The Essential Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber [Soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Full title, 'Essential Songs Of Andrew Lloyd Webber'. UK budget-price compilation. 40 superlative performances featuring songs from every one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musicals. Guest artists include John Barrymore, Issy Van Randwyck, Dave Willetts, Maria Friedman, Kim Criswell, Graham Bickley and the National Symphony Orchestra. Housed in a slipcase. 2002.

Tracks:

Any Dream Will Do
Close Every Door
Heaven On Their Minds
Everything's Alright
Gethsemane
I Don't Know How To Love Him
Jesus Christ Superstar
Could We Start Again Please?
Don't Cry For Me Argentina
Another Suitcase In Another Hall
Buenos Aires
Rainbow High
High Flying Adored
Memory
Jellicle Cats
Mister Mistofeles
Unexpected Song
Last Man In My Life
Rolling Stock
U-N-C-O-U-P-L-E-D

Tracks:

Only You
Starlight Express
There's Me
Pie Jesu
Angel Of Music
Masquerade
Wishing Somehow You Were Here Again
All I Ask Of You
The Phantom Of The Opera
Music Of The Night
Love Changes Everything
The First Man You Remember
Seeing Is Believing
As If We Never Said Goodbye
Sunset Boulevard
With One Look
Too Much In Love To Care
Half A Moment
Whistle Down The Wind
Our Kind Of Love

Album Description

Full title, 'Essential Songs Of Andrew Lloyd Webber'. UK budget-price compilation. 40 superlative performances featuring songs from every one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musicals. Guest artists include John Barrymore, Issy Van Randwyck, Dave Willetts, Maria Friedman, Kim Criswell, Graham Bickley and the National Symphony Orchestra. Housed in a slipcase. 2002.

Customer Reviews:

Okay, but kind of disappointing.......2006-04-17

This isn't a bad recording, but the tracks are not the actual performances off of any cast recording of any of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals. The reditions of the songs on the disc are of varying quality. Some are pretty good. Some are borderline awful.
It is a good collection for inexpensively getting a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most popular songs in one place and having them there to be able to listen to get the idea of what a certain song sounds like and is about. It isn't the collection of definitive recordings for certain roles. In fact in a couple examples, I wonder if the performer fully understood the context of the song he or she was singing &/or what it was about. Overall, the album is good, for the most part, if not excellent.

However, the liner notes for "The Essential Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber" is another matter. I don't mean to be unkind, but the author of the comments on the different tracks (one Rexton S. Bunnett) is blatantly WRONG in multiple instances. I don't mean just in nit-picky details, but in major plot details/context of songs, like the fact that Bunnett identifies "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" as being sung by "our heroine" (who he does not even identify by name as Christine Daae) as she thinks about her lover, not as being sung about Christine's dead father. He also says that the Phantom has found his perfect love and "Angel of Music" in Christine... because HE is the Angel of Music who Christine believes has been sent to her by her dead father, and because although the Phantom is obsessed with Christine, that relationship is far from "loving" (even if Christine shows him compassion. I feel like these (and a couple other mistakes) are major plot points to get wrong. A good amount of the commentary reads as if Bunnett might have written it at the last minute, fudging his way through entries on musicals of which he had little knowledge; like what an essay I might write on a book I never read for my college class but had quickly looked up on Cliff's Notes would sound like. In terms of sheer editing, there are spelling mistakes, run-on sentences and spacing errors ("Any DreamWill Do")in the liner notes. Where was the copy editor?
And the most frightening fact of all, under Bunnett's credentials, it says "Harper Collins has just published his revision and updating of the Collins Book of the Musical."
I am being very critical, but I think that for a widely-released CD it is reasonable to expect the liner notes to be at a professional level, as they were most likely supposed to be.

Not quite what I expected..........2005-04-23

I was looking for a CD of the original performances and this CD doesn't have them. I suppose it was my fault for not looking closer, but the songs just weren't the same. Personally, I was not impressed. If you don't care that they aren't the originals then it is nice to listen to.

