Songs from the 'My Sister Eileen' Musicals

When Ruth McKenney started writing about moving to New York with her sister Eileen, she began a multimedia enterprise that spawned New Yorker articles, a book, a play, a film, a Broadway musical, a Hollywood musical, and a television show. And perhaps some other things I've missed.

Today we'll concentrate on the musical offspring of the My Sister Eileen stories - the 1953 Broadway production Wonderful Town, and the 1955 Hollywood film issued under the original title. The two musicals had different scores - Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green; My Sister Eileen by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. (Columbia Pictures apparently didn't want to pay for the Broadway score.)

Wonderful Town has sired a series of albums, including one by the original cast and another from the 1958 television production, both with Rosalind Russell as Ruth. There was no cast album from the film, possibly because the score was too skimpy. In that production, only Betty Garrett (Ruth) was known as a singer. (Yes, I realize that Jack Lemmon issued a few vocal LPs.) For me, the high point of the film is not a song but a spectacular dance duel between Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall, who were competing for Eileen.

This post is not concerned with any recordings by the original casts; rather it examines the records that appeared in the market covering songs from these musicals. Most are from Wonderful Town, but the few from My Sister Eileen are worth hearing as well.

Wonderful Town

Let's start with Wonderful Town and my favorite song from either score - "Ohio," in a heartfelt version by the superb Lisa Kirk. The work has witty lyrics by Comden and Green and a loping tune (possibly inspired by Gershwin's "Bidin' My Time") that suggests Bernstein thought that Ohio is out West where the tumbleweeds blow. Rosalind Russell and Edith (Edie) Adams introduced the song.

The Hi-Lo's (Gene Puerling, Bob Strasen, Clark Burroughs, Bob Morse)
and Lisa Kirk

"A Quiet Girl" is a hymn-like Bernstein creation here in a uncharacteristically restrained - and very beautiful - reading by the Hi-Lo's. Frank Comstock suggests the composer's debt to Aaron Copland in his arrangement. This song was done first by George Gaynes as Bob Baker, Ruth's eventual love interest.

In Wonderful Town, Eileen betrayed her feelings for Frank in the excellent and unaccountably neglected "A Little Bit in Love." Here we have the talented Sandy Stewart several years before her big hit "My Coloring Book." The song comes from an Epic EP devoted to songs from the score.

Sandy Stewart and Lena Horne

The most popular song from either musical was possibly "It's Love," here in a typically polished version from the great Lena Horne. Edie Adams and George Gaynes introduced it.

One of Bernstein's most felicitous inspirations was the "Wrong Note Rag," near the end of the Wonderful Town score. Pianist Jack Fina, who made his name with Freddy Martin, has some fun with the piece, although he seems almost pained by the wrong notes.

Jack Fina and Arthur Fiedler

Finally, we have a medley of the Wonderful Town songs from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. The conductor was more attuned to musical humor than Fina, and he nails the manic quality of the "Wrong Note Rag." Arranger Dave Terry comes back to it a few times in this exceptionally well-done compilation. It comes from the LP Curtain Going Up, available newly remastered on my other blog.

My Sister Eileen

We switch to My Sister Eileen for "There's Nothin' Like Love," here in a effective arrangement by Ralph Flanagan that features baritone saxophonist Stan Webb and the smooth vocalist Johnny Amaroso, who also played trumpet in the band. On film the singers were Bob Fosse (Frank) and Janet Leigh (Eileen).

Art Mooney and Johnny Amaroso

Next, some old-style corn called "Give Me a Band and My Baby," just the thing for Art Mooney and his crew, who specialized in such material. The bandleader's biggest success was "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" in 1948. His hits in 1955 were "Honey-Babe," a march from the film Battle Cry, and "Nuttin' for Christmas," the lament of a juvenile Barry Gordon.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Finally, Sammy Davis, Jr. does wonders with the Styne-Robin "It's Bigger Than You and Me," a crass tune that the vulpine Bob Baker (Jack Lemmon) croons to Ruth (Betty Garrett). With Davis, arranger Sy Oliver provides a brassy introduction, followed by Sam embarking on some jaunty vocalese that sets the tone for the number.

