In my yearly holiday tradition, I broke out the Home Alone albums. It got me thinking back to the other things John Williams and Leslie Bricusse worked on. So I wrote about it on my blog Music Behind the Screen which you can check out here:
The song is much too brief, but maybe "Apollo" from GOODBYE MR. CHIPS is my favourite.
The short songs were supposed to be thought-bubble consciousness streams. I think that Petula Clark was very good at putting distinctive character into her singing in songs for film. One of my favorites is Devil Moon from Finian's Rainbow - it's definitely my favorite duet from any film. The handovers between Clark and Francks is melodic cream and for its time was deeply suggestive in the sweetest possible way.
I liked O'Toole's partial self-deprecating description of his voice, in which he likens it to glass being crushed under a door, or some such thing. Of course, didn't he do well! Anyway, isn't it just a toss-up between 'im and 'enry 'iggins when it comes to tooth-saying?
Then you have Noel competing with his father a bit further on down the line. Who comes off best tilting at toothy windmills?
Not to derail the thread, Walk Through The World is pretty damn nice.
My favorites are "Tomorrow With Me", "Can you read my Mind" and "Merry Christmas", I have to have a podium Would love to hear Julie Andrews' recording of "Childhood"
The short songs were supposed to be thought-bubble consciousness streams.
Yeah, I know. But I would still have loved to hear a developped 3-minute version of that song -- for album purposes, if nothing else. Love the almost religious, psalm-like chords of that song, one of Williams' primary fortes. And the "cosmos" lyrics by Bricusse, of course.
I was earlier referring (believe it or not) to Rex Harrison's talky-singy method with roots in My Fair Lady which further leapt off the screen in Doctor Dolittle.
So there might have been a menage-a-trois involving Willams, Bricusse and O'Toole concerning how O'Toole would do his singing? I'm afraid I forgot to mention Where Did My Childhood Go, which is particularly pertinent and poignant to most of us come what may. It is very touchingly performed by O'Toole. For instance, the cadence and nuance of "Yesterday I was their age, tomorrow they'll be my age, sooner much sooner than they know . . . " has the former part half-spoken in sharp agitation and almost annoyance, while the latter has O'Toole doing a 180 and suddenly turning more tender, reflective and melodious in his delivery.
