West Side Story Original Broadway Cast Recording 180g 2LP

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In Stock

An In Stock item is available to ship normally within 24 business hours.

Preorder

A Preorder is an item that has not yet been released. Typically the label will set a projected release date (that is subject to change). If a projected release date is known, we will include this in the description in red. Other Preorders are set to release 'TBA.' This means that release date is yet 'To Be Announced'. The Preorder can be released anywhere between weeks, months or years from its initial announcement.

Backordered

An Out Of Stock item is an item that we normally have available to ship but we are temporarily out of. We do not have a specific date when it will be coming.

Awaiting Repress

Awaiting repress titles are in the process of being repressed by the label. No ETA is available at this time.

Expected On

When an item is Out Of Stock and we have an estimated date when our stock should arrive, we list that date on our website in the part's description. It is not guaranteed.

Special Order

A Special Order item is an item that we do not stock but can order from the manufacturer. Typical order times are located within the product description.

Description

Michael Fremer's 100 Recommended All-Analog LP Reissues Worth Owning - Rated 93/100!

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Film and Broadway Score

180g Vinyl Double LP! Pressed & Plated at RTI!
Cut From Original 3-Track Tapes By Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound!

Much has been written about West Side Story, which began as a transmogrification of Romeo and Juliet as a feud between the Jews and Gentiles living on the East side in modern-day New York, only to morph into a confrontation between two street gangs, one American the other Puerto Rican, on the upper West side of the city. Initially, Leonard Bernstein, its composer, was to have written both music and lyrics, but Stephen Sondheim was eventually brought in to handle the latter. With Arthur Laurents contributing the book, and Jerome Robbins devising the staging, the show opened to great acclaim on September 26, 1957 at the Winter Garden, where it played 732 performances, and was subsequently revived several times on Broadway and around the country. But it was the film version, made three years later with Natalie Wood as Maria, that ensured its popularity worldwide. Though there are many recorded versions of the percussive score available, the original cast album, with its fresh, spontaneous performances, remains the standard by which all others are measured.

"The best known songs here include just about all of them. Even if you don't know the show you've probably heard "Something's Coming," "Maria," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and thawed ahead of its time "Gee Officer Krupke" which references marijuana and cross-dressing and indulges in some curse word fudgingall of which was absolutely outrageous in 1957, which is when the show opened." - Michael Fremer, analogplanet, 11/11 Music, 11/11 Sound

This double LP Analog Spark set of the original Broadway cast cut by Ryan K. Smith AAA using the original 3 track master tape packs a musical and sonic wallop. 'It's like you are there', say visiting guests when I play it for them, so vivid and three dimensional is the sound, recorded at Columbia's 30th street studios and mixed to put you in the front row. Orchestrations by Bernstein, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal are thrilling as is the playing by Broadway's best. The cast including Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence and Chita Rivera sizzle. I can't imagine the new 'West Side Story' could possibly compare, nor did the movie soundtrack album. This is the one.
-Michael Fremer, Analog Planet's Best Reissues of the Decade, March 2020

Features:
• 180g Vinyl Double LP
• Pressed & Plated at RTI
• Cut From Original 3-Track Tapes By Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound
• Stoughton old style tip-on gatefold jacket includes rare photos from original recording sessions

Selections:
LP 1
Side A:
1. Prologue - West Side Story Ensemble
2. Jet Song - Mickey Calin
3. Something's Coming - Larry Kert
4. The Dance At the Gym -West Side Story Ensemble
5. Maria - Larry Kert
Side B:
1. Tonight - Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence
2. America - Chita Rivera, Marilyn Cooper
3. Cool - Mickey Calin
4. One Hand, One Heart - Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence

LP 2
Side C:
1. Tonight (Quintet & Chorus) - Chita Rivera, Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, Mickey Calin, Ken Le Roy
2. The Rumble - West Side Story Ensemble
3. I Feel Pretty - Carol Lawrence, Marilyn Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Gutierrez
4. Somewhere (ballet) - Larry Kert, Reri Grist, Carol Lawrence
Side D:
1. Gee, Officer Krupke - Grover Dale, Eddie Roll, Hank Brunjes, David Winters, Tony Mordente
2. A Boy Like That / I Have A Love - Chita Rivera, Carol Lawrence
3. Finale - Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence