rec.arts.theatre.musicals

For my money, the best recording of the KING AND I overture is on the
Lincoln Center cast recording on RCA -- Franz Allers balances the
textures and brings out the details more musically and audibly than
anyone else.

On Aug 24, 1:59 pm, TD wrote:

> Steve Newport wrote:
> > It's interesting that they recorded THE KING AND I Overture for the film
> > soundtrack, but didn't use it for the Main Title of the film.

> Any film's Main Title is usually much, much shorter than a theatre
> overture. I believe the "King and I" overture was recorded for the film
> soundtrack because it was used in its roadshow presentation before the
> actual film started.

I'm not sure that that's the case, though I didn't see the roadshow
version (but doesn't have the DVD have totally different "prelude"
music before the main title?). However, those first "soundtrack"
recordings of the first R&H movies tended to be separately recorded
renditions of the "complete" list of tracks as heard on the OBCR --
possibly in order to allow the LP to be commercially competetive with
the other recording in terms of contents. Some of the songs may have
been the same renditions heard in the movie, but just as often they
weren't: I can hear that "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" is different,
for instance, and we hear the whole Carousel Waltz in the Walker
scoring, where the movie uses that "flashback" version. And the
"soundtrack" recordings also include songs cut from, or never
conteplated for inclusion in, the movie. So it's no surprise that they
also throw in a complete overture instead of the actual main title
music.

JAC