Track Listing

1. Overture ... Why Can't the English?
2. Wouldn't it Be Loverly?
3. With a Little Bit of Luck
4. I'm An Ordinary Man
5. Just You Wait
6. The Rain in Spain
7. I Could Have Danced All Night
8. Ascot Gavotte
9. On the Street Where You Live
10. You Did It
11. Show Me
12. Get Me to the Church on Time
13. A Hymn to Him
14. Without You
15. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34122 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording

Amazon.com
This recording was produced more than 40 years ago, only in mono, but from the day it was released it was a deserved phenomenon. It out-grossed the mega-hit show for months, and it still holds the record for the most weeks as a Billboard Top 40 album: 292. The reasons are many. Start with the 20-year-old Julie Andrews in peak voice, singing no fewer than eight sensational Lerner and Loewe songs, soaring most memorably to high C in "I Could Have Danced All Night." Rex Harrison perfected the art of talk-singing in a clutch of equally captivating numbers written especially for his voice, of which the most indelibly delivered is "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." And Stanley Holloway brought the best English music-hall style to an eager American audience with "A Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church on Time." There were no scene-changers in Frederick Loewe's best score, and Alan Jay Lerner managed to fashion his libretto and lyrics so close to the language of George Bernard Shaw (on whose play Pygmalion the musical was based) that experts couldn't tell where Shaw left off and Lerner took over. Every song created character and advanced the plot. My Fair Lady was a show you "got"--and still get--on first listening--without having seen it. The London cast album (with the same leads) can give you stereo; the movie version, a fuller orchestra, Harrison and Holloway in full sail, and Marni Nixon dubbing Audrey Hepburn. But the Broadway cast album is still the one to have, and the one absolute must in any musical collector's CD library. --Robert Windeler

Customer Reviews

Break On Through
In a watershed moment for Columbia Records, this original Broadway cast recording began the rapid climb of the company into the stratosphere of pop culture consciousness.

Produced by company president Goddard Lieberson, it sold five million copies and spent a staggering 480 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart. To place the album in an accurate historical perspective, it was the Thriller of its generation.

It is timeless music - due to the rich arrangements & performances - with the numbers encapsulating the musical for those who only have the album as the point of reference.

There are few albums that truly define the American music industry. This is certainly one which has space on that lofty mantel.

My Fair Lady
I love the musical MY FAIR LADY. The video is helping me accomplish something musically. The video is well done, and I got it at such a wonderful price.

Another purchase as promised.
I received the cd as I was told I would. Perfect in every way.