Chitty Chitty Bang Bang/Richard and Robert Sherman
December 14, 2011
This very very special release from Kritzerland (KR 20020-5) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was brand new to me and had absolutely no experience with the film or the music. My favorite films in 1968 were Bullitt, The Odd Couple, and The Planet of the Apes. The Lalo Schifrin score was the coolest thing I’d heard in jazz for a soundtrack, ever. My love for Neal Hefti grew even further when I heard his fabulous theme and it didn’t take very long for my swing ensemble at school to come up with an arrangement. I always thought that the film starred Julie Andrews and had no idea the CCBB was a special car. Talk about an example of being clueless. To be fair I’ve never seen Funny Girl, another popular release in 1968. At this point in my musical development I was hard at work studying the orchestrations of Rimsky-Korsakov.
It is hard to imagine that this story came from the pen of Ian Fleming, something he wrote for his children and ended up being sold in a package to Broccoli the producer, who was primarily interested in the Bond stories but quickly saw the potential in a film which ended up starring Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Benny Hill, and Gert ‘Goldfinger’ Frobe. Shot on 70mm film with a budget in excess of 10 million dollars even the fine writing team of the Sherman Brothers who had recently completed the huge success Mary Poppins couldn’t save this film. There were just too many musicals in too short a period of time.
There have been several releases of this recording over the years but none come close to matching all of the available material that this Kritzerland release has come up with. The audio quality ranges from excellent stereo to adequate mono but all listenable material. The purpose was to try and make all of the material available and that goal was achieved. My favorite section is the Richard Sherman demos on the second CD where it is just the ivory and composer singing the wonderful vivacious uplifting melodies. There seemed to be a nice personal touch to these tracks that make the music even more inviting.
The soundtrack was limited to 1200 copies and quickly sold out. However it would certainly be worth your time to check out other distributors who might still have some stock available. It is well worth having in your collection.
Track listing:
Total Duration: 01:58:34 |
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Film and Classical Music: Neglected Art 