These selections were cleaned up from my collection and Internet Archive.

About the McKenneys

Ruth and Eileen McKenney

Ruth (1911-72) and Eileen (1913-40) McKenney grew up in East Cleveland, Ohio. Ruth wrote her stories for The New Yorker in the 1930s. They became a book in 1938. She was more multi-dimensional than the film suggests, being socially aware and a member of the Communist Party for quite a few years.

Eileen moved to the West Coast in the 1930s and worked as a Disney artist. She married the writer Nathanael West (Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust). She and West were killed in an automobile accident a few days before the play My Sister Eileen opened on Broadway.

Ruth's daughter believed her mother never quite recovered from Eileen's death.

LINK

Irwin Kostal, Sid Ramin and 'West Side Story'

Irwin Kostal and Sid Ramin

The distinguished orchestrators Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal worked closely with composer Leonard Bernstein on both the stage and film versions of West Side Story - and his subsequent "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story." But Ramin and Kostal also collaborated on this little known 1958 EP, The Sound of West Side Story by the Ramin-Kostal Orchestra.

It contains four cuts, and basically three songs - "Cool" (which is followed by the related "Cool Fugue"), "Maria" and "Mambo" - and is itself an enjoyable addition to the West Side Story canon.

Sid Ramin (1919-2019) was active as an orchestrator on many hit Broadway shows, and in films, television and on records. Irwin Kostal (1911-94) worked mainly in television, but also in movies and on Broadway. Ramin and Kostal shared an Academy Award for their work on the original West Side Story film. Kostal also won an Oscar for The Sound of Music.

In producing their EP, the intent of Ramin, Kostal and RCA Victor may well have been to offer a low-price alternative to the popular Columbia original cast LP. Whatever their reasons, they produced a fascinating alternative to the music on 1957 original cast album and the later Symphonic Dances. 

The orchestra on the EP is essentially a modern jazz band. The orchestration is significantly different from both the original cast recording and Symphonic Dances in that it does not include strings.

The Honey Dreamers - Bob Davis, Nan Green, Marion Bye, Bob Mitchell and Jerry Packer

The EP also features the Honey Dreamers vocal group, not a jazz ensemble such as Lambert, Hendricks and Ross but a sophisticated pop group which stands in both for the Jets (in the "Cool" music) and Tony (in "Maria").

The EP also programs the selections differently from the stage show. In the stage production, "Dance at the Gym" (i.e., "Mambo") precedes and thematically leads into "Maria." The "Cool" music comes later. The EP reverses this order.

I like the Honey Dreamers, but they cannot replace the contributions of Mickey Calin (later Michael Callen, a Hollywood fixture) and the Jets in "Cool," nor the passionate singing of Larry Kert in "Maria." The recording of the original cast album is also in wide, atmospheric stereo, which is particularly important to the impact of the "Mambo" music.

In short, the OBC LP is one of the great recordings of the 20th century, and Ramin-Kostal isn't a substitute. But it's a fine effort in its own right, well recorded in mono (this transfer is in ambient stereo), very well played and worthwhile.

To me, and I'm sure this is a minority view, the least successful presentation of the music from West Side Story was in Bernstein's own Symphonic Dances. The composer's intent was to demonstrate the symphonic rigor behind his theater score, but in doing so he has drained most of the emotion and color from the music. The work is nonetheless popular. During the 2018 Bernstein centenary, it was one of the most played symphonic works in the repertory of US orchestras.

But you can make up your own mind. The comments include links to not only the Ramin-Kostal EP, but the relevant cuts from the original Broadway cast LP and Bernstein's 1961 recording of the Symphonic Dances with the New York Philharmonic, all from my collection.

FYI - I've newly remastered Larry Kert's excellent 1960 stereo LP of Bernstein songs, removing almost all of the vocal sibilance that marred the recording. I've also redone the Honey Dreamers' very fine 1955 Gershwin LP, made with Elliot Lawrence, which is now in ambient stereo. Both are highly recommended.

I first learned of the Ramin-Kostal EP when a friend of mine shared it with me. I liked it so much I acquired a copy of my own for this post.