Entertainment Weekly (10/12/01, p.29) - Ranked #11 in EW's "100 Best Movie Soundtracks" - "...The sound is, yes, as big as all outdoors...All this glorious Americana takes us on loacation, in our imagination, each time we listen anew."
Music composed by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Principal Cast: Gordon MacRae (Curly McLain); Shirley Jones (Laurey Williams); Rod Steiger (Jud Fry); Gloria Grahame (Ado Annie Carnes); Gene Nelson (Will Parker); Charlotte Greenwood (Aunt Eller Murphy); James Whitmore (Andrew Carnes); Eddie Albert (Ali Hakim); J.C. Flippin (Ike Skidmore).
Producer: Fred Hynes.
Reissue producers: Didier C. Deutsch, Charles L. Granata.
Recorded at MGM Studios, Culver City, California between May & July 1954. Originally released on Capitol (595). Includes liner notes by Didier C. Deutsch & Charles L. Granata.
Digitally remastered by Darcy M. Proper (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).
Twelve years after it opened on Broadway, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's first musical burst onto the screen in the Todd-AO widescreen process, with a fine cast that included Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Charlotte Greenwood, Rod Steiger, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson and James Whitmore. All the marvellous songs heard in the stage production are here, with the highlights being 'Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'', 'The Surrey With The Fringe On Top', 'People Will Say We're In Love', and the rousing title number. A spell of over four years in the US charts (four weeks at number 1) says it all.