Some great performances, some not so great..........2005-04-18

This CD is actually pretty good, considering you get 40 songs for less than $16. Let's evaluate the pros and cons.

Pros:

Two classic songs that are performed excellently are Phantom of the Opera and I Don't Know How to Love Him.

Of course you want to compare Phantom to the classic Michael Crawford/ Sarah Brightman version. Well, guess what? This version is BETTER. The woman has a deeper voice than Brightman, and her singing style is just awesome. The ending of this version (you know, the "Sing, my angel of music, sing for me!") is different, but in a good way... I think.)

And of course, the standard for I Don't Know How to Love Him is Yvonne's version. This version is different, but it grew on me quickly. This version has a country feel to it, almost. Somehow it works and sounds great.

There are a lot of great performances in this collection. My favorites include: Heaven on Their Minds, Everything's Alright, Could We Start Again Please, Another Suitcase in Another Hall, Buenos Aires, Rainbow High, Only You, Starlight Express, Angel of Music, Masquerade, All I Ask of You, Half a Moment, and Whistle Down the Wind. I think they're all great versions of their more famous counterparts.

Cons:

First of all, there are some technical problems that are kind of disappointing. A few of the songs have a very echoey sound. Any Dream Will Do, Another Suitcase in Another Hall, Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, and There's Me are the songs that come to mind that are the worst in this regard. It isn't really bad, just enough to be slightly annoying, more so when the volume is turned way up on your CD player.

A few songs are worthy of skipping over when listening to this collection. In my opinion, Superstar, Sunset Boulevard, and Gethesmane are the biggest disappointments.

Superstar just doesn't cut it for me. The singer really overdoes it, making it overstylized... really makes you yearn for Murray Head. I can't stand listening to it. Just my opinion.

Sunset Boulevard is one of my very favorite musicals, so I was really hoping that the singer would do justice to its title song. Unfortunately I don't think he did. You can't help but compare it to Alan Campbell's fantastic version. This guy has a very choppy way of singing, when I'm used to it being sung so smoothly. Maybe it would grow on me, but I don't think I'll give it a chance to. However, that last note is much stronger than Alan Campbell's. It doesn't make up for the rest of the song, though.

Finally, Gethsemane. The inevitable fact is that NO ONE can sing this song like Michael Ball. This guy tries, he really does. But he doesn't have the right voice or the right style. So please listen to Michael Ball's performance of Gethsemane if you want to know how breathtaking of a song it can be. It's on the Royal Albert Hall DVD, and I'm sure he's got it on one of his CDs.

Anyway, overall, this is a good CD if you like quantity over quality. Don't buy it for the classics, you'll probably end up disappointed with many of them. Buy it for the lesser known songs. You probably won't like every song, especially if you're a big ALW fan, but for the price, it's worth it.

If you want classic versions of classic ALW songs, you might prefer something like "The Very Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Broadway Collection".

Disappointed.......2005-03-11

The singer(s)does not do justice for the lyrics. It was grating to the ears. Save your money for the originals.

Musical Talent at Its Best.......2003-01-03

What a pleasure to hear a collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber's beautiful music from such wonderful voices accompanied by an outstanding symphony. This sensational CD is a treasure to own.

The Essential Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber

Average customer rating:

The Essential Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber

Manufacturer: Metro Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Musical Theater | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Requiems | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Musicals | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

General | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Pop | Box Sets | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Centennial Gala Concert
Reflections From Broadway
Songs From Grease (1994 London Studio Cast)
Putting It Together: A Musical Review

ASIN: B000B9G6O4
Release Date: 2005-10-03

Tracks:

Phantom of the Opera/All I Ask of You
By Jeeves/Half a Moment
Beautiful Game/All the Love I Have
Jesus Christ Superstar/I Don't Know How to Love Him
Phantom of the Opera/Think of Me
Aspects of Love/The First Man You Remember
Starlight Express B'way/Starlight Express
Starlight Express/Only You
Tell Me on a Sunday/Unexpected Song
Aspects of Love/Seeing Is Believing
Beautiful Game/Our Kind of Love
Tell Me on a Sunday/The Last Man in My Life
Phantom of the Opera/Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
Sunset Boulevard/Too Much in Love to Care
Tell Me on a Sunday/Tell Me on a Sunday
Aspects of Love/There Is More to Love
Evita/Don't Cry for Me Argentina
Aspects of Love/Love Changes Everything

