It's become a bit of a joke that I have this aversion to musicals! And I readily admit that I'm not a fan of them. Believe me when I say that I've tried many times to embrace them, find a way to covet them because my fellow bloggers show such love and admiration.
I've spoken about my mother many times here, how watching films with her as a little girl turned me into a fan of classic film but we never watched musicals! Hmmm While on the phone with my mother recently I brought up musicals and my moms response was "GOD, I can't stand them!" There you go I guess!
Perhaps it was the music! I have tried watching musicals in order to write star bios so I dove into some Betty Hutton musicals. No and please no! Dick Powell singing is okay and tolerable and I even attempted sitting through a Ricardo Montalban musical. (I made it through 14 minutes of that!)
Now that I've spent three paragraphs complaining I have to add that I love any film with Judy Garland singing but that's about it for me! "Meet Me in St. Louis" is wonderful but my favorite is Somewhere Over the Rainbow. A true sign that a musical stands the test of time is having it's songs replicated. I haven't heard Betty Hutton's "Annie Get Your Gun" renditions remastered yet!
If you're still with me and you haven't left to remove me from your "I heart musical's" list then hear me out! I'm a big fan of music and I have pretty eclectic taste. You'll find me listening to Andrea Bocelli, Eminem, Blake Shelton, Donny Hathaway or Flo Rida on any given day.
I want to talk about Judy Garland and what does appeal to me. Whenever I hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow I stop what I'm doing and I listen, smile and I reminisce. That is what music in film should do to you. While thinking about this post I did a bit of research and I realized that Judy's most iconic song has been performed many times since it first appeared in "The Wizard of Oz" 1939. Let's have a look.
Judy singing the original version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow
We've had many versions of this song performed since 1939.
Ray Charles
Eric Clapton (see, I do embrace Republicans : )..)
Eva Cassidy
Leona Lewis
Keith Richards
I've spoken about my mother many times here, how watching films with her as a little girl turned me into a fan of classic film but we never watched musicals! Hmmm While on the phone with my mother recently I brought up musicals and my moms response was "GOD, I can't stand them!" There you go I guess!
Perhaps it was the music! I have tried watching musicals in order to write star bios so I dove into some Betty Hutton musicals. No and please no! Dick Powell singing is okay and tolerable and I even attempted sitting through a Ricardo Montalban musical. (I made it through 14 minutes of that!)
Now that I've spent three paragraphs complaining I have to add that I love any film with Judy Garland singing but that's about it for me! "Meet Me in St. Louis" is wonderful but my favorite is Somewhere Over the Rainbow. A true sign that a musical stands the test of time is having it's songs replicated. I haven't heard Betty Hutton's "Annie Get Your Gun" renditions remastered yet!
If you're still with me and you haven't left to remove me from your "I heart musical's" list then hear me out! I'm a big fan of music and I have pretty eclectic taste. You'll find me listening to Andrea Bocelli, Eminem, Blake Shelton, Donny Hathaway or Flo Rida on any given day.
I want to talk about Judy Garland and what does appeal to me. Whenever I hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow I stop what I'm doing and I listen, smile and I reminisce. That is what music in film should do to you. While thinking about this post I did a bit of research and I realized that Judy's most iconic song has been performed many times since it first appeared in "The Wizard of Oz" 1939. Let's have a look.
Judy singing the original version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow
We've had many versions of this song performed since 1939.
Ray Charles
Eric Clapton (see, I do embrace Republicans : )..)
Eva Cassidy
Leona Lewis
Keith Richards
Bob Marley
Nora Jones
And the song has carried over to our talent shows in recent years... A show stopper!
Katharine McPhee (a beautiful version)
Jason Castro on American Idol with his ukulele.
I can't hate on talented men in dread locks since my younger brother sports dreads and he is a very talented artist living in Jordan.
My younger brother Tommy with his wife Sara.
My sister Jamie who looks like Meg Ryan with her husband Justin (Our active duty Marine) but back to musicals! (The last time I checked she didn't have dreads but she loves music even though she's tone death!) I rode in a car with her once as she played a Dixie Chick CD while singing until I tossed it out of the car window! It was much worse than any 50's musical! (Oh, I just realized my family really enjoys sepia which is a good thing)
And last but not least, my favorite version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow to date (since Judy) sung by Javier Colon who won the first season of The Voice. Oh, and I did search high and low on Youtube but I didn't find a new version of Singin In the Rain or Guys and Dolls but that doesn't mean they are any less special.
Please leave a comment on any of the videos you've seen (a favorite) or just feel free to rant about my dislike of musicals. Always happy to hear your comments, opinions here. And please know that if anyone hosts a Blogathon on Musicals I will be happy to sign up...Oh, yes I will! : )
Also, Rich brought up a great question in comments. Yes, I love a lot of the current Broadway musicals. Phantom of the Opera is my favorite though, I've seen it on Broadway as well as six other cities. My favorite viewing was at the Chicago Opera House on the same weekend that I saw La Cage aux Follies. I also liked a couple of recent musicals like "Chicago" and of course "Moulin Rouge". I've seen that film at least 40 times. So beautifully done and the music is amazing. So perhaps it really just has to do with not liking a type of music that has turned me off of certain musicals.
Thanks for stopping by.....Go out and sing your heart out, good or bad!
Page
No comments:
Post a Comment