AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Bill Shirley

Artist:Bill Shirley
Song:On The Street Where You Live
Album:My Fair Lady: Original Soundtrack





Most folks should be familiar with the 1964 film of the stage musical My Fair Lady. After all it won eight Oscars including Best Picture. Of course My Fair Lady was written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. It was a huge hit on Broadway and on the London stage starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. When it came time for Warner Bros. to produce the film version, Jack Warner decided that Andrews wasn't a big enough star and cast Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle. Of course by the time the film was released, Mary Poppins had made Andrews a star. Despite the ongoing fan outrage, the film was very successful. Of course part of the problem was Audrey Hepburn wasn't much of a singer so Marni Nixon was brought in to dub her vocals as she had done many times in the past in other films. But what you may not know is that Jeremy Brett's performance of On The Street Where You Live was dubbed by Bill Shirley. This was common practice in Hollywood. As Jack Warner once said "Hell, we even dubbed Rin Tin Tin." Brett is best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on British TV. And he can sing. For years he claimed that he sang his own vocals in My Fair Lady but admitted much later that Bill Shirley did the singing. You won't see Shirley's name in the credits because though dubbing is a common practice in Hollywood, the studios don't want you to know about it. Bill Shirley was born July 6, 1921 in Indianapolis. He worked for Republic Pictures in the 40s and appeared in the 1942 John Wayne film Flying Tigers. His biggest onscreen role was as composer Stephen Foster in the 1952 biopic I Dream Of Jeanie and he also did the voice of Prince Philip in the 1959 Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty. He sang offscreen in several films and was never credited. Bill Shirley died on Aug. 27, 1989 at age 68. Sony released the soundtrack of My Fair Lady on CD with bonus tracks in 1994. Here's On The Street Where You Live as performed in the 1964 film My Fair Lady by Jeremy Brett and sung by Bill Shirley.