Songs from the 'Junior Miss' Soundtrack

Soon after re-posting the EP of songs from the 1957 TV musical Junior Miss, my friend George from New York sent me a note letting me know that the elusive bootleg I mentioned is available on Internet Archive.

I immediately downloaded the file and started to work on fixing up its sonic limitations, which were considerable but not insurmountable. This involved removing high frequency noise, a heavy low-frequency rumble, addressing the wandering pitch of the various songs, raising the level of the vocals, and so on. The result sounds reasonably good.

Before I go into detail on the songs, let me first mention that the Internet Archive post also has a link to the complete TV production from the DuPont Archives at the Hagley Museum of Wilmington, Delaware.

The titles reveal that the show was broadcast in color, but that is of course lost. At the time, the only way to archive such programs was to point a film camera at a monitor and record it that way, with the result being a "kinescope," which is all that is available nowadays. Video tape recording was yet to come.

Returning to the songs, let me first mention that the show included two numbers not found on the Columbia EP - "A Man Is an Animal" and "Have Feet, Will Dance." Here are all the numbers and the original cast performers.

• "A Man Is an Animal" - Carol Lynley (the title character) and her best friend, played by Suzanne Sidney

• "Have Feet, Will Dance" - the chorus led by Norman Luboff

• "Let's Make It Christmas All Year 'Round" - Lynley, her parents (Don Ameche and Joan Bennett) and her sister, Jill St. John

• "I'll Buy It" - Diana Lynn and David Wayne (Lynley's uncle)

• "Happy Heart" - the chorus

• "Junior Miss" - Ameche

Thanks again to George!

[Note: I've now done some more processing on the files to ameliorate the heavy tape hiss, remove stage noises, minimize tape burbles, etc.]

LINK to Junior Miss soundtrack v2

Diana Lynn, Part 2

Back in August I featured a Diana Lynn LP called Piano Moods. At that time, I said I thought the six Cole Porter items on the record were from a 78 album and the other two items (Lover and Slaughter on 10th Avenue) were from another album.

Pretty good guess - this is the 78 album those two items are from. It was in my collection all along. I forgot I had it.

As I mentioned in the earlier post, Diana Lynn nowadays is remembered for her films, although she started out as a musician. She was good at both arts - a very facile pianist and a very charming film presence. Also very good looking. We should all be so gifted.

A technical note: the arrangement of Mozart's Ronda alla Turca sounds like it was sped up in the mastering, perhaps so it would sound more impressively dynamic. In this transfer, I've kept that fast version but added one that is slowed down so it is pitched a semitone lower. That alternative sounds more natural to me, but you decide.

As with the previous set, the piano arrangements are by George Greeley, and the band is led by Paul Weston. This post is for my friend Mel.

Diana Lynn

While Diana Lynn is best known today as an actor, she started out as a piano prodigy, breaking into films for her musical ability. But her charm and good looks were apparent, and soon she was something of a juvenile lead.

Diana made a number of records during the 40s, collected in this 10-inch LP on Capitol. I believe that the six Cole Porter tunes were recorded for a 78 album, with Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and Lover added later to make this LP - but not certain of that.

All the tunes here display her considerable skills and beautiful tone, and are graced by Paul Weston's fine orchestral arrangements. The piano arrangements are by George Greeley, who made many records of his own. Capitol's sound is excellent.

This post is for my friend Mel of Sallie and Mel's Golden Age of Hollywood, one of the sites over at Isbum's Place.