RAW

Natalie Wood

2011-10-23T13:09:00.013-04:00

From 1961-1965 Natalie Wood made four movies in which she had the opportunity to sing. West Side Story proved a bitter first experience when she was cajoled into thinking her vocals were going to be used, only to have them overdubbed by Marni Nixon. Ms. Wood was devastated.

In Gypsy, Natalie got her way and did virtually all her own warbling. But when the Hollywood behind-the-scenes melodrama Inside Daisy Clover came along, she found her singing capabilities once again in question.

Jackie Ward was brought in to dub spots of Natalie's vocals. This would iron out the kinks in Ms. Wood's renditions of the Andre Previn songs. Ultimately, however, Jackie covered all the bases and Natalie was left getting the short end of the stick...again. Jackie also dubbed Nat in The Great Race, singing "Sweetheart Tree."

Here you can listen and watch Natalie singing her own vocals for "You're Gonna Hear From Me":

Lucille Ball

2011-05-17T20:19:00.039-04:00

Lucille Ball decided she would be Mame, the grandest auntie of them all. She would co-produce the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was in turn based on the Broadway play Auntie Mame starring Rosiland Russell, who repeated her performance for a subsequent film version in the '50s. In Jerry Herman's Broadway musicalization, Angela Lansbury "doubled her fame" with a fiery, inspired performance that was also destined to repeat itself for the big screen and be preserved on celluloid till the end of civilization.

Alas, stirrings of a Mame movie didn't surface until Ms. Ball showed a financial interest in the project. But, of course, she wanted to star. It may have worked at one point, but by 1972 (when filming began) Lucy was starting to show some wear and tear. Any credibility she could muster in the role was alarmingly undermined by the fact she was huffing and puffing her way through her performance!

The talk around Hollywood was that Lucy's singing would be dubbed by Lisa Kirk, but it never came to fruition (rumors still circulate about the existence of possible tracks Lisa may have recorded). Lucy did all her own singing and you can blame the movie's reputation on that fact alone. Here, she croaks out "If He Walked Into My Life," backed by searing orchestrations from the mind and soul of Ralph Burns.

Rosiland Russell

2011-04-15T14:08:00.047-04:00

Okay. This is a good one. Rosiland Russell won the screen role of Mama Rose in the film version of Gypsy. Ethel Merman created the role on Broadway, where she sang the Hell out of it. Rosiland did sing on Broadway in Wonderful Town, but certainly did not have the chops to sing Mama Rose. She had recorded the Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim songs for Gypsy's soundtrack, but the renditions were subpar. Like notoriously bad. Ethel actually possessed the Roz recordings and would play them for party guests when they were drunk! You can listen to Roz's original tracks today. In fact, Lost Vocals is a great place to view an "un-dubbing" of Roz in Gypsy. But she's bad. Real bad. That's where Lisa Kirk comes in. Lisa had sung on Broadway in Kiss Me Kate and was brought in by Warner Bros. to dub the singing for Ms. Russell in Gypsy. The concept was that Lisa would partially dub Roz's voice, resulting in a ghostly blending of the two. I am deviating a bit from this blog's rules--yet sparing you unwarranted pain--by using the track for "Rose's Turn" that was heard in the film itself, but not used on the LP release. "Rose's Turn" is mostly Lisa on the LP version, providing guaranteed listening enjoyment from your home stereo sound system in 1962, whereas you hear more of Roz's vocals when you are literally watching her sing in the movie. Basically, more Roz and less Lisa here...but enough Lisa to ease the pain. Chalk it up to Hollywood witchcraft. Can you tell which is which?

Roz's doppelgangers:

Are you a good witch....

...or a bad witch?

Jean Simmons

2011-04-07T02:36:00.002-04:00

Jean Simmons played Desiree Armfelt in the original London production of Stephen Sondeihm's A Little Night Music. Her rendition of "If I Were A Bell" in Guys & Dolls is painful. It's much nicer listening to her croon with Marlon Brando in the duet "Woman In Love," written for the film version of Frank Loesser's Broadway smash hit.

