Call Me Madam - Recordings

Recordings

In a highly unusual situation, two LP albums of the score were released. The recording rights had been granted to RCA Victor, which had invested in the show, but Merman was under contract to Decca Records, which refused to allow her to record the original cast album. Decca issued a 10-inch LP featuring Merman singing some of her songs, accompanied by arranger-conductor Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra and Chorus, with vocalizing by Dick Haymes (who joined Merman in the show's biggest hit, "You're Just in Love", their single reaching Billboard magazine's number 30 for a week) and Eileen Wilson (who sang "It's a Lovely Day Today" with Haymes). RCA Victor went ahead with the original cast album replacing Merman with Dinah Shore. Merman was called back into the Decca studios to record additional songs from the show, and the label quickly re-released the album as a 12-inch LP under the title Ethel Merman: 12 Songs from Call Me Madam. The Victor album sold reasonably well, attaining the sixth spot on the Billboard popular album charts, but the LP was out of print from 1956 until RCA Red Seal reissued it briefly in 1977. Peaking at number two on Billboard's popular album charts, Merman's Decca recording, which would appear on MCA Records beginning in 1973, stayed steadily in print until the end of the LP era. Merman's Madam album currently is available on a Decca Broadway CD, which also features Merman singing four Cole Porter tunes from the stage score of Panama Hattie (1940).

Merman also is heard on the film soundtrack album (with Donald O'Connor and George Sanders), issued in 1953 as a 10-inch album, also on the Decca label. Scoring fifth position on Billboard "s popular albums charts when first released, the soundtrack, taken out of print in 1957, was reissued in 1981 by Stet Records on a 12-inch LP which also contained songs from the film scores of Guys and Dolls (1955) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955). The Merman soundtrack has not been legally updated to a CD.

A 1995 Broadway concert cast album, featuring Tyne Daly, Lewis Cleale, Christopher Durang, Ken Page, and Melissa Errico, is available on the DRG label.

The original London West End cast recording, starring Billie Worth, has been released on the Sepia label.