Search - Cole Porter, Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse :: Silk Stockings (1957 Film Soundtrack)

Rhino Record's Does It Again!!!

04/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rhino Record's deserves a round of applause for continuing it's release of Hollywood's historical musical soundtracks and film scores. SILK STOCKINGS may not be the best from Cole Porters catalog - but it provides a pleasant reminder of 1950's film entertainment. The orchestration's have the lush, detailed sparkling arrangements that only the film studio knew how to produce. And yes, the CD is mastered completely in glorious "Stereophonic Sound" Bravo."

The Most Beautiful of the MGM Scores

James A. White | Cookeville, TN United States | 01/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Silk Stockings" was a minor Broadway show that became an excellent movie, and, thanks to the geniuses at Rhino (honestly, those people deserve awards for what they do), the most beautiful MGM score. From its opening bars to the fabulous Silk Stockings ballet to the closing, this soundtrack is chock-full of the orchestral bridges and instrumentals that make this movie great. If you're a fan of lyrics, though, don't despair. As always, the great Cole Porter comes through. Stereophonic Sound is hilarious, as is Josephine and Satin and Silk. Fred's singing is better than it usually is (even though it's always great); the only downfall is that they dubbed Cyd Charisse. Of course, the woman singing is excellent, but it would have been nice to hear Cyd's real voice. However, that is where the people at Rhino come through, to a degree. In one of the bonus tracks, there's an early recording of Cyd singing one of the songs.
Bottom Line: This soundtrack is worth the full retail price, let alone the Get It Used cost. Get it used, get it new--just get it now! You'll be thanking yourself. The only downfall is you'll be wanting the DVD for Cyd's gorgeous Silk Stockings dance."

Inferior Cole Porter score? No such thing!

Mark Andrew Lawrence | Toronto | 09/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On Broadway SILK STOCKINGS was a minor hit, running a little over a year. Then M-g-M turned it into movie and actually improved it in the translation. They staretd off on the right track by retaining most of the original score. Two minor songs ("Hail Bibinski" and "As on Through the Seasons We Sail") were dropped and Porter wrote two new songs for the picture: "Fated to be Mated" and "The Ritz Roll and Rock." The title song was changed from a solo for the male lead into a beautiful, sensual dance for female lead Cyd Charisse. The tightening of the script to pare the film's running time to under two hours worked also helped improve the piece. The only (minor) disappointment is that some of Porter's saucy lyrics had to be altered. The original M-g-M Records release contained only 14 tracks. This new CD restores the entire score and allows the listener to sample the wonderful underscoring. As usual Rhino has done wonders to make the sound quality very good indeed.As for complaints that Porter was "not up to his usual standard" - well, it isn't ANYTHING GOES or KISS ME KATE, but it's still Porter and as both a composer and lyricist he was in fine form on this, his final Broadway score."