Soundtrack
On December 18, 1966, MGM released a soundtrack LP in conjunction with the television special. In October 1995, Island released a CD duplicating the 1966 LP release. A separate record album (the original?) is also available on CD (Mercury records 314-528 438-2, which differs from the Rhino release in several ways and can be identified by the Dr. Seuss drawing of the Grinch on the cover, which is visually different from Chuck Jones's Grinch. In the story, Boris Karloff does all voices, notably including Cindy Lou Who. The song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" includes all verses with their original rhyming lyrics; some of the lines were switched around in the television special, possibly for dramatic or comic timing reasons, and the isolated song tracks have different durations due to being re-recorded. On Oct 5, 1999, Rhino Entertainment released a new soundtrack for the special, and also included the soundtrack for another Dr. Seuss cartoon, Horton Hears a Who, on the disc. Both story collections contain selected dialogue and music numbers. The "isolated music tracks" in this edition are taken directly from the television soundtrack, not the re-recorded versions. The dialogues are the originals, being voiced by Boris Karloff for "Grinch" and Hans Conried for "Horton." Because Ravenscroft was not credited in the closing credits of the special, singing the song of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" it is often mistakenly attributed to Boris Karloff, who served as narrator and speaking voice of the Grinch in the special. While Karloff was an adequate singer who had sung on Broadway and occasionally in film and on television, he did not possess the vocal talent that Ravenscroft did. After becoming aware of this oversight, Seuss himself called Ravenscroft and apologized profusely. He later wrote letters to columnists nationwide telling them that it was Ravenscroft who provided vocals for the musical number. Karloff received a Grammy Award in the Spoken Word category--the only major performing award of his career--for the album.
Track listing:
From How the Grinch Stole Christmas:
- Opening (How the Grinch....) 1:29
- Trim Up The Tree 0:45
- Tomorrow Is Christmas, It's Practically Here 4:11
- Welcome Christmas 0:46
- I Must Stop Christmas 0:59
- You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch 5:15
- You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Reprise) 5:15
- A Quarter Of Dawn 1:43
- Welcome Christmas 2:52
- Finale (How The Grinch....) 3:06
- Opening (How The Grinch....) (Isolated Music Track) 1:29
- Trim Up The Tree (Isolated Music Track) 0:47
- Welcome Christmas (Isolated Music Track) 2:06
- You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (Isolated Music Track) 3:32
From Horton Hears a Who:
- Opening (Horton Hears...) 5:57
- Mrs. Toucanella Told Me 2:53
- Old Doc Hoovey 2:01
- Wickersham Brothers Song 2:14
- Who-Ville Aloft 3:22
- Doctor Hoovey, You Were Right 1:33
- Horton The Elephant's Going To Be Caged 5:22
- Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends 1:17
- Finale (Horton Hears...) 0:48
- Old Doc Hoovey (Isolated Music Track) 1:23
- Wickersham Brothers Song (Isolated Music Track) 2:06
- We Are Here (Isolated Music Track) 1:22
- Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends (Isolated Music Track) 1:32
Read more about this topic: How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV Special)