Ethel Merman - The Ethel Merman Collection (1997)

On 13 October 1930 a former stenographer walked onto the stage, sang "I Got Rythm," and in the process held a single note for an incredible thirty-two bars. Her personality was larger than life; her voice was powerful enough to blow open a barn door at sixty paces; and in the era before sound systems you could hear every single word in the balcony back row. A star was born, and her name was Ethel Merman. She would hold Broadway in thrall for two decades.

In those two decades Merman would appear in a host of celebrated musicals, a handful of films, and introduce more great standards than you can count. There is no way a "best of" compilation can do her justice--but THE ETHEL MERMAN COLLECTION comes as close as any single disk collection can. Most of the great ones are here, along with several of her lesser-known but no less greatly performed titles.

Many of the songs are obvious. It would be impossible to have an Ethel Merman collection without including "You're the Top," "I Get A Kick Out of You," "Doin' What Comes Naturally," "Hostess With the Mostes" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses"--to name but a few, all of them great standards of the Broadway stage and all of them sung to perfection. Fortunately, the collection also includes a few you may not have previously encountered, such as "Eadie Was A Lady," "Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please," and two brassy duets with Ray Bolger, "Dearie" and "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Bake A Cake." But whether the song is a roundhouse punch or a simple throw away, Merman never gave less than one hundred percent--and she's very much there in every single note.

A few of the songs here could stand a remaster, and I was unhappy with the version of "There's No Business Like Show Business" that is offered here. But short of a box set or a wholesale purchase of all the available Broadway soundtracks, this is probably as good as it gets--and when you're talking about the legendary Ethel Merman, that is very, very good indeed.