Search - Ethel Merman :: Mermania 2

What "show biz" is all about!

La Cieca | New York New York New York | 12/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Ethel Merman doing more or less the same (marathon) program as her "Merman in Vegas" disc, but a year or so later in some other venue -- the liner notes are very cagey about exactly when and where. Hard to believe, though, that la Merman had been touring in this show for all those months, because she sounds brilliantly fresh of voice and (mostly) attitude. Rather charmingly, she speaks a few stilted lines of patter about her (relative) inexperience in doing nightclub singing ("Usually I'm on the other side of the highball") but mostly she does what comes naturally, belting number after number from her vast collection of showstoppers, a capsule history of Broadway from 1930 to 1960.Plus there's a well-crafted medley by Roger Edens offering snippets of everything from "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" to "Small World," and a few novelties such as a special material version of "Lot of Livin' to Do." The disc has the slightly boxy, unresonant sound of "live" recordings of the period, but the source tape was apparently in superb condition, without any dropouts or distortion. Merman's voice is well forward, with the band more in the background, which is probably an accurate representation of what the act sounded like in a club. The audience is warm and appreciative but mostly unobtrusive -- not like, for example, a Garland audience that never stops cheering.Highlights for me: a rousing eye-opener called "This is It," a primo example of what Ethan Mordden calls the "Hot Damn I'm Merman" number, Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" taken at an insanely fast tempo without Merman's missing a single beat, a jazzy arrangment of "Blow Gabriel Blow" in which Merman really sounds like she's having a blast, and a change of pace for a wistful "They Say It's Wonderful" in which the singer pulls her trumpetlike voice back to a caressing pianissimo.A bonus track offers Merman in the 1980s rehearsing her signature "I Get a Kick Out of You" with an unidentified accompanist; even at 70-something the core of the voice is still clear and absolutely on pitch, and in the couple of brief discussions about tempo and phrasing, she sounds a very easy and pleasant colleague."

Curse of the Merman Medleys

T. Neitring | New York, NY United States | 06/26/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"On YouTube there is a TV clip from 1960 of Merman delivering a spectacular medley of her hits (just use the MM key words) that I seriously recommend. Not that I'm an expert but it seems like she ended up medleying quite a bit, given her extensive repertoire. And that's what you get here. You might think you are buying a compilation of complete songs or something like it but this is almost entirely medleys and you are graced with a series of morsels that are 30 seconds if you're lucky. The title of the CD and the graphics may lead you to believe it's a fun, insightful celebration of her best performances but it's mainly a lot of medley bits recorded later in her career (not that they aren't great for their 20+ seconds) as well as a few complete numbers. (To be fair, the largest hors d'oeuvre weighs in at 45 seconds.) I was really after a CD of great WHOLE Merman songs and I have to say I'm a little let down. I don't blame the creators for whipping up their medleyfest since I believe they sold it as what it is. But I think the way it's represented on Amazon is very misleading. That said, you may well enjoy it if a concert/TV show type Merman experience is what you crave. Nothing wrong with that!"