RCA Victor contracted to record the 1951 Broadway revival of
Jerome Kern and
Oscar Hammerstein II's 1932 musical Music in the Air, but the show lasted less than two months, and the label scaled back its commitment to this disc of the songs sung primarily by the star of the show,
Jane Pickens.
Pickens sings seven of the ten songs on the LP, with
Al Goodman & His Orchestra playing the "Overture" and
the Guild Choristers handling "There's a Hill Beyond a Hill" and "We Belong Together." The recording is particularly welcome, since there was no full-length recording of the original production, nor even any individual tracks by members of the original cast. The hits of the score were "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" and "The Song Is You," and those remain the most memorable songs here, but
Pickens has a voice that displays both formal training (a good thing, given that this is an operetta) and also warmth and character, as called for in a popular stage musical, so she shines not only on the standards, but also on songs like "One More Dance" (which she shares with
the Guild Choristers) and "In Egern on the Tegern See." She, the chorus, and the orchestra give a good sense of a
Kern score that deliberately is one of his closest to being a Viennese-style operetta.