HIGH SOCIETY is one of only two MGM films shot in Paramount’s high resolution VistaVision process. Strangely though, unlike Cinemascope & the 70mm formats, VistaVision had no provision for magnetic stereophonic sound, instead using an upgraded monaural optical sound track which was split artificially between 3 speakers behind the screen. HIGH SOCIETY’s musical sound track was recorded in three track magnetic stereo, which was MGM’s standard practice at the time but the finished film was mixed in monaural and never exhibited theatrically in stereo. A genuine stereo sound track mix was created for the first time in the 1990s for MGM’s deluxe laserdisc release by mixing the 3 track stereo music tracks with the film’s monaural dialogue and effects track. This mix was expanded even further into Dolby 5.0 for the DVD release.

I mixed my own expanded stereo sound track album of HIGH SOCIETY from a 1/2 inch 3 track tape given to a friend by Johnny Green, the music director of the film, in the 1960s. I intercut the song intros from the Capitol soundtrack album master for a better musical presentation and include the alternate Capitol album mixes and Frank Sinatra’s studio re-recorded vocal of “You’re Sensational”, which replaced the soundtrack one on the album. Additional bonus tracks on this CD include a restored and slightly expanded stereo mix of Cole Porter’s last film score, LES GIRLS. If you would like to hear this mix of "High Society/ Les Girls" I have included below links to FLAC files of the complete album for download. Again, I ask that out of respect for the original artists, that you please use this download for your personal enjoyment only.

HIGH SOCIETY/ LES GIRLS Expanded Soundtracks:
Hi Rez FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!L0lVzLST!-BLZb_BOAaOIYB8Osp-zAcCbGMx70mSrPkLuRxtomNU

The tracks on the download are as follows and
tracks 1 through 13 are meant to play straight through without pause:
1. Overture [Orchestra]
2. Main Title [Orchestra]
3. High Society Calypso [Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra]
4. Little One [Bing Crosby]
5. Who Wants to Be A Millionaire [Frank Sinatra & Celeste Holm]
6. True Love [Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly]
7. You’re Sensational [Frank Sinatra]
8. I Love You, Samantha [Bing Crosby with Louis Armstrong, trumpet solo]
9. Now you has Jazz [Bing Crosby with Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra]
10. Well did You Evah? [Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra]
11. Mind if I Make Love to You [Frank Sinatra]
12. I Love You, Samantha and Finale [Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra]
13. End Titles [Orchestra]
14 High Society Overture (album mix) [Orchestra]
15. You’re Sensational (album track) arranged & conducted by Nelson Riddle
[Frank Sinatra]
16. I Love You, Samantha (album mix) [Bing Crosby with Louis Armstrong, trumpet solo]
BONUS TRACKS: LES GIRLS
17. Prelude [Orchestra]
18. Les Girls [Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall (partial dub by Betty Wand) & Taina Elg (dubbed by Thara Matthieson)]
19. Ca C’est l’Amour [Taina Elg (dubbed by Thara Matthieson)]
20. Ladies in Waiting [Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall (partial dub by Betty Wand) & Taina Elg (dubbed by Thara Matthieson)]
21. You’re Just Too, Too [Gene Kelly & Kay Kendall]
22. Why am I So Gone about that Gal? [Gene Kelly & Chorus]

Stevie:

Thank you very much for this gem, too bad these soundtracks were never released on CD but thanks to you we are now
able to listen these wonserful scores by Cole Porter :)

i�ve been looking for this soundtrack for months.not even the most remote and obscure torrent index seems to offer this.
you�ve definitely made my day with this upload,and i hope not just mine.
thanks a million.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much!!

Many thanks for sharing. This has been on Rhino's release schedule several times, but unfortunately never turned up :(

Just out of interest: does your tape contain any underscore from the movie? The Rhino release supposedly were to include some of the underscore (and I think some copies even leaked although I've never heard it :( ). So if anybody owns this I would be glad to finally obtain a copy :)

Once again - another MGM marvel! Many thanks.

leiterf wrote:
"Just out of interest: does your tape contain any underscore from the movie? The Rhino release supposedly were to include some of the underscore"


The tape I used contained only the song score plus a few transitional cues. The unreleased Rhino CD contained only 4 underscore cues and 1 source cue (Wagner's Bridal Chorus), probably less than 10 minutes of music since High Society had very little underscore for a musical film of the 1950s. I still wish it had been on my tape but at least we now have the fairly complete Cole Porter song score, which is the most valuable part of the film.

Many thanks for the info. I'm listening to it right now - and it sounds absolutely marvelous! I'm also happy that you've gone flac with this one (and other recent ones)...

I think there's plenty of unreleased stuff if you include all the party source music (let alone the fact that there may be some that was cut from the movie). Then again almost any MGM musical would require two disks :)

Thank you steviefromalaska for another incredible one-of-a-kind recording and as always, thanks for your detailed liner notes.

Oh my god, is this what I think it is? Yes it is!! Thank you so much, steviefromalaska. I could just hug you :)

Unique contribution, stevefromalaska. Thanx.

Brilliant! Thank you

Stevie:

Thank you very much for this gem, too bad these soundtracks were never released on CD but thanks to you we are now
able to listen these wonserful scores by Cole Porter :)

I have actually done a complete soundtrack for High Society from the 5.1 DVD tracks. I need to check them all to see if they are all clean of FX and if all goes well I'll be posting that one very soon.

This is a wonderful share, per usual, steviefromalaska! Many thanks!

Many thanks steviefromalaska for yet another quality gem. It's great to see you and impossibleego standing next to turner6, and producing these superb musical shares.
Great work guys.

Thank you share!

leiterf wrote:
"Just out of interest: does your tape contain any underscore from the movie? The Rhino release supposedly were to include some of the underscore"


The tape I used contained only the song score plus a few transitional cues. The unreleased Rhino CD contained only 4 underscore cues and 1 source cue (Wagner's Bridal Chorus), probably less than 10 minutes of music since High Society had very little underscore for a musical film of the 1950s. I still wish it had been on my tape but at least we now have the fairly complete Cole Porter song score, which is the most valuable part of the film.

Total time with complete underscore is 58 minutes.

Looks like I WILL be posting the complete soundtrack soon. No FX found on any tracks yet. (Listening to it now to be sure! lol)

Thank you!

I know that the Les Girls DVD is in 5.1 so I'm going to have to check and see if I can do the same for Les Girls as I did for High Society. ;)

(I believe Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Or Leave Me and Billy Rose's Jumbo are the only other MGM Musicals in 5.1 that don't already have complete or near complete soundtracks released.)

Thank you very much

Mucho Gracias!

Many thanks Stevie!

Outstanding WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many thanks for sharing this GREAT set of scores :-D

Thank you!!!

I don't know how I missed this thread the first time around. Thanks for the thread bump and thanks to Stevie for another great share!

Thank you ver much, for this great share!

Thanks!

New updated link to this download:
https://mega.nz/#!L0lVzLST!-BLZb_BOAaOIYB8Osp-zAcCbGMx70mSrPkLuRxtomNU

Thanks

Amazing Steve

thank you so much

Link received. Many thanks steviefromalaska for the re-up and sharing of HIGH SOCIETY & LES GIRLS: Cole Porter Expanded MGM Soundtracks Sinatra - Crosby ;-) I gave you a rep. Rated thread: excellent as always! ;-)

Thanks again, Stevie

Very, very much ..!