Gypsy -- The Original 1959 Broadway Cast Recording

James Troutman

Date: 2003/11/11
Last revised: 2003/11/11

For some people Ethel Merman will always be the one and only Rose. That's OK for some people, but I'm not one of them.

Now don't get me wrong. I grew up with the Original Broadway Cast recording, so Merman's performance will always have a special place on my shelf, but there have been so many other great Roses that it would be pointless not to recognize them.

Given that I grew up with Merman's Rose, it was interesting to approach this recording after all those years. Having heard so many other great performances, my first impression was that Merman wasn't so much acting the part of Rose as she was simply being Merman. That is, until she gets to "Rose's Turn." Here I think she really lets go and gets into the character.

Regardless, this is an important performance, not the least because these are the performers for whom the songs were originally written. (Well, OK, so some of them came from Jule Styne's trunk, but in most cases he did try to tailor them to Merman's talents and those of the other cast members.)

Notes on individual numbers

• 1 Overture 4:51
  
• 2 Let Me Entertain You 1:12
  
• 3 Some People 3:41
  
• 4 Small World 2:16
  
• 5 Baby June And Her Newsboys 1:40
  In the remastered edition of the recording released in 1999, producer Thomas Z. Shepard restored a six-second extended orchestral introduction to Baby June's entrance from an alternate take. (This bit appears on all the other Gypsy recordings.)
• 6 Mr. Goldstone, I Love You 2:22
  
• 7 Little Lamb 2:38
  
• 8 You'll Never Get Away From Me 2:31
  
• 9 Dainty June And Her Farmboys 2:20
  
• 10 If Momma Was Married 2:50
  
• 11 All I Need Is The Girl 4:31
  For the second half of this song (from measure 91) the remastered edition uses an alternate take that includes Louise's laughter. According to Shepard, there were a total of three takes on this song, two of which included Louise. He speculates that the non-Louise take was probably used on the original recording so as not to confuse the listeners. It's good to have Louise back in this number, as it really is about her, after all.
• 12 Everything's Coming Up Roses 3:07
  
• 13 Together Wherever We Go 2:46
  
• 14 You Gotta Get A Gimmick 4:03
  The original recording cut bars 78 through 107--from Tessie's strip ballet through the three-part round. The remastered edition restores bars 94 through 107 (beginning with "Dressy Tessie Tura"), so all that's missing is Tessie's instrumental ballet.
• 15 Let Me Entertain You 3:11
  The remastered edition restores bars 38 to 93, what Shepard refers to as "unrefined burlesque music." Still, this is one of the less effective versions of Gypsy's Strip because it lacks Gypsy's patter. Of course, Laurents didn't get around to adding the patter until the London production 14 years later.
• 16 Rose's Turn 4:33
  For the remastered edition producer Shepard corrected a trumpet note in measure 11 and used a more emotional version (there's a "catch" in her throat) of Merman's "All your life and what does it get you" in bars 85-86.
• 17 Some People (Bonus Track) 4:08
  Merman sings an early version of "Some People" in this demo recording with piano accompaniment. In this version she bargains with her father for the 88 bucks. Needless to say, the final version is much tighter and much better.
• 18 Mr. Goldstone / Little Lamb (Bonus Track) 5:14
  A demo of an early conception of these two songs.
• 19 Momma's Talkin' Soft (Bonus Track) 2:51
  "Momma's Talkin' Soft" was intended to be sung by Baby June and Louise as they watch Rose's seduction of Herbie. Alas, the only way to stage it was to have the girls high up on a platform, but the child playing Louise was afraid of heights. In a humanitarian gesture Sondheim dropped the song rather than firing the child.
  Here it's sung by Laura Leslie.
• 20 Nice She Ain't (Bonus Track) 2:33
  In Sondheim & Co. Craig Zadan quotes Jack Klugman: "Jule came to me in Philly and said, 'Steve and I wrote a song for you to do when Ethel leaves the restaurant after stealing the silverware. The waitress comes by and says, "Where's that nice lady?" The you sing "Nice She Ain't."' And they played it for me and I said, 'Gee, that's a great number,' but it was a week before we were going into New York and I said, 'Let me think about it and I'll tell you tomorrow whether I want to attempt it.' Well, I went back to the hotel, went to sleep, and had the most horrible nightmares that there were eighteen hundred people out there and someone hit a bell tone and I went off key ... The next day I walked over to Jule and said, 'Take the song and shove it up your ass!' And that was the end of it."
  Here it's sung by Bernie Knee.

Gypsy -- The Original 1959 Broadway Cast Recording (Remastered with Bonus Tracks)

A Comparison of Gypsy Recordings

Related Gypsy Products

• 
  Remastered Original 1959 Broadway Cast CD with Ethel Merman (includes four Bonus Tracks)
• 
  Original 1973 London Cast CD with Angela Lansbury
• 
  1989 Broadway Cast CD with Tyne Daly
• 
  1993 Television Movie Soundtrack CD with Bette Midler
• 
  2003 Broadway Cast CD with Bernadette Peters
•   
  1962 Motion Picture DVD with Rosalind Russell (singing voice dubbed by Lisa Kirk)
  1962 Motion Picture Soundtrack CD with extra bonus tracks of Rosalind Russel singing
• 
  Gypsy Vocal Score
• 
  Gypsy: A Musical -- The complete libretto (or book) of the musical
  It's worth reading the Arthur Laurents libretto for Gypsy if only to savor his witty stage directions. E.g., at the end of the opening scene:
  

  ([Rose] is singing along with her girls when she sees the Balloon Girl, who has edged out from the wings. Still singing gaily, Rose removes her hatpin. The Balloon Girl backs into the wings as Rose marches after her, the hatpin extended like Joan of Arc's sword. Her dancing daughters watch, grin, and finish to a blare of music.)

• 
  Gypsy: A Memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee
  The musical is loosely based upon Gypsy's own memoirs.
• 
  The Making of Gypsy by Keith Garebian
  
• 
  Original Story by: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood by Arthur Laurents
  Often gossipy, always engaging, this memoir contains loads of information not only about Gypsy but about all the other projects and people with whom Laurents has been involved.