Rodgers & Hart Revisited Volume II

Cast/Singer
Blossom Dearie, Gloria De Haven, Dorothy Loudon , Bibi Osterwald, Charles Rydell, Bobby Short, Ann Hampton Callaway, Arthur Siegel, Sandy Stewart, Dennis Deal, Wyss Sisters, Marcus Neville, Willard Beckham
Cast assembled and directed by Ben Bagley
Songs
  1. Any Old Place With You;
  2. A Tree in the Park;
  3. From Another World;
  4. A Baby's Best Friend;
  5. Prayer Lyrics / The Bad In Every Man;
  6. Sleepyhead;
  7. You're the Cats;
  8. Disgustingly Rich;
  9. Can't You Do a Friend a Favor?;
  10. A Ship Without a Sail Lyrics ;
  11. A Lady Must Live;
  12. Angel Without Wings;
  13. Bye & Bye;
  14. I Like to Recognize the Tune;
  15. Sweetenheart;
  16. It Must Be Love;
  17. Give That Little Girl a Hand;
  18. One Dam Thing After Another;
  19. Pablo, You Are My Heart;
  20. Softer Than a Kitten;
  21. Hello
Painted Smiles PSCD-139 - Lps & Cds
Vote ***** - A must!!! If you like Rodgers & Hart , you should own the complete series.



Overview
33" nowrap>  Reviews:    If anything, Ben Bagley's second collection of forgotten Rodgers and Hart songs is more impressive than his first. In his witty liner notes (always a secondary treat of his albums), Bagley suggests that "this album deals with a most interesting and common sexual perversion among females: masochism." That's going a little far, although Bagley has uncovered several RH numbers specifically treating the female condition, notably "A Baby's Best Friend" (his mother) and "A Lady Must Live." A superlative cast including Bobby Short, Blossom Dearie, Gloria DeHaven, and Dorothy Loudon performs music that spans RH's entire career, starting with "Any Old Place With You," their first published song together in 1919, and running all the way up to one of the songs from the revival of A Connecticut Yankee in 1943. Particularly enlightening is a medley of "Prayer" and "The Bad In Every Man," two earlier lyrics to the melody that became better known as "Blue Moon." But the album is full of revelations, from the witty "Disgustingly Rich" to the lovely romantic ballad "Softer Than a Kitten" and the songwriters' attack on the swing arrangements that both popularized and violated their music, "I Like to Recognize the Tune." This album is among the most impressive entries in the Revisited series. (The LP version was released in 1972; the 1992 CD reissue added seven newly recorded songs, "Softer Than a Kitten" among them, boosting the album to a 71-minute running time.)
William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide