The Music Man Movie Soundtrack - Album 3 of 10

Album Title: The Music Man
Artist: Movie Soundtrack

Album 3 of 10 in the 10 Album Challenge

Thoughts

 As I said in the Anchor Post, and in a post I wrote in 2008, my musical tastes are eclectic. I listen to music very, very frequently, but I rarely listen to the same kind of music all day, or to the same music on Wednesday as I listened to on Monday.

One of the genres of music I have loved since I was young is represented by today's selection --  musical theater.

When I was selecting my 10 albums, I knew I had to select something from musical theater.  Because my appreciation for this kind of music started when I was very young, I had to select something my parents would have introduced me to.  Three albums came to mind:

My Fair Lady - the Broadway version with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison

Camelot - the Broadway version with Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet and Richard Burton

And the one I chose, The Music Man movie soundtrack with Shirley Jones and Robert Preston.

I think I heard each of these almost equally as I grew up, and I heard all of them many times before ever seeing them on stage or in the movies.  But I loved them.  I loved how much Dad enjoyed them.  I loved hearing him talk about specific lyrics he thought were very well written.  Examples:

• Music Man: "The Sadder-but-Wiser Girl for Me" - Harold sings 'I hope, and I pray, for Hester to win just one more "A".'  This is a literary allusion to The Scarlet Letter, of course.  And of course I had not read it, but I could appreciate how using knowledge of other art to inform new art was very creative, and I could see how much my father liked it.
• Camelot: "The Seven Deadly Virtues" [You need the Broadway version to hear this song; it did not make it into the film version.]. Mordred sings "You'll never find a virtue unstatusing my quo/Or making my beelze bubble burst".  Verbing "status quo!" Adding "Beelze" to "bubble" for a play on Beelzebub!  That's brilliant.

Ultimately, I chose The Music Man in part because it's also a part of my (very limited) personal theater history.  I was a bit player in the cast of the production at my high school when I was a sophomore.  That experience proved instrumental (Hah! Pun!) in the remainder of my high school experience, as it got me into the "theater crowd" where I met and hung out with some really fun people, allowed me to learn mimeand a little about stage performance (I could hardly call what I did "acting,") and eventually led me to singing on stage as the Jester in Once Upon a Mattress when I was a senior -- one of my absolute favorite memories from high school.

My love of musical theater continues today.  Seeing Wicked and Rent on Broadway -- amazing; being able to listen to, and sing along with, the soundtracks - liberating and joyful.

So, there it is.  That's why a "musical" had to be among my 10 Albums.  Tomorrow, another genre is represented.