Funny Girl

by

Jule Styne

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The film soundtrack version of the "Funny Girl" score may lack some of the intimacy of it's Broadway counterpart, but Barbra's sensational belting is even more impressive the second time around. The film versions of "I'm The Greatest Star," "You Are Woman," "Sadie, Sadie," and especially "Don't Rain On My Parade" are actually superior to the earlier versions, with Barbra giving even better vocal performances. While it doesn't quite match the superior single version from 1964, the film version of "People" (the third studio recording of the song) is lush and very beautiful in it's own right.

The lovely "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You" and the stunning "My Man" (two of Fanny Brice's standard numbers) are worked into the score and prove to be highlights as does the title song, newly written for the film by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. It's no surprise that Barbra received the Academy Award for best actress for her work in this film. The "Broadway Cast" album has a more intimate feel to it, but the film soundtrack version of "Funny Girl" is a master work in it's own right and just slightly surpasses the earlier recording.

This album will go down in history as the worst "Remastering"-job anyone has ever done. The first 2 seconds of every track never have the same fidelity as the rest of the track. "You are woman" has distracting hiss and pops as has "My man" (here especially whenever the instrumental track and the voice track are being mixed). It seems as if the over the years heavily used mixed master tapes have been used for remastring instead of going back to the original elements. A comparison between the first CD release and this one will reveal further disadvantages of (re-)mastering in both editions, mistakes that, alas, have been multiplied by modern techniques in this forgettable release. Collector beware!