Suzanne Pleshette

2011-04-04T01:47:00.006-04:00

Suzanne Pleshette actually had a very legitimate singing voice. Big surprise considering the rasp of her speaking voice, which sounds like she's been drinking whiskey and smoking hashish since she was four-years-old. Arthur Laurents talks about her auditioning for the role of Louise in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. He said she had no problem being sexy, but was at a loss with the tomboy aspect of Louise's first act persona. I find this hard to believe since there is nothing more butch than Suzanne Pleshette in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Suzanne bounced back from being snubbed from the original production of Gypsy. She replaced Anne Bancroft on Broadway in The Miracle Worker, which obviously took major acting chops. And before making The Birds, Suzanne played a nightclub singer in the Tony Curtis vehicle 40 Pounds Of Trouble, singing "If You."

Cyd Charisse

2011-02-24T00:21:00.005-05:00

Bold, beautiful Cyd Charisse. A dancer/movie star synonymous with the golden era of the movie musical. Sweeping the world off its feet in most of MGM's major musicals, Ms. Charisse delivered an excellent Ninotchka in Cole Porter's Silk Stockings, leaving comparisons to Greta Garbo's original performance at the door. As was often the case in those days, however, Cyd's singing was also left at the door. But the woman is capable of busting out a tune and made her Broadway debut at 70 in Grand Hotel, doing her own singing (obviously) and taking on another Garbo role. Here is the demo for "It's A Chemical Reaction" using Cyd's real vocals.

Shirley Maclaine

2011-02-09T19:46:00.007-05:00

It's not that Shirley Maclaine can't sing. She was spotted by a Hollywood agent (sent by Alfred Hitchcock no less) while filling in for Carol Haney in the musical The Pajama Game on Broadway. That resulted in Maclaine making her first film with Hitchcock. The rest is history. Or her story.

Shirley Maclaine does remind us now and then that she is a musical performer, primarily a dancer of comparable skill. Not known as a terrific songstress, her voice is thin yet distinctive. The closest she's ever come to recording in a contemporary "pop" fashion is here with "Where Am I Going?" from Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity.

Bette Davis

2011-01-30T21:45:00.003-05:00

Bette Davis bludgeoned her way through a six-decade career in Hollywood as not only a woman of significant star quality, but also as an actress of indelible versatility. Never afraid of taking unsympathetic roles, she proved time and time again how utterly fascinating murderous, damaged, deranged women can be.

In Thank Your Lucky Stars, Bette performs a one-joke song entitled "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" in which she laments the loss of any decent-aged studs to the draft. In 1976, she released an album bearing the name Miss Bette Davis where she reprised the ditty in stereo.

Adhering to my rules, however, I am using the original mono track from the source film soundtrack.

Joan Crawford

2010-12-27T20:52:00.015-05:00

I believe I remember Christina Crawford saying she hated Torch Song in her memoir Mommie Dearest. It was Joan's return to MGM and her first Technicolor film.

Dubbed by India Adams, Joan Crawford took a stab at singing her own vocals. The main ballad is "Follow Me." The posters are way cooler than the flick itself. They have a Bauhaus neo-noir tinge to them, I guess due to the fact that the protagonist's love interest is blind...?

Still, the promotions hinted to much more genius than Torch Song could possibly deliver. The film's reputation is that of high-camp/BAD-movie entertainment. YouTube "Two Faced Woman" for one of the worst musical numbers put on screen, followed by a frightful ripping-off-her-wig moment that is as intense as a Tallulah Bankhead drag act bidding a bar full of truckers one final adieu...or fuck you....

Catherine Deneuve

2010-12-21T20:23:00.007-05:00

That was not her singing on the soundtrack to The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg). Nope. Danielle Licari did those honors, although it sounds so right when heard to Catherine Deneuve's lip-syncing.

Catherine is also a very begrudging participant in Bjork's musical reveries, the technicolor subtext, of Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark.

Finally, Ms. Deneuve lets loose in 8 Women (8 Femmes), a nifty holiday musical/who-done-it flick where each woman gets her moment on trial and each woman gets her song. Catherine sings "Toi Jamais" as a woman of true worldly knowledge.

