Broadway First Take, Vol. 1
 Broadway First Take, Vol. 2
 Judy Barnett
Randy Klein
Tommy Flanagan
Ticktock Minutes
Kuni-Leml

Jazzheads
Town Crier Recordings




For CD: order #SMS 703
BROADWAY
First Take, Vol. 2

    PROMISES, PROMISES
  1. Promises, Promises
  2. What Am I Doing Here
    (cut from show)
  3. Upstairs
  4. You'll Think of Someone
  5. She Likes Basketball
  6. Let's Pretend We're Grown Up (cut from show)
  7. Wanting Things
  8. Tick Tock Goes the Clock
    (cut from show)
  9. Whoever You Are, I Love You
  10. Christmas Day

    FLOWER DRUM SONG
  11. Love, Look Away
  12. I Enjoy Being A Girl
  13. She is Beautiful
  14. Sunday
  15. Like A God
  16. Grant Avenue
  17. My Best Love
    (cut from show)
  18. Sunday
    (piano solo by Richard Rodgers)

    LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
  19. La Cage Aux Folles
  20. Song On The Sand
  21. I Am What I Am
  22. The Best of Times
This is the second volume in the fascinating Broadway First Take series of CD releases on the Slider Music /Stage label. The series features the newly-discovered, VERY FIRST studio recordings of the now-classic songs from the legendary shows of American Musical Theater. On this album, for the only time in the history of these legendary songs, we hear them with a purity never achieved again -- just as the writers wrote them. The composers/lyricists of the shows were in the studio at these recording sessions, guiding and supervising. Burt bacharach was there for Promises, Promises, Rodgers and Hammerstien for Flower Drum Song, and Jerry Herman for La Cage Aux Folles.

All the recordings derive from the original studio demo masters of these shows. It is this very aspect of the project which makes it unusual, and of interest. These recordings, mostly dating from the 1960's through the 1980's, were made before the shows ever became shows. The demos were produced to convince popular singers of the day to record selections from the scores -- before the shows opened -- so that at the time of the show's premiere, the music would already be popular. During this golden age, when covers of Broadway songs were a staple of the pop world, leading theatre writers and their music publishers saw the value of making these demo recordings. As the recordings on this volume indicate, care and money were lavished to create polished masters, even though they were destined to be heard by only a handful. The results are no mere intellectual curiosities, but a listening experience of tremendous charm -- capturing the freshness of these brand new creations -- as well as fascinating musical details.