit like scrooge 
But oh today you would swear the Lord himself applied the rouge
When I put my hand in here
I put my hand in there!

(Short dance interlude)

I put my hand in here
I twist a little, stir a little
Him a little, her a little
Shape a little, mold a little
Some poor chap gets sold a little
When I use my fist a little
Some young bride gets kissed a little
Pressure with the thumbs
Matrimony comes
When, I put my hand in there...

For when my little pink wiggles
Some young maiden gets the giggles
Then I make my knuckles active
"My" he says "She's so attractive."
Then I move my index digit
And they both begin to fidget
Then I clench my palm
The preacher reads a psalm
When I put my hand in there!
Last Update: June, 10th 2013

[Auggie27]

"Then I clench my palm
The preacher reads a psalm"

Never noticed this lyric in the reprise, but it's a beauty. 

[Stage Door Sally]

"For when my little pink wiggles
Some young maiden gets the giggles
Then I make my knuckles active
"My" he says "She's so attractive."
Then I move my index digit
And they both begin to fidget
Then I clench my palm
The preacher reads a psalm
When I put my hand in there!"

Never heard this before. What production was it in?

[ljay889]

It's the reprise, it's on the 1994 cast recording.

[GavestonPS]

I don't think Jerry Herman intended any double entrendres in the lyric. (I don't know him, but we have a mutual friend and that isn't my second-hand impression of him.)

But lyrics have literal as well as metaphorical meanings and there's something that makes me squirm a little about "I put my hand in here, I put my hand in there." The lines don't read as S&M to me, just uncomfortably biological. The lines probably come from Thornton Wilder (many of the show's songs are taken from monologues in the Wilder play, The Matchmaker, which in no way diminishes Herman's skill), but still...

[MichelleCraig]

So looking forward to a Bette cast recording. My favorite recording of the score is Pearl Bailey's 1967 recording. The orchestra has such a swagger, like they were so comfortable knowing it was a hit. 

[A Director]

Galveston -  If the lyrics don't read S&M to you, why did you hope, "So even more lines about parts of the hand! I hope they do the thumbs and fist lines in full SMBD gear."?

In Act I of The Matchmaker, Dolly tells  Ambrose, "Mr. Kemper, I am a woman who arranges things."  A few lines on, she says, "Life as it is is never quite interesting enough for me -- I'm bored, Mr. Kemper, with life as it is -- and so I things. I put my hand in here, and I put my hand in there, and I watch and I listen -- and often vey much amused."

To me, Wilder is using hand as a verb, to hand means to help, assist, guide.  A matchmaker helps, assists and guides.  Herman takes the line and turns it into a song which introduces Dolly.

 

[GavestonPS]

A Director said: "Galveston -  If the lyrics don't read S&M to you, why did you hope, "So even more lines about parts of the hand! I hope they do the thumbs and fist lines in full SMBD gear."?

In Act I of The Matchmaker, Dolly tells  Ambrose, "Mr. Kemper, I am a woman who arranges things."  A few lines on, she says, "Life as it is is never quite interesting enough for me -- I'm bored, Mr. Kemper, with life as it is -- and so I things. I put my hand in here, and I put my hand in there, and I watch and I listen -- and often vey much amused."

To me, Wilder is using hand as a verb, to hand means to help, assist, guide.  A matchmaker helps, assists and guides.  Herman takes the line and turns it into a song which introduces Dolly.

 

 

"

I was kidding, Director. I always assumed the metaphor came from Wilder, just as you demonstrated for me. (Thanks.) Since we're on the subject, however, by turning the metaphor into a song-length extended analogy, Herman does sort of invite us to imagine just what Mrs. Levi is doing with her digits. But I don't think Herman gets enough credit for his lyrics as it is, so I'll shut up on the subject. I think he's better with words than most.

[Dollypop]

Some of Herman's zingers in the MAME score are taken from the stage directions in AUNTIE MAME.