Pal Joey
,
Rodgers and Hart
's Broadway
musical
of late 1940, based on
John O'Hara
's epistolary short stories about a Chicago low-life who manipulates women, was considered overly cynical in its first production and was only a modest financial success. It also came just before the advent of original cast albums, and therefore went unrecorded. But in 1950, after the song
"Bewitched"
(aka
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
) from the score had belatedly become a hit,
Columbia Records
' vice-president,
Goddard Lieberson
, was determined to preserve the score on records and brought in the original female lead,
Vivienne Segal
, along with
Harold Lang
(replacing
Gene Kelly
) as
Joey
. He also bravely chose to retain
Lorenz Hart
's distinctly adult lyrics to such songs as
"Bewitched,"
a frank admission of mature physical longing (the hit recordings had bowdlerized the words), and
"Zip,"
the commentary supposedly given by
Gypsy Rose Lee
during a striptease. The resulting album, released in early 1951, had a tremendous impact, leading to a revival production of the show starring
Segal
and
Lang
that opened at the start of 1952. Since the principals were still contracted to
Columbia
, while
Capitol
had obtained rights to the cast album, and since the executives at
were not as brave as
Lieberson
about the lyrics, the cast album was botched. But this
album remained, and has continued historically to be the best and most accurate recording of the show.
is tremendously effective as an older woman rediscovering love;
is appropriately callow in such deceptively insincere songs as
"I Could Write a Book"
; and
Jo Hurt
does a good job with
"Zip."
The 2003 CD reissue adds as bonus tracks:
's interview with
Mike Wallace
about the
, a performance of
(with the clean lyrics!) from a radio show, and
's performance of
from a TV show. ~ William Ruhlmann