Review by William Ruhlmann Inevitably, the original soundtrack to My Fair Lady is remembered, like the film, for the absence of Julie Andrews, who starred in the Broadway and London stage productions, but was deemed, at least at the time when the casting decision had to be made, not enough of a star to carry the movie. (Embarrassingly, by the time the movie opened, Mary Poppins had made her more than enough of a star to do so.) Instead, Audrey Hepburn stepped into the role of the pre-World War I London flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who aspires to a better accent and the social advantages that will come with it. Ironically, Hepburn's voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon when it came to singing. (Nixon was an accomplished Hollywood voice ghost, having previously sung for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Rosalind Russell in Gypsy, among other assignments.) Rex Harrison re-created his stage role as the elocutionist, Professor Henry Higgins (he had also appeared in the film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, the source for My Fair Lady), as did Stanley Holloway, as Eliza's flamboyant Cockney father. It was good that Harrison and Holloway got to immortalize their performances on film, but since both were making their third recordings of the score, they didn't have much to add. Nixon (no doubt with bits of Hepburn here and there) was fine, but the composite performance lacked the flair that Andrews would have given it. The result was an acceptable recording that did not surpass the Broadway or London cast albums.
J**.
Great CD
Wonderful recording of this musical. So happy to have it.
S**A
Five Stars
great gift for an audrey fan
D**N
Not as good as the original Columbia LP.
It is OK but not as good as the original LP which I played frequently as a student in the 1960s. The message is there but the rendition is often weak.
R**N
Five Stars
Good
F**S
Get this instead of the American version!
Better than the American recording! You can actually HEAR Harrison singing, and Julie hits new heights in her performance of the song.
D**D
This is for Columbia CK 2014 in 1986 London remastered.
Columbia Records has remastered the London original London production of 1959 in 1986 which does not appear in Amazon's initial lists of cds. All are recent Sony brands. I wonder why. It has the same gold cover with 8 x 14 insert. Julie Harris saying MEEEOOOWW for Me was transformed into a lady in "I could have danced all night".Stanley Holloways' powerful voice as Doolittle in "With a little bit of luck" made me LOL and immediately want to do a jig. Class system was still in full throttle in 1959, the year of the production, among educators. Rex Harrison was condescending in his disneyesque wish for an Eliza as a hungarian princess. The greater writer, Somerset Maugham's tragic portraits of the femme fatales, Sadie in "Rain" starring Joan Crawford and Mildred in "Of Human Bondage" starring Bette Davis were successful as potentially redemptable developed characters. A professor falling in love with his student is taboo today. especially Rex Harrison was too old but in those days, many were. I give it 4* for Higgin's prophecy that without him she would revert to a molly malone existence.
J**S
Peculiar thing about this CD
A huge fan of the original Broadcast cast LP as a child, I bought the Stereo London cast (same principals) and was disappointed that as noted inside in the notes the cast had colds when it was recorded and were just slightly off pitch, everyone. I also thought that after doing it for three years, they were a bit weary of the material. So I delayed getting the London cast CD for years. Now I listen to it and no evidence of the colds, nor mention of it in the notes. I suspect that the vocals were every so slightly sweetened upwards and if so, thank you. Now this recording is very nearly as good as the Broadway and has the bonus "Embassy Waltz". I still slightly prefer the Broadway, which has the fizzy excitement of a new major hit preserved in every note. Either of these are hugely preferable to the film recording, which suffered from Audrey Hepburn in her only inadequate performance (Jack Warner deigned that it would be Cary Grant and Julie Andrews OR Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, but was determined to break up the tandem). Now, either way, you can't go wrong.
M**N
this is the one
I assume that if you have made it to reading this review it would be redundant to try to sell you on My Fair Lady...I'm recommending this particular performance. Obviously the film is out of the question. One can only hope that Jack Warner got his just rewards post mortem. This recording is in stereo which was the original reason to release it in 1959. (the cast is identical to the new york album) The songs are so exquisitely rendered...informed by years of performance in New York. Harrison's "accustomed to her face" is utterly poignant. magisterial even. Julie Andrews is superb in every way. Her defiance in just you wait is biting and the sweetness of "Loverly" and "I could have danced..." this album has such riches of feeling. I hope that they will remaster this performance as with the New York 1956 one. Not to worry however; the recording has more than adequate sonics.
K**O
A wonderful recording
I had this record as a vinel album and listened to it when I was a child. It was great to hear it again. Julie Andrews voice is amazing, I wish she had been in the film.
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