Big Dog 92-7 Music Guide

Original Soundtracks

RELEASE
1997
LABEL
Great Movie Themes
GENRES
Pop/Rock, Traditional Pop

Album Review

This 25-track, 62-minute collection of songs drawn from the soundtracks of movies featuring Alice Faye picks up where a similar album, This Year's Kiss, leaves off, including songs from ten of the pictures Faye made between 1938 and 1941. At this point in her career, Faye was a big star -- 20th Century-Fox's biggest musical attraction, in fact. The studio didn't put the care or money into its musicals that competitors like MGM did, but its songwriting staff, in this period prominently featuring lyricist Mack Gordon (who gets nine credits here) and composers like Harry Revel, Harry Warren, and James V. Monaco, was strong. Unfortunately, they didn't provide Faye with any real classics in these years (it wouldn't be until 1943 that Warren and Gordon gave her "You'll Never Know"), so the best stuff found here comes from two period movies. First, there's Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), with its score of Irving Berlin favorites, including "Blue Skies," which Faye sings with Ethel Merman (who goes unmentioned on an album cover that cites the presence of such other guest stars as Natcho Galindo!). Second, there's Rose of Washington Square (1939), a thinly veiled account of the life of Fanny Brice featuring 1920s standards like "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "I'll See You In My Dreams." But despite Faye's always warm and straightforward readings, too many of the songs here are mediocre. The sound quality, enhanced by the CEDAR system, is adequate. The annotations are skimpy.
William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Got My Mind on Music [From Sally, Irene and Mary]
  2. I Could Use a Dream [From Sally, Irene and Mary]
  3. Halfmoon on the Hudson [From Sally, Irene and Mary]
  4. Think Twice [From Sally, Irene and Mary]
  5. This Is Where I Came In [From Sally, Irene and Mary]
  6. Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny [From in Old Chicago]
  7. I've Taken a Fancy to You [From in Old Chicago]
  8. Alexander's Ragtime Band [From Alexander's Ragtime Band]
  9. Remember [From Alexander's Ragtime Band]
  10. Blue Skies [From Alexander's Ragtime Band]
  11. Are You in the Mood for Mischief? [From Tail Spin]
  12. Go in and Out the Window [From Tail Spin]
  13. I'm Just Wild About Harry [Rose of Washington Square]
  14. I'm Sorry I Made You Cry [From Rose of Washington Square]
  15. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows [From Rose of Washington Square]
  16. I'll See You in My Dreams [From Rose of Washington Square]
  17. I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak [From Rose of Washington Square]
  18. There'll Be Other Nights [From Barricade]
  19. Get Out and Get Under [From Tin Pan Alley]
  20. Chica Chica Boom Chic [From That Night in Rio]
  21. It's All in a Lifetime [FromThe Great American Broadcast]
  22. Where You Are [FromThe Great American Broadcast]
  23. Tropical Magic [From A Weekend in Havana]
  24. Romance and Rhumba [From A Weekend in Havana]
  25. The Man with the Lollypop Song [From A Weekend in Havana]