Track Listing

1. Main Title - MGM Studio Orchestra, Chorus
2. Cap'n Andy's Calliope - MGM Studio Orchestra
3. Natchez - MGM Studio Orchestra
4. Cap'n Andy's Presentation - MGM Studio Orchestra, Chorus
5. Cap'n Andy's Ballyhoo - MGM Studio Orchestra
6. Encore on Dock - MGM Studio Orchestra
7. Where's the Mate for Me? (Gamblers Song) - Howard Keel
8. Young Romance - MGM Orchestra & Chorus
9. Make Believe - Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel
10. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man - Annette Warren
11. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man [Reprise #1] - Ava Gardner, Kathryn Grayson, Annette Warren
12. I Might Fall Back on You - Gower Champion, Marge Champion
13. Julie Leaves the Boat - MGM Studio Orchestra, Chorus
14. Ol' Man River - William Warfield
15. Ol' Man River (Reprise) - William Warfield
16. You Are Love - Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel
17. Why Do I Love You? - Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel
18. Ravenal Is Gone - MGM Studio Orchestra
19. Bill [Alternate Version] - Annette Warren
20. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man [Reprise #2] - Annette Warren
21. Life upon the Wicked Stage - Gower Champion, Marge Champion
22. After the Ball - Kathryn Grayson
23. Packet Boat - MGM Studio Orchestra
24. Natchez Dock - MGM Studio Orchestra
25. Make Believe (Reprise) - Howard Keel
26. Reunion - MGM Studio Orchestra
27. Ol' Man River -- Finale Ultimo - William Warfield, Chorus
28. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man [Outtake] - Ava Gardner
29. Bill [Outtake] - Ava Gardner

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7046 in Music
• Released on: 1995-05-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Customer Reviews

Great music and great singing!
Show Boat was MGM's biggest money maker in 1951 and has this soundtrack to explain why. It contains the singing of Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, William Warfield, Annette Warren and even outtakes of Ava Gardner (she had a decent voice). It also has a 28 minute page companion booklet. It's an excellent movie soundtrack, what more can I say?

Great version of landmark musical
MGM's 1951 version of the landmark Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical featured some of the finest voices and talents on the lot. Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel are a vocal match made in heaven, and if William Warfield's rendition of "Ol' Man River" doesn't move you to tears, you're probably dead. Marge and Gower Champion stop the show every time they break into a song-and-dance number. Annette Warren's voice was dubbed for Ava Gardner's, and if Warren's performance has more polish, Gardner's renditions of "Can't Help Loving Dat Man" and "Bill" have greater dramatic impact. Luckily, both singers' versions are included on this CD. One could wish that Howard Keel's prologue to "You Are Love" (available on the old MGM Records album) had been included, and that the missing choral passages on some numbers had been somehow restored. Still, this is one of the all-time great soundtrack albums.

You'll cry and cry.
'Show Boat' is the great American stage work of the twentieth century, drama or musical. Its downbeat daring; richly complex and austere scoring, which comments on, as well as provides, a narrative it subverts; above all, its treasurable songs, heartbreaking even at their most seemingly carefree (if you don't die when you hear 'Bill', you probably already have), make it one of the few musicals that never cheats on life in all its arbitrary-happy-sad ingloriousness. Despite some operetta-ish singing and too many softening strings, this is a highly creditable recording that surpasses the film it soundtracks, with some instrumentals that scorch the heart.