ON THE RECORD: Say, Darling and the 1963 Annie Get Your Gun Studio Recording
By Steven Suskin
16 Mar 2008
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN [DRG 19112]
Another strange tale of orchestration is brought to mind by the release of the 1963 studio cast version of Annie Get Your Gun, toplined by Doris Day and Robert Goulet (who apparently recorded their roles in separate studios, on separate coasts). The cover boasts "new orchestrations by Phil Lang," which takes us back to New Haven in the last week of March, 1946.
Actually, the trouble started months earlier. Richard Rodgers, co-producer with Oscar Hammerstein of Annie, took charge of the new Irving Berlin musical's music department. Jay Blackton, conductor of Oklahoma!, was the obvious choice for the job. So, one might think, was that landmark hit's orchestrator Russell Bennett or Don Walker, who had done Carousel and three other Rodgers shows since 1942. But by the end of 1945, Rodgers was mad at both Bennett and Walker due to perceived slights during Carousel. Rather than hire either of them for Annie, he vowed to stand on the street corner and hire the first orchestrator who came along. At this very moment, along came Lang with his first musical, the George Abbott-Jerome Robbins Billion Dollar Baby. Rodgers saw the show, heard the charts and hired this virtually-untried orchestrator.
The orchestra rehearsal for Annie, held a couple of days before the first performance in New Haven, was dismal. Not that the charts were poor, apparently; it's just that they were considerably different than what was expected. Lang, whose experience was mostly with bands, wrote in a newer style than Berlin (and apparently Merman) were used to hearing. Panic set in, and Rodgers was in the hot seat. Calling in favors, he immediately imported just about every professional orchestrator who could get to New Haven (including, naturally enough, Bennett and Walker). Over the next few days much of Annie was quickly rescored and patched together; once the show was up and running, Bennett et al continued to write new charts, replacing the replacements. By the time the show reached New York, the official credit was shared by Lang, Bennett, and Ted Royal — although there were at least ten arrangers rattling around the hotel rooms. (The only musical I know of with an even more severe orchestration problem was Barnum, where just about the whole thing was thrown out — with Lang among the ghosts rushed in to salvage the situation.)
The New Haven story makes it somewhat ironic that Lang was hired to orchestrate this Annie studio recording. This can be ascribed, in part, to the presence of conductor Franz Allers. A good friend of Lang from Plain and Fancy, My Fair Lady and Camelot, Allers himself was an odd choice. He was great for Fritz Loewe scores, but rather fusty when it came to musical comedy; at the time of this recording, he had just been fired during the tryout of his final new show, Hot Spot. Alternately, Lang might have been chosen by Berlin; despite memories of the original Annie, he had used Lang for his swan song, the 1962 Mr. President.
The recording in question does not use any of Lang's 1946 charts; unlike most of the Columbia series of studio cast albums of the era, they do not try to recreate the original sound of the show. The intention here seems to be to get Doris Day singing a Broadway musical, with arrangements that suit her style rather than the show as performed in a theatre. Day seems to be having fun, although someone apparently deemed the lyrics for "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" far too racy for general audiences. Imagine that! One can only imagine the reaction of Mr. Berlin when he heard it, as he was not one to welcome outside contributions to songs with his name on them. Goulet, meanwhile, seems to have been having a grand old time in his five songs. Ted Chapin provides an extremely interesting liner note with insights into Goddard Lieberson's studio cast albums of the era, with inside information from his father Schuyler Chapin (who was president of the Masterworks division of Columbia when this
Annie was recorded).
Rodgers, for his part, followed the Annie situation by mending fences — more or less, anyway — with both Bennett and Walker. Although after the retirement of Russell and another flareup with Don, he — like Berlin — turned to Phil for his final musical, I Remember Mama.
(Steven Suskin is author of "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com)
