The British reissue label Naxos is well within its rights to release this unlicensed version of the original Broadway cast recording of
Kismet, due to the 50-year copyright limit in Europe. (As a note on the back cover reads, the disc is "not for sale in the United States," where copyrights last longer and Sony BMG's Columbia label maintains ownership.) Nor is this the first such CD of the album, which entered the public domain in 2004, so Naxos has taken its time and come up with a version that is a cut above its competitors. Extensive annotations include Richard Ouzounian's informative liner notes, which even point out the particular compositions by Alexander Borodin that were plundered by Robert Wright and George Forrest for their adapted score. (They even wrote a couple of songs on their own.) But the real selling point on this disc is the bonus material, six tracks including one from the 1955 movie soundtrack,
Dolores Gray singing "Bored," a song written for the film (and another Wright/Forrest original).
Tony Bennett's "Stranger in Paradise" was already on its way up the charts by the time the show opened on December 3, 1953, but it seems that wasn't the only song from the score recorded beforehand. The
Bennett track is not here, but there is an excellent cover of "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" by
Peggy Lee, along with easy listening instrumentals of two other songs by orchestra leaders
Ralph Flanagan and
Percy Faith, and, hilariously, a couple of vocal interpretations by singer/comedians,
Danny Kaye's "Night of My Nights" and Ross Bagdasarian's (aka David Seville of
Chipmunks fame) "Not Since Nineveh." Both of them seem to be auditioning for parts in the show, but neither seems to have a good idea of what the show is about. ~ William Ruhlmann