Concurrent with her film career at Universal Pictures, Deanna Durbin also worked as a recording artist for Decca Records in the '30s and '40s, where she frequently made studio recordings of the songs and arias she was singing in her movies at a time when the "original motion picture soundtrack" recording was unknown. Between her Decca signing in 1936 and the onset of the recording ban called by the musicians union in 1942, Durbin cut 39 masters in 14 recording sessions; 20 of those performances make up this British budget ...
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Concurrent with her film career at Universal Pictures, Deanna Durbin also worked as a recording artist for Decca Records in the '30s and '40s, where she frequently made studio recordings of the songs and arias she was singing in her movies at a time when the "original motion picture soundtrack" recording was unknown. Between her Decca signing in 1936 and the onset of the recording ban called by the musicians union in 1942, Durbin cut 39 masters in 14 recording sessions; 20 of those performances make up this British budget compilation. The dynamic soprano recreates her renditions of music also heard in her films 100 Men and a Girl (1937), That Certain Age (1938), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), First Love (1939), It's a Date (1940), Spring Parade (1940), and Nice Girl? (1941), and in material from the final recording session included, does two songs, "La Estrellita" and "Poor Butterfly," which were not included in any of her movies. The selections include compositions by Verdi, Puccini, and Strauss, and even when the songwriters are Hollywood types they make use of Durbin's classically trained voice to contribute rangy, dramatic tunes. Durbin's recordings were not as popular as her films; only "My Own," from That Certain Age (included here), made the bestseller charts. But this collection, despite its sometimes dicey sound quality, demonstrates that she was a powerful singer and one of the major musical talents in the movies in her day. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
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