The album captures the performances of the original Broadway cast, including Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, and Stanley Holloway, and was rushed to market to capitalize on the show's immediate success. Produced by Goddard Lieberson, it was recorded with the original cast and a full orchestra. in a single marathon session on March 25, 1956, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York.
The original Broadway production of My Fair Lady opened on March 15, 1956, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre and became an instant sensation. CBS, Columbia Records' parent company, had invested between 360,000 and 400,000 in the show in exchange for ownership stakes and the rights to produce the cast recording.[1] Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records and a visionary advocate for musical theatre, spearheaded the project.[2]
The album was recorded at Columbia's famed 30th Street Studio, a deconsecrated church known for its superb acoustics. The sessions took place in late March 1956, just over a week after the Broadway premiere, and were described as an intense, all-day affair.[3] In the recording, most of the spoken dialogue was omitted and several songs underwent structural changes, including the removal of verses, reduction of instrumental sections, and the combination of musical numbers. For example, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" had its spoken lines omitted and its dance break reduced; "With a Little Bit of Luck" combined both stage versions into a single number; "The Rain in Spain" featured reduced dialogue; "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" had the string section reduced to a solo violin in the first chorus; and the lyrics in "Get Me to the Church on Time" were altered, with "For Gawd’s sake" changed to "Be sure and get me".[4]
Columbia's engineering team used a three-microphone setup, one for vocals, one for the orchestra, and one for ambient tone, to balance clarity with theatrical energy. Fred Plaut, Columbia's senior engineer, oversaw the final mastering, making adjustments for vinyl limitations. Lieberson's team edited and mastered the album, which shipped within days to meet 100,000 advance orders.[5]
Releases
The first LP was released on April 2, 1956, in mono sound by Columbia Masterworks.[6] On October 17, 1988, it was released on compact disc (CD), coinciding with the increasing popularity of the compact disc (CD) format, as well as on cassette.[7][8] In 1994, Sony Classical and Legacy released a new special edition "Gold CD" (#SK 66128) which includes a recording-studio conversation among the performers.[9]
In 2002, the album was reissued by Sony Classical/Columbia/Legacy under catalog number SK 89997. The reissue was produced by Didier C. Deutsch and Darcy M. Proper, and the liner notes were authored by Dick Scanlan. This release also includes two brief conversations between Goddard Lieberson and the show's original creators and leading performers. According to Wayne Hoffman of Billboard, this edition was remastered with "astonishing clarity".[10]
The LP was reissued in 2016 by Analog Spark, featuring replica of Columbia and RCA labels and packaging. This newly remastered, 180-gram deluxe audiophile vinyl edition presented the original mono recording, cutted directly from the original tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.[11]
In his five-star review for Cast Album Reviews, Michael Portantiere described the recording as “"stunningly well done" and said it "should be a cornerstone of every cast album collection". He also called "The Rain in Spain" "an electrifying moment of joyful triumph".[13]
Writing for Musicals101.com, theatre writer John Kenrick described the Original 1956 Broadway Cast recording as "legendary", thanks to its definitive performances, and called the regular CD release "a keystone in any cast recording collection".[14]
The album debuted on April 28, 1956, at position number 30 and reached the number one spot on July 14, 1956.[16][17] It remained on the Billboard 200 chart for a total of 480 weeks, making it one of the longest-charting albums in U.S. chart history.[18] By 1994, it had the best performance of a cast recording album on Billboard charts.[19]
According to Joe Whitburn's op Pop Albums 1955–2001 book, the album spent 292 weeks within the Billboard Top 40, 173 weeks in the Top 10, and a total of 15 weeks at number one. As a result of this sustained success, it was ranked as the 21st most successful album in the history of Billboard magazine.[20] On the magazine's year-end album charts, it placed second in 1956 and secured the number one position in both 1957 and 1958.[21][22][23]
The recording also made history by becoming the first LP record to sell one million copies in the United States.[24] Its chart-topping performance was not limited to a single year, as it reached number one on the Billboard chart across multiple years: 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959, accumulating a total of 15 weeks in the top position, including a stretch of eight consecutive weeks.[25]
Following the London premiere of the musical in April 1958, the recording held the top spot on the UK Albums Chart for 19 consecutive weeks, making it the best-selling album in the United Kingdom for that year.[26]
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