Jessica Lang

2010-11-17T00:06:00.010-05:00

When Jessica Lang took on the role of Big Edie in the HBO produced Grey Gardens, based on the Maysles brothers' documentary of the same name, she decided she was "going to be reckless" and do her own singing -- something she had never done before, although her lip-syncing to Patsy Cline was exquisite in Sweet Dreams.

She does quite a bit of her own singing in Grey Gardens, and three of those tracks make it onto the soundtrack CD. One is a mono, old time recording of "We Belong Together," something Big Edie could certainly have recorded back in her day. The track I use, however, is the duet version with Malcolm Gets.

Meryl Streep

2010-10-02T18:31:00.008-04:00

Merrrrrrrrrrrrryl!

What can you NOT do, Ms. Streep? I owned the soundtrack for Death Becomes Her (on cassette!) because of your number at the beginning. Weren't you doing a musical version of Sweet Bird Of Youth in that flick? And you sang in Postcards From The Edge...a Ray Charles song and newly written honky-tonk ballad, no less. And I heard you belt it out live as Mother Courage at Shakespeare in the Park. THEN came MammaMia!

"Her singing." quoteth my roommate, very gravely. Michael Musto said she should "Stop singing!" And if you watch it in the movie (as opposed to listening to the cavernous echo of the CD soundtrack), "The Winner Takes It All" ends up being a sweepingly epic screech-a-thon. Really watch and listen to her. When Letterman showed a clip from it on his show, the studio audience barely applauded. It's bad. Overwrought and awkward at the same time. And she hooooooooooooooowwwwwls!

Deafening.

And raw.

Vanessa Redgrave

2010-09-13T17:37:00.001-04:00

Joshua Logan didn't mind one bit replacing Broadway's Guinevere Julie Andrews with Vanessa Redgrave when he filmed Lerner & Loewe's Camelot. He said something to the effect of "Can anyone imagine a country going to war over Julie Andrews' face?" Diss.

Vanessa's, of course, a consummate actress and gives Guinevere her personal brand of pathos. She does a very melodramatic "I Loved You Once In Silence" so I opted for "The Simple Joys Of Maidenhood."

She apparently wore a dress made entirely of pumpkin seeds for this movie. I tried to grab a pic but no dice.

Helena Bonham Carter

2010-09-12T14:11:00.001-04:00

I think the story goes: Hal Prince wanted Stephen Sondheim to write a music-hall number for Angela Lansbury on Broadway in Sweeney Todd. Hence "By The Sea." Helena Bonham Carter squeaks it out in Tim Burton's movie version.

Catherine O'Hara

2010-09-10T16:54:00.003-04:00

Wonderfully talented, beautiful and infinitely funny is Catherine O'Hara, who's created the soul and the schtick of some of Christopher Guest's best characters. (I was going to use "God Loves A Terrier" from Best In Show for this blog when I had no idea she'd done "Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas.)

The pic of her at top is from her stint in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Had no idea she'd done that either =P

Renee Zellweger

2010-09-08T18:13:00.011-04:00

She was a revelation. Even Nicole said Renee Zellweger shoulda won the Oscar that year instead of her. Renee's rendition of "Roxie" comes in the middle of Hollywood's take on Bob Fosse's Chicago, and it proves to be a whammy of a diversion. Looking suspiciously like it's being filmed on video, and drawing anachronistic similarities to Marilyn Monroe and The Twilight Zone, Renee bounces from one mirror reflection of herself to the other, proclaiming the truth about becoming a celebrity. Brilliant. And raw.

Renee Zellweger IS Roxie Hart. Gross as she is, we can't our eyes off her.

Jean Harlow

2010-09-06T20:33:00.008-04:00

Interesting stuff on IMDB.com:

[Reckless] was inspired by the life of torch singer Libby Holman, whose husband, tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynold's suicide caused a scandal (Libby was initially indicted for murder), and she was accused of murder.

Jean Harlow felt the story had disturbing similarities to the suicide of her second husband, Paul Bern. Jean Harlow believed she was cast in the picture in a deliberate attempt to capitalize on that event, and she refused the role at first. In William Powell's autobiography, he says he convinced her to accept the role rather than be suspended [by Selznick].

