Various Artists - Only Broadway CD You'll Ever Need

Despite its deliberately provocative title, RCA Victor's The Only Broadway CD You'll Ever Need really claims only to "give an overview of what 'Broadway' music is about," according to compiler Bill Rosenfield. What it really does is survey the last 50 years of theater music from the point of view of the most popular songs from the genre available in the company's vaults. RCA was the last of the major labels to begin recording Broadway cast albums, not entering the field until 1947's Brigadoon (from which "Almost Like Being in Love" is included here). Even then, it had to compete with the others and didn't really emerge as an equal competitor until the 1960s. As a result, relatively few of these tracks, which are presented chronologically by each show's opening date, come from original cast recordings, being drawn rather from revival casts, TV soundtracks, and individual artist discs for the most part. Nevertheless, some major performers sing songs associated with them: Ethel Merman and "There's No Business Like Show Business," Carol Channing and "Hello, Dolly!," Zero Mostel and "If I Were a Rich Man." The set seems designed for the casual and recent fan of Broadway, who won't be upset that Cabaret's "Money" and 42nd Street's "Lullaby of Broadway" are technically movie songs or that Colm Wilkinson never sang "The Impossible Dream" on stage, and who will recognize the material from four shows that were still running on the album's release date, Titanic, Ragtime, and revivals of Chicago and Cabaret. But this is a Broadway without Andrew Lloyd Webber and with precious little Stephen Sondheim (despite RCA's extensive Sondheim holdings), which means it doesn't really address much of theater history from the mid-'60s on. Thus, even as a label sampler, The Only Broadway CD You'll Ever Need is woefully inadequate. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Name Credits Al Dubin Lyricist Alan Cumming ? Alan Cumming & Kit Kat Girls Performer Allison Leach Photography Andy Wiswell Producer Angela Lansbury ?, Performer Ann Reinking ? Audra McDonald Performer, ? Barbara Yeager Performer Bebe Neuwirth & Company Performer Bill Rosenfield Liner Notes, Compilation Brian D'Arcy Performer Brian Stokes Mitchell ? Bruce Prochnik & Company Performer Bruce Yarnell Performer Carol Channing ? Charles Gerhardt Producer Charles Strouse Composer Charlotte d'Amboise Performer Cole Porter Composer Colm Wilkinson ?, Performer Constance Towers Performer David Brooks ?, Performer Debbie Gravitte Performer Elaine Wright Performer Eli Oberstein Producer Ethel Merman Performer, ? Frank Loesser Lyricist Fred Ebb Composer, Lyricist George R. Marek Producer Harold G. Hagopian Remastering Producer Hsi-Ling Chang Remastering Irving Berlin Composer, Lyricist Irwin Fisch Producer Jason Alexander ?, Performer Jay David Saks Producer Jerome Kern Composer Jerry Herman Lyricist, Composer Jerry Orbach ?, Performer Jerry Orbach & Company Performer Joe Linhart Producer John Kander Composer Katherine Hilgenberg Performer Laurence Guittard Performer Lee Adams Composer, Lyricist Lionel Bart Lyricist Lowe Composer Lynn Ahrens Composer, Lyricist Marion Bell Performer Martin Moran Performer Maury Yeston Composer, Lyricist Michael Goodman Performer Nancy Hess Performer Norman Newell Producer Oscar Hammerstein II Lyricist Patti LuPone ?, Performer Peter Gallagher ? Renée Stork Performer Rodgers Composer Rufus Smith Performer Russ Case Producer Sheldon Harnick Lyricist Stephen Flaherty Composer Stephen Sondheim Composer, Lyricist Thomas Z. Shepard Producer Vanessa Williams Performer William Warfield Performer, ? Yul Brynner ?, Performer Zero Mostel ?, Performer