Notes: Bonuses: "Not a Day Goes By," Bernadette Peters (from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall); "It's a Hit!," Stephen Sondheim (from Sondheim's archive).
Tracks: 1. Overture
2. The Hills Of Tomorrow/Merrily We Roll Along (1980)/Rich And Happy
3. Merrily We Roll Along (1979-1975)/Old Friends/Like It Was
4. Merrily We Roll Along (1974-1973)/Franklin Shepard, Inc.
5. Old Friends
6. Not A Day Goes By
7. Now You Know
8. It's A Hit!
9. Merrily We Roll Along (1964-1962)/Good Thing Going
10. Merrily We Roll Along (1961-1960)/Bobby And Jackie And Jack
11. Not A Day Goes By
12. Opening Doors
13. Our Time
14. The Hills Of Tomorrow
Tracks: Side A:
1. Overture
2. The Hills Of Tomorrow/Merrily We Roll Along (1980)/Rich And Happy
3. Merrily We Roll Along (1979-1975)/Old Friends/Like It Was
4. Merrily We Roll Along (1974-1973)/Franklin Shepard, Inc.
5. Old Friends
6. Not A Day Goes By
Side B:
7. Now You Know
8. Merrily We Roll Along (1964-1962)/Good Thing Going
9. Merrily We Roll Along (1961-1960)/Bobby And Jackie And Jack
10. Not A Day Goes By
11. Opening Doors
12. Our Time
13. The Hills Of Tomorrow
Posted 2007-08-05 20:52:48: Amazon.com Editoral Review: It's a shame that Merrily We Roll Along was such a devastating flop on Broadway, for it contains some of Stephen Sondheim's best, brightest, and brassiest music. The reasons have been well documented: a youthful, inexperienced cast; cheesy sets and costumes; and, most of all, a confusing plot structure that starts in 1980 with bitter, cynical characters and winds its way backward to 1955, when a high school graduating class is dreaming of making its mark on the world. The main focus is on three friends (Jim Walton, Ann Morrison, and Lonny Price) who share musical ambitions but are gradually driven apart by the turbulence and fragmentation of their lives and the America around them. (You'll also hear a pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander, and even a young chorus girl named Liz Callaway.) Sondheim almost imperceptibly reworks his themes as his characters develop, and the score includes the infectious "Old Friends," the driving title tune, the ballad "Not a Day Goes By," and "Our Time," an uplifting anthem of hope when performed out of the show's context, but emotionally devastating within it. And if the backward structure--inherited from George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1934 version of the show--really bothers you, you can run it almost completely chronologically by reprogramming the CD. --David Horiuchi
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