[78-L] Decca Broadway Operettas

[DAVID BURNHAM]

I was just reading one of the DBO booklets and discovered that one of our correspondents, Doug Pomeroy, is responsible for these magnificent transfers..  When I came to create this posting, I noticed that dl had already informed us of that, (he's always one ahead of me).  In any case, congratulations to Doug for his fine work here.

If the other musicals which Dave mentions were given the same care as the ones I listed in my original posting, I would love to find copies of them.  I've never seen the Decca "Song of Norway" on CD, and, although it's not really in the same category, I would like to find a remastered CD of Decca's "South Pacific", with Bing, Danny Kaye, Ella, etc.  This release is late enough that it was probably recorded on tape.

db

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They did a number of musicals as well, like Song of Norway and Carmen Jones (I 
know there were others). Doug Pomeroy worked on several of these.

Previously, Decca/Universal/MCA just threw musicals out on CD without proper 
documentation. Carousel has extra tracks which may or may not be alternates. On 
The Town has an alternate of the opening number but no info as to why it exists 
(it's not in the Decca Books).

dl

DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> I don't know if this series is still available in the US, and I've never seen it in Canada, but in 2002, I found a series of Decca Broadway Operettas remastered on CD.  As far as I know, there were only 8 titles in the series: Babes in Toyland, The Red Mill, The Merry Widow, The Student Prince, The Desert Song, The New Moon, Roberta and The Vagabond King.  The booklets include all the original cover art and the notes say they are remastered from lacquered glass masters.  I realize that most of these sets are always to be found in any pile of 78s and that most collectors wouldn't give them a second thought, but since, as a child, I had many of these albums and played them to death, I have a nostalgic attachment to them.  
> 
> But the main attraction of this series is the sound!  The quality of sound is more like late 50s than mid 40s.  Occasionally there is a hint of surface noise but it is very subtle.  The sound is rich, with brilliant percussion, clear consonnants, (text I could never make out on the 78s is crystal clear), no distortion and solid natural bass.
> 
> One interesting, (and unintentional), "bonus" for collectors is that in its first release, "The Merry Widow" included an alternate take of "I Love You so - The Merry Widow Waltz" and left off the Finale.  At first I thought they'd just included the same cut twice but they're clearly different - for one thing, at the end of the second one, Kitty Carlisle sings a wrong note and goes painfully sharp on the last note.  On its second release, the second version of this cut was dropped and the Finale was brought back.
> 
> db