Gene DePaul, Johnny Mercer, Howard Keel, Jane Powell - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954 Film Soundtrack)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Very good quality reproduction, and enjoyable to listen to the full length movie soundtrack again. July 17, 2007

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers soundtrack

Love it!!! Love the movie and am so happy to have the soundtrack. My children love to sing and dance to this music. January 12, 2007

AMAZING!!!!!!!

I LOVE listing to it on my ipod and in the car. My daughter was in a community play of it and we just love singing along. we love the songs "sobbin' women", "Bless your beautiful hive", and "Going' cortin'". If u love the music u will absolutly love the movie too. September 5, 2005

Wall Of Sound

It's a great show, hands down one of the best original movie musicals of the 1950s. Instead of depending on an existing Broadway show, the creators decided to do it themselves, and the result was movie magic. The always creative Stanley Donen seemed driven to recreate American masculinity on the screen, and he found the perfect dance partner in Michael Kidd, whose energetic, acrobatic dances were a sensation and still look terrific today. As dancers, the men come off better than the women, who are hampered by some weird looking costumes and when they're trying to look pretty have to simper around in plushy pastels, like a living row of Nicco wafers.

On the soundtrack, we miss the dancing but there are some wonderful dance arrangements that will get your feet a-tapping. Best of all ghe absence of visuals allows us to concentrate on the classic tunes themselves, which while watching the movie play second fiddle to the subordinate elements. Howard Keel and Jane Powell have melodic, achingly lyrical voices and are each given several opportunities to really wail out--they should have worked with Phil Spector!

Jane's voice, sometimes wobbly or piercing in lesser recordings, is perfection here; Keel probably sings a bit better in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN or KISS ME KATE, but that's only technique: he sounds like he's having a blast. The mixed choruses are charming and Johnny Mercer's lyrics are simply crazy--not over the top as they would be for LIL ABNER, just crazy. If the plot is sometimes criticized as being unseemly, since the theme of rape is treated so casually and humorously, you don't hear much of that on the soundtrack, not until you hear Mercer's original lyrics for "The Sobbin' Women." That will open your eyes and ears! Mercer, by many accounts rather a pig of a human being, came honestly by his reputation as a poet; his lyrics embody the American pastoral in the Cold War, postwar period.

Thank Goodness they were able to find some of this stuff in the trunk. But even without it you would still have one heck of a show album. August 8, 2005

If You Liked the Movie, You'll Love the CD. . .

If you enjoyed the movie, you'll love the CD, particularly for its bonus tracks, including Howard Keel's rehearsal recording of "Bless Yore Beautiful Hide", which, although less vigouously presented than his usual style, is, in its own way, charming. You can also focus, undistracted by the spectacular dancing, on the six-minute rendition of the "Barn Dance", superbly performed by the ace M-G-M Studio Orchestra.

However, most outstanding of these 6 bonus gems are the Academy Award-winning lyricist (for "Moon River") Johnny Mercer's original lyrics, heard in the demo recordings of "Goin' Co'tin'" and "Sobbin' Women". PRICELESS!!! Stanley Donen, who directed the film, performs the former, and audibly collapses into laughter at some of "Goin' Co'tin'"'s words, as will you.

But the highlight is Johnny Mercer himself, performing (with composer Gene De Paul) the original "Sobbin' Women". Mercer must have been planning on the Hays Office being closed on the day he intended to submit his lyrics, for there is no doubt whatsoever that the censorship bureau would NEVER have permitted those words to be heard in an entertainment aimed at families. One rather thinks Mercer wrote these words only to be sung at stag parties, and this demo track does sound as if it were performed at one. IT'S A RIOT! Go directly to Track 27. September 11, 2004

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