The Turner Entertainment Co.'s control of the MGM film library makes possible this compilation, a co-production of Turner Classic Movies Music and Rhino Movie Music, of performances taken from motion picture soundtracks of the 1940s. Eleven of the selections were heard in MGM films, with four from Warner Bros., and one, Fred Astaire's rendition of "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)," from RKO's The Sky's the Limit (1943). MGM was, of course, devoted to big-budget musicals in the '40s, and some of the company's ...
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The Turner Entertainment Co.'s control of the MGM film library makes possible this compilation, a co-production of Turner Classic Movies Music and Rhino Movie Music, of performances taken from motion picture soundtracks of the 1940s. Eleven of the selections were heard in MGM films, with four from Warner Bros., and one, Fred Astaire's rendition of "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)," from RKO's The Sky's the Limit (1943). MGM was, of course, devoted to big-budget musicals in the '40s, and some of the company's biggest contracted singing stars are here: Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Jane Powell, and Esther Williams (with Ricardo Montalban in the Academy Award-winning "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter [1949]). The '40s being the era of big-band swing, there are several leading orchestras represented, including those of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (separately) and Harry James (with Jimmy Durante on Durante's signature song, "Inka Dinka Doo" from Two Girls and a Sailor [1944]). Glenn Miller, whose films were released by 20th Century-Fox, which Turner does not control, could not be included, but following Miller's 1944 death his band was taken over by singer/saxophonist Tex Beneke, and the orchestra re-created one of the big Miller hits, "Chattanooga Choo Choo," in a 1948 MGM short, Martin Block's Musical Merry Go Round, so it gets in here that way. More singers than film stars were the Andrews Sisters, whose version of "Don't Fence Me In" (unlike the record, not including Bing Crosby) comes from the 1944 Warner Bros. film Hollywood Canteen. And more a film star than a singer, Bette Davis nevertheless managed to give a credible treatment to the Oscar-nominated "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" in another Warner all-star anthology film, 1943's Thank Your Lucky Stars. Not all the songs were current copyrights of the '40s, with Casablanca's "As Time Goes By" dating back to 1931 and Yankee Doodle Dandy's "You're a Grand Old Flag" all the way to 1906. Anyone familiar with that song (and a few others here) will note some lyric variations, not to mention sometimes much-expanded orchestrations, but those are the sorts of things that make these movie versions interesting. The collection is really just a sampler of the available material, but it more than justifies further volumes. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
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