Friday, March 21, 2014

Billy's Holiday...Original Songs from the Australian Motion Picture Musical



This movie is all about a normal guy called Billy Apples. He is a social drinker and sometimes lead singer of a band. While he is doing all of this, he still manages to bring up his teenage daughter. One night while sitting at home Billy finds that he has a talent! He finds that he is able to sing like his idol, jazz/blues singer Billie Holiday. From there he is going places, from huge live performances to even cutting a hit record, but in the end he must make a choice between the life he has, and the life he once knew. 

The real treat of this movie is this now rare soundtrack from 1995 featuring songs that were originally done by Billie Holiday but performed in the movie by Max Cullen himself (who manages an almost perfect impersonation of her voice). The score is jazzy, uptempo and will have you bopping, singing along and dancing around the room. 







Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Cabaret..Music from the Original Soundtrack Recording..1972


Cheated out of playing nightclub canary Sally Bowles on Broadway in director Hal Price's Cabaret, Liza Minnelli nevertheless delivered an Oscar-winning star turn in Bob Fosse's cinematic reinvention of the show (which had the good sense to retain perverse imp Joel Grey from the stage production). Although the 1972 film discarded several songs from the original score, the new ones sound even better: Minnelli's breast-beating "Maybe This Time," the sultry "Mein Herr," and the salaciously satirical "Money, Money." By placing almost all the pertinent musical action on the stage of the decadent Kit Kit Club, the Kurt Weill-like compositional nuances and political underpinnings bask in the spotlight...that is, when Minnelli stops eclipsing it with her no-holds-barred performance. --Kurt B. Reighley...Amazon.com review

1. Wilkommen
2. Mein Herr
3. Maybe This Time
4. Money , Money
5. Two Ladies
6. Sitting Pretty
7. Tomorrow Belongs To Me
8. Tiller Girls
9. Heiraten ( Married )
10. If You Could See Her
11. Cabaret
12. Finale