Carousel (film) - Deleted and Cut Songs

Deleted and Cut Songs

Two songs recorded for the film, "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan" (sung by Barbara Ruick and Shirley Jones) and "Blow High, Blow Low" (sung by Cameron Mitchell and a male chorus) were eventually left out of the movie because the producers wanted to keep the length at 128 minutes. They have, however, been included in all editions of the soundtrack album. "The Highest Judge of All", a song which precedes Billy's meeting with the Starkeeper in the show, in which he asks to meet God, was eliminated from the film score and does not appear on the soundtrack album, presumably because the flashback scenes precluded it. Mr. Snow's sentimental song, "Geraniums in the Winder", which serves as an introduction to "Stonecutters Cut It on Stone", was also eliminated, as was a reprise of "Mister Snow". As with "The Highest Judge", neither "Geraniums" nor the reprise of "Mister Snow" were ever recorded for the film, and have not appeared on any editions of the film's soundtrack. One verse of "Stonecutters Cut It on Stone" (which appears on the album) was omitted from the film, perhaps because it contains a veiled reference to sex and the movie censors of the day might have objected.

The soundtrack album also featured (as noted above) the complete version of "Carousel Waltz" which is first heard at the beginning of the original show and early in the film. Because of its nearly eight-minute length, only an abridged version of the waltz was actually heard in the movie, and many stage productions of Carousel tend to shorten the piece as well, because of time considerations. In addition, the soundtrack album version of the song "When the Children Are Asleep" includes the long introductory section to the song sung by Mr. Snow as it is in the show; the film does not use this. The soundtrack album also includes a section of "If I Loved You" not in the film. The lyric of this section, which is supposed to be sung by Billy Bigelow, is as follows:

Kind of scrawny and pale

Pickin' at my food

And lovesick like any other guy.

I'd throw away my sweater

And dress up like a dude

In a dickey and collar and a tie,

If I loved you.

This section leads to Billy reprising the refrain of the song. In the film, the refrain is still there, but the lines quoted above are omitted. Billy simply says "I wonder what it'd be like", upon which Julie responds knowingly, "If you loved me? But you don't". Billy, in turn, answers, "No I don't", and goes on to sing the refrain of the song beginning with the lines

But somehow I can see

Just exactly how I'd be.