Search - Various Artists :: Graduate: Music From the Broadway Comedy

A "soundtrack" for a Broadway show? Really? Really

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 06/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"You have to admit that the idea of a Broadway show having a "Soundtrack" rather than an "Original Case Album" is rather different. But that seems to be the fate of music and "The Graduate," whatever form the production takes. AFI just announced its Top 100 movie songs of all time and Simon & Garfunkle's "Mrs. Robinson" came in at #6, which is pretty good when you consider that all Paul Simon had written when the song was put into the movie was the chorus. Do not fear, the single that was eventually released is what starts off this album, which brings together the songs that were played in the Broadway dramatic version of the film; actually only the beginnings of the songs were played to set the mood (and allow the sets to be changed), so it was not like theater audiences got to hear all the songs (they would just keep humming them distractedly during the scene I guess). For that matter, not all of these songs were in the show, but apparently the producers liked them.This is a decent little anthology of songs from the late 1960s, but the question is how many of these fifteen songs do you not already have in your music library? For me the answer was two: "Black Coffee" by Ray Charles and "Love Potion No. 9" performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. But I would have to bet that for most of you it is going to be equally difficult to get to the five "new" tracks that you could add to your collection that make CDs like this optimal. That is not to say that there are not a lot of songs worth having on this album, because these are classic tracks. But it might be hard to do.I can imagine that you might not have Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball," but you should, and it could well be that you have nothing by Andy Williams and are therefore missing out on "Moon River." Once we are at this point I suppose not having "Theme from 'A Summer Place'" by Percy Faith & His Orchestra is reasonable, so I guess you can get to five. But what fan of the movie and Simon & Garfunkle does not already have their three tracks? The same goes for the rest of these tracks: if you have albums by Harry Nilsson, the Mamas & the Papas, Donovan, the Byrds and the Beach Boys then you should already have these tracks. You might not have albums by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Scott McKenzie, but you should have "You Made Me So Very Happy" and "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in your Hair)" already. But you can do the math and figure it out for yourself if this strange little anthology is worth the having."