Damn Yankees: An Original Soundtrack Recording (1958 Film) [Soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
VideoHound's Soundtracks
The old Faustian legend about the man who sells his soul to the Devil in order to regain youth and good looks received a clever updating in this whimsical musical, which took the tale and squarely set it against the background of America's favorite pastime, baseball. As reconceived by Douglas Wallop and George Abbott, Damn Yankees, based on Mr. Wallop's novel "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant," transplanted Faust into middle-America and gave him the name Joe Boyd. After he makes a pact with the Devil, a businessman more prosaically named Mr. Applegate, Boyd becomes "Shoeless" Joe Hardy, a hard-hitter, who takes the Washington Senators, his favorite team (and perpetual losers), all the way to the finals of the American League game, where they face those "damn Yankees." But this being a musical, set in America, there is a happy ending to the story: in spite of Mr. Applegate, and his assistant, the sultry Lola, Joe Hardy invokes the "escape clause" he and the Devil had agreed on initially, and at the last minute, just before curtain time, returns to his loving wife as Joe Boyd, serene in the knowledge that it was he who helped the Senators win the Pennant. A multiple Tony Award-winner (including for Best Musical) in 1956, Damn Yankees ran for 1,019 performances (a rarity at the time), and made a star of Gwen Verdon, playing Lola, whose siren song, "Whatever Lola Wants," became a huge popular hit. Virtually intact, and with only one major cast change (Tab Hunter replacing Stephen Douglass as Joe Hardy), the show was transferred to the screen in 1958, in a splashy screen transfer that retained all the flavor and guile of the original. After extensive revisions, in 1994 it was revived on Broadway, with Bebe Neuwirth as Lola and Victor Garber as Mr. Applegate, where it enjoyed a successful run, before going on the road, with Jerry Lewis, billed above the title, taking over as the Devil. Of the three recordings available, the first Broadway cast offers the original stars (Gwen Verdon, Stephen Douglass, and Ray Walston as Mr. Applegate) in a spirited rendition which has all the freshness and excitement usually experienced when a show first hits Broadway. Its only drawback (if that's the word!) is that it is in mono sound, since stereo didn't become an industry standard until later that year. The soundtrack album, available for the first time in stereo in this CD version, is almost identical to the Broadway cast album, but offers, in addition to the cast change noted above, and Ray Heindorf's flavorful orchestrations, longer versions of some of the songs, as well as better polished performances overall. The 1994 Broadway cast album, with its abundance of new selections, and dynamic renditions of the songs by Bebe Neuwirth, Victor Garber, and the other members of the cast, is as good a recording as can be gotten. It has the vibrancy, the fun, and the excitement one usually expects in that kind of production, and its sound quality is up to the latest standards. -- © 1998 Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved.

Tracks:

Overture
Six Months Out Of Every Year
Goodbye, Old Girl
Heart
Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo.
There's Something About An Empty Chair
Whatever Lola Wants
A Little Brains, A Little Talent
Whatever Lola Wants
Those Were The Good Old Days
Who's Got The Pain
Two Lost Souls
There's Something About An Empty Chair (Reprise)

Customer Reviews:

Too many changes to the songs.......2004-08-15

DAMN YANKEES! is a fun show. Not one of the very best ever written - the plot s full of holes - but still a great deal of fun on stage and on screen.

Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston re-create their Broadway performances here with zest and polish. Less effective is Tab Hunter replacing Stephen Douglas as the star ball-player. He simply can't sing teh score well enough and two of his solo songs are dropped. This shifts teh musical burden to the supporting cast, but robs the central love-story of much of its development. The movie makes changes to the lyrics and adds a new ballad "There's Something about an empty Chair" that is even more dreary than the song it replaces.

Sound quality is not great. The album was orinally announced for release in both stero and mono formats but only the mono Lp was ever actually issued. This Cd marks the first release of the stereo tapes and although an improvement, it still suffers from that flat boxed-in sound of Warner Bros.

Best to stick with the original Broadway cast disc.

fine, but markedly inferior to the OBC.......2004-08-13

The film soundtrack to DAMN YANKEES is similar but certainly quite inferior to the peerless 1955 original Broadway cast album. The Warner Bros. film brought the entire original cast to reprise their roles (with the exception of Stephen Douglass who was replaced by Tab Hunter, who provided the marquee-value for the box office). Gwen Verdon's performance of Lola is perhaps even better here than on the 1955 OBC; she belts the role a little better and on the whole her singing is stronger here. Shannon Bolin gets a new song "There's Something About an Empty Chair" which isn't really memorable. Rae Allen once again knocks `em dead with "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, MO", and Ray Walston's performance of Mr Applegate is priceless. Tab Hunter is only average in his singing as the younger Joe Hardy. The remastering of this album is quite fine; there is some scratch and surface-hiss, but nothing too-obtrusive.

Very nice for the price.

It certainly has more than "A Lil Bwains, A Lil Tawent"..........2001-08-10

This is absolutely one of my favorite CD's in the entire world. First, let's talk about the differences between it and the Broadway CD. The Broadway recording contains two absolutely lovely songs, "A Man Doesn't Know" and "Near To You", and also the hilarious "The Game." These three were cut from the movie and replaced by "There's Something About An Empty Chair" (The only Damn Yankees song I cannot stand... it's just not fun nor pretty...). Otherwise, with a few changes in the length and phrasing of "A Little Brains, A Little Talent", "Whatever Lola Wants", and "Who's Got The Pain"... it's no different than the Broadway CD. However, I LIKE this CD more than the Broadway CD. I don't know why... the background music just sounds better to me over all, and Gwen Verdon actually SOUNDS like herself. Don't get me wrong, I own the Broadway CD also and I LOVE IT, but if you're debating, this is definitely the way to go (unless one of the cut songs is your favorite). After all, there's nothing like hearing the phrases "Hallo Joe!" and "ERP!" now is there? :o)

Could be better, but competent.......2000-12-23

This CD is an exact replica of the 1958 LP. My only regret is the fact that they should have re-issued the original tracks with the underscoring and full dance orchestrations. As it stands, this is a very enjoyable listening experience with "A Little Brains, A Little Talent" (Verdon) being the show's standout number.

Dynamic recording of great score.......2000-06-10

This soundtrack of the 1958 film version of the Adler-Ross Broadway hit "Damn Yankees" really makes me wish I could get my hands on a copy of the film itself. This great score is very well-represented by the entire cast, almost all of it directly from the original Broadway company. Dynamic readings from the baseball players and Rae Allen as the reporter in "Heart" and "Shoeless Joe," Ray Walston recreating his Tony-winning role as Mr. Applegate in "Those Were the Good Old Days," and especially the great Gwen Verdon, also recreating her Tony-winning, starmaking role of Lola. Though she was probably a better dancer than a singer, Verdon makes up for it with her incredible energy and zest. (And I bet nobody noticed her singing skills in the film, as I expect she was dancing too well for them to even care) From "A Little Brains, A Little Talent" to her famous "Whatever Lola Wants" seduction to "Who's Got the Pain," which also features her choreographer and later husband, Bob Fosse, Verdon is wonderful. And the shows two ballads, "Goodbye, Old Girl" and "There's Something About An Empty Chair" (The last written especially for the film) are pretty good, too. Definitly worth a look.

Music:

Music

Music