Tracks:

Sunset Boulevard/With One Look
Evita/Another Suitcase in Another Hall
Cats/Memory
Jesus Christ Superstar/Could We Start Again Please?
Requiem/Pie Jesu
Phantom of the Opera/Angel of Music
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)/Close Every Door
Jesus Christ Superstar/Gethsemane
Whistle Down the Wind/Whistle Down the Wind
Sunset Boulevard/As If We Had Never Said Goodbye
Starlight Express/U-N-C-O-U-P-L-E-D
Phantom of the Opera/The Point of No Return
Aspects of Love/Anything But Lonely
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat/Any Dream Will Do
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat/There's Me
Jesus Christ Superstar/Pilate's Dream
Evita/High Flying Adored
Phantom of the Opera/Music of the Night

Tracks:

Cats/Macavity
Jesus Christ Superstar/Heaven on Their Minds
Evita/Rainbow High
Starlight Express/Rolling Stock
Phantom of the Opera/The Phantom of the Opera
Jesus Christ Superstar/Hosanna
Evita/Oh What a Circus
Phantom of the Opera/Masquarade
Starlight Express/Starlight Express
Jesus Christ Superstar/King Herod's Song
Evita/Buenos Aires
Cats/Jellicle Cats
Sunset Boulevard/Sunset Boulevard
Jesus Christ Superstar/Everything's Alright
Cats/Mr. Mistoffelees
Phantom of the Opera/Prima Donna
Cats/The Jellicle Ball
Jesus Christ Superstar/Jesus Christ Superstar

Album Details

Lovesongs, Ballads and Show Stoppers. 54 Tracks, Including Some Brand New Titles Released Here for the First Time.

Average customer rating:

The Essential Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Usq-Union Square Label Group
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000CGV4H
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Tracks:

Mr. Mistoffelees-Cats
Buenos Aires-Evita
Starlight Express - Starlight Express
With One Look - Sunset Boulevard
Rolling Rock - Starlight Express
Masquerade - The Phantom Of The Opera
Music Of The Night - Phantom Of The Night
Any Dream Will Do - Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Gethsemane - Jesus Christ Superstar
Jellicle Cats - Cats
Don't Cry For Me Argentina - Evita
As If We Never Said Goodbye - Sunset Boulevard
Whistle Down The Wind - Whistle Down The Wind
Jesus Christ Superstar - Jesus Christ Superstar

Tracks:

Only You - Starlight Express
Memory - Cats
Half A Moment - By Jeeves
I Don't Know How To Love Him - Jesus Christ Superstar
The First Man You Remember - Aspects Of Love
The Last Man In My Life - Tell Me On A Sunday
Anything But Lonley - Aspects Of Love
Unexpected Song - Tell Me On A Sunday
There's Me - Starlight Express
There Is More To Love - Aspects Of Love
Our Kind Of Love - Aspects Of Love
Close Every Door - Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Tell Me On A Sunday - Tell Me On A Sunday
Love Changes Everything - Aspects Of Love

Tracks:

All I Ask Of You - The Phantom Of The Opera
U-N-C-O-U-P-L-E-D - Starlight Express
High Flying Adored - Evita
The Phantom Of The Opera - The Phantom Of The Opera
Rainbow High - Evita
Pie Jesu - Requiem
Think Of Me - The Phantom Of The Opera
Rainbow High - Evita
Seeing Is Believing - Aspects Of Love
Angel Of Music - The Phantom Of The Opera
Too Much In Love To Care - Sunset Boulevard
The Point Of No Return - The Phantom Of The Opera
Another Suitcase In Another Hall - Evita
King Herod's Song - Jesus Christ Superstar

Average customer rating:

Essential Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webbe

Manufacturer: Musicrama/Koch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000DEOC5
Release Date: 2002-01-29

Music:

Music

Music