Artist:Percy Kilbride, Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter
Song:Our State Fair
Album:State Fair: Original Soundtrack 1945 and 1962
The 1945 film State Fair is the only time that composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote a musical directly for film. They usually adapted their own Broadway musicals. It's based on the 1933 film which starred Will Rogers. They wrote six songs and It Might As Well Be Spring won an Oscar. The film stars Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes and Vivian Blaine. Haymes and Vivian were both accomplished singers so they carried the vocal weight. Neither Jeanne or Andrews sang so both were dubbed by Louanne Hogan and Ben Gage respectively. Obviously I am not a big fan of dubbing but it was common practice in those days. And Jeanne and Andrews were big stars at 20th Century Fox so they were needed to sell the film. Musical direction was by Alfred Newman and Charles E. Henderson. The arrangements were by Edward B. Powell. Newman was musical director at 20th Century Fox so I assume he was conducting the opening theme written by Rodgers. The other two guys worked for him. The opening theme goes straight to the song Our State Fair sung by veteran character actors Percy Kilbride, Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter. Kilbride was best known for playing Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle films. Winninger appeared in many comedies. He also appeared in the 1936 film of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical Show Boat. Fay won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 1938 film Jezebel. Of course there was no such thing as a soundtrack album in those days. Besides, State Fair only had six new songs. So Decca Records had Dick Haymes record all six songs and they were released on three 78 rpm records in 1946. State Fair was remade in 1962 starring Pat Boone and Ann Margaret. And Dot Records released a soundtrack for that. So in 1999, soundtrack specialty label Varese Sarabande released the two soundtracks on one CD. They got the original recordings from the 1945 film and used the tapes from the 1962 film. That is probably the best you will get for the soundtrack of State Fair. Here's the opening credits for the 1945 film State Fair followed by Percy Kilbride, Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter singing Our State Fair.
No comments:
Post a Comment