Somewhere over the Rainbow: The Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals
The "Golden Age" referred to here spansThe Jazz Singerand the advent of the talkies to the death throes of the old studio system in the 1960s. So vast was the era's musical landscape that even this 42-track, double-disc anthology can't encompass all its peaks. Not surprisingly, the bulk of this collection originated with the Tiffany's of the screen musical, M-G-M, a body of work whose riches here encompass both pop-cultural bedrock ("Over the Rainbow," "Singin' in the Rain," "There's No Business Like Show Business," etc.) and some less familiar, if equally delightful star turns: Clark Gable gamely "Puttin' On the Ritz"; the sassy, 1948 original of "The Lady Is a Tramp" by Lena Horne; and a loopy duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban. Fred Astaire's elegant, epochal reign at RKO and M-G-M is represented by  "Night and Day," "Let's Face the Music and Dance," and three others, while Metro mainstays Gene Kelly and Judy Garland share equal time and billing. It's not perfect--Cagney's "Yankee Doodle Boy" and/or someSinatraseem more logical choices than the odd "bonus" duet ofCasablanca's "As Time Goes By" and "Lara's Theme" fromDr. Zhivagothat close out disc one--but it's a stunning, surprisingly comprehensive primer on the Hollywood film musical nonetheless.--Jerry McCulley