After the movie was completed and shot as a straight drama, MGM decided to make it into a musical, so production was resumed. This became one of Jean Harlow's few real flops. It's failure pleased Libby Holman immensely.

Jayne Mansfield

2010-09-03T14:28:00.010-04:00

The many faces of Jayne Mansfield. Chameleon, muse, starlet....Madonna's inspiration for the Academy Awards performance of "Sooner Or Later," penned by Stephen Sondheim for Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. Remember...?

Anyway, as my roommate says, "Jayne Mansfield threw anything at the wall just to see what would stick!" And it's kinda true. But, hey, I would never begrudge a girl's shot at enterprise. I mean, she's always on the phone. Girls makin deals!

Here Miss Mansfield sings "That Makes It" from The Las Vegas Hillbillys ... on the phone:

Rebecca De Mornay

2010-08-29T14:10:00.001-04:00

Released as a single in 1985 from the soundtrack of the Neil Simon flop The Slugger's Wife, Rebecca De Mornay hit the airwaves with "Oh Jimmy." I have never heard such a slutty song: "Oh Jimmy don't you wanna do it/We can make it right/Oh Jimmy you know where to put it/Cuz I got what you want toniiiiiiiiiite!"

You know where to put it??? That's trash talk for a white girl. This is the kind of stuff my blog was made for.

Susan Sarandon

2010-08-19T22:47:00.002-04:00

Oh Susan! "Touch-A, Touch-A Touch Me!" Nothing could be finer than your Janet Weiss ("Damn it, Janet!") in Rocky Horror Picture Show, the movie where it really felt WRONG when it was released on video. VIDEO??? RHPS ranks in as THE most audience-participatory flick of all time!

...or of all movie time.

Patsy Kensit

2010-08-09T23:52:00.002-04:00

Brit It Girl Patsy Kensit--along with her band Eighth Wonder--turns it out in her Julian Temple directed star vehicle Absolute Beginners. The film tanked. So did she, but she bounced back as a legitimate actress and Missus to Liam Gallagher of Oasis. And of her big AB number, "Having It All?" Vanished into cinema obscurity!

Rosario Dawson

2010-06-25T19:10:00.002-04:00

Rosario Dawson has pipes. Yet another stage-to-screen adaptation utilized most of it's original Broadway cast when the movie of Rent came barreling down the tracks. Rosario Dawson replaced a pregnant Daphne Rubin-Vega in the pivotal La Bohemesque role of Mimi. All I can say is Rosario's howl is almost as raw as Daphne's as she yodels to Jonathan Larson's "Out Tonight." Or should I say "Aaaaooooooouuuuuut tonight"???

Uma Thurman

2010-06-18T17:42:00.005-04:00

The movie version of the hit Broadway musical version of the 1968 Mel Brooks movie The Producers got a major zing when they got Uma Thurman to play go-go dancing secretary Ulla. Uma gave Ulla legs with no end that kick & split on cue. Work. Her belt in "When You Got It, Flaunt It" is more like yelling on key, so there's an element of raw here.

Nicole Kidman

2010-06-11T12:19:00.003-04:00

Just caught Moulin Rouge! again on TV last night and, of course, it still holds up. As the mythical archetype Satine, Nicole Kidman was nominated for an Oscar for her singing, dancing, dying performance. Under Baz Luhrmann's wildly opulent direction, Nicole achieved A-List Hollywood status that has lasted a decade. Here, I'm using the Tony Phillips remix of "One Day I'll Fly Away" which utilizes Nicole's original vocal track from the film.

NOTE: Can't get the Tony Phillips remix on mp3, so the original is being used on this blog.

Penelope Cruze

2010-06-04T20:06:00.005-04:00

From the movie Nine I really wanted to use Nicole Kidman's "Unusual Way." It's a great example of how an actress utilizes her craft and knowhow.

This is not "Unusual Way."

Penelope Cruze pulls off no small task giving rigorous personality to the role of Carla for the celluloid treatment of the Maury Yeston musical. Thoroughly funny and tragic at the same time, Ms. Cruze's Carla is on edge throughout. And for her big number "A Call From The Vatican" Penelope turns it out, replicating Anita Morris's original contortionist movements and poses. She earned every bit of her Oscar nomination.