Make the Most of Your Music
There were Matthew Murray, David Schmittou, Bob Sixsmith, Ron Spivak, and I, sitting around a table at Barrymore’s and discussing (what else?) musical theater. Our discussion turned to On the Town and I noted, “My buddy David Wolf says that he’s probably listened to the Comden-Green-Walker recording of On the Town more than any other album in his vast collection.” Suddenly, I was asking everyone at the table, “What album do you believe you’ve listened to more times than any other?”
An intriguing question, isn’t it? Could you begin to guess which album you’ve listened to the most? Murray guessed that his is Sweet Charity — “the original,” he immediately snapped, lest we infer that he preferred the Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Allen, or Christina Applegate recordings to the Gwen Verdon one. Sixsmith said New Faces of 1952, but Spivak couldn’t make up his mind between the original King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, and Annie. All of us noted that these were recordings we acquired early in our lives. That makes sense: The first two cast albums I ever taped from neighbors, My Fair Lady and The Music Man, got played a helluva lot because they were the only ones I had. As much as I’ve listened to Urinetown, Avenue Q, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I don’t think they’ve eclipsed the Funny Girl, Fiddler and Hello, Dolly! of my long-gone youth.
Schmittou got askance looks from all of us when he announced that he wasn’t sure if his Most Often Played Album was the revival cast recording of Irene or the TV soundtrack to Of Thee I Sing. “Let me explain,” he said, nervously licking his lips the way a criminal does when the police start asking one too many tough questions. “My mother picked them up on cassette, and because we had a cassette player in the car, we played them everywhere we went.” I nodded in understanding. Whenever a new technology took hold, I embraced it and wound up playing recordings in the new medium, ignoring anything I had in the old. As mentioned above, I started with a tape recorder; but when I got a record player for Christmas in 1961, Bye Bye Birdie and Fiorello! were the first cast albums I bought. And, oh, did they get played a lot!
In 1968, one of the gifts that my wife and I received on the occasion of our wedding was a reel-to-reel tape recorder. We immediately bought the cast album of The Happy Time on four-track tape and listened incessantly. Soon after, we embraced 8-track technology — yes, I admit it! — and played 1776 for months on end because it was one of the few 8-tracks we had. (On these recordings, a song would often start at the end of Track One and then, before it finished, it would fade out, click to Track Two, and fade in again on the rest of the song. To this day, long after I’ve become accustomed to the CD of 1776, I still expect Betty Buckley to fade out in the middle of “He Played the Violin” the way she did on my 8-track tape.)
When cassettes came out soon after 8-track debuted, I switched and played Hair quite a bit. As for CDs, I came late to them. In 1986, I got my first player: A young man whom I had once taught in my senior English class and whom I begged to stay in school thanked me with one years later when he became the owner of a stereo store. My first two CDs , Follies in Concert and the London Les Miz, ruled for months.
Some time after our discussion at Barrymores, I went to see Once Around the Sun (not bad but not too good, either) with my buddy Robert Armin and asked him to name his Most Often Played Album. “I don’t know,” he said, “but it would be Follies if the original cast album had been a complete recording. I’d also have a better idea if we still only used long-playing records, for I’d be able to tell something from the worn grooves.”
We all seem to ask our collections, “What have you done for us lately?” The recording we just purchased tends to rule our lives — unless, of course, we think it stinks. By and large, once we’ve sated our thirst for a certain cast album, we tend to put it away and not take it out again for a long, long time. Oh, there’s the occasional a renaissance; I still remember that Sunday in 1983 when I played nothing but Greenwillow all day long, again and again. Then there was that Saturday in 1985 when I did the same with New Girl in Town. But for the most part, where cast albums are concerned, I’m a serial killer who plays one album to death before moving onto the next.
So, what’s my Most Often Played Album? I’ve thought back over nearly 45 years of listening to virtually nothing else but show music and realized that it might actually be a soundtrack! As one of the millions of baby boomers who were teenagers in the early 1960s, I was crazy for the West Side Story movie. Is that soundtrack recording my Most Often Played Album? Could be; who knows? This is one of the questions we can ask God when we all get to heaven — which I’m sure we will, if for no other reason than that we were so devoted to show music. In the meantime, I’ll ask if you have a clue as to what your Most Often Played Album might be. Please e-mail your answers to the address below.
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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]
