Rodgers & Hammerstein’s STATE FAIR 1962 Soundtrack Complete Remix & Bonus Tracks

The 1962 remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s STATE FAIR was not as successful as the 1945 version. In fact most of the critics at the time felt it was clunky and vastly inferior to the earlier film but none of this criticism was leveled at the musical presentation. All of the principal players except Pamela Tiffin could sing and the return of Alice Faye to the screen after a 17 year absence was universally applauded. Alfred Newman, the music director for the 1945 version, was also arranger-conductor for the remake, except that this time he was freelancing after leaving Fox in 1960 and had the added advantage of his brilliant collaborator and vocal director, Ken Darby. Oscar Hammerstein died before this version of STATE FAIR began preparation and several new songs were added to the score with Richard Rodgers writing both music & lyrics. One of these songs, “This Isn’t Heaven” is, in my opinion, one of the finest songs Rodgers ever composed and is sung beautifully by Bobby Darin in the film. Dot Records released a truncated 30 minute version of the soundtrack on LP at the time of the film’s release which Ken Darby hated, mostly because the songs were severely edited and the excessive added reverberation undermined the vocals. Varese Sarabande released a CD featuring both the 1945 & 1962 soundtracks from superior studio sources in the 1990s but surprisingly the optically recorded 45 version was better preserved than the newer film which was recorded on multi track stereo magnetic film which had deteriorated by the time of the CD release, rendering some of the vocal stems unusable. My new remastering of the soundtrack is essentially complete with all the vocals as heard in the film, in some cases more complete and including the intros recorded especially for the sound track album. This remix was compiled from a private 1/2 inch tape of the soundtrack sessions and a copy of the Dot soundtrack master which was used to fill in some of the missing material. The sound is slightly improved from the source used for the Varese CD, in my opinion. The album mixes of 3 songs which sound like they are from different takes are also included here in addition to bonus tracks from a long out of print and almost forgotten album recorded for the 20th Fox label at the time of the film’s initial release of Sonny Lester conducting the Fox Orchestra in 10 instrumental arrangements of the songs from the remake of STATE FAIR, mastered from a fairly clean stereo LP. I hope you enjoy this remix and more complete remastering of the 1962 STATE FAIR soundtrack. The film may not be as memorable as the 1945 version but musically it is, in different ways, equally superb.

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Wow – another terrific soundtrack! Many, many thanks!

real quality work you’ve put in

: )

Thank you steviefromalaska for another great and informative post.

Thank you very much

thanks a lot

Thank you!!!

wonderful yet again thank you

I am enjoying your posts. Thank you. I am also hoping that "Show Boat" is among your future projects.

Wonderful work! I actually prefer this version of the movie to the original. Something about this one just resonates with me more 🙂

Thanks a lot!

What you do is unspeakably generous. And you’re a great craftsman. Thank you.

The 1962 remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s STATE FAIR was not as successful as the 1945 version. In fact most of the critics at the time felt it was clunky and vastly inferior to the earlier film but none of this criticism was leveled at the musical presentation. All of the principal players except Pamela Tiffin could sing and the return of Alice Faye to the screen after a 17 year absence was universally applauded. Alfred Newman, the music director for the 1945 version, was also arranger-conductor for the remake, except that this time he was freelancing after leaving Fox in 1960 and had the added advantage of his brilliant collaborator and vocal director, Ken Darby. Oscar Hammerstein died before this version of STATE FAIR began preparation and several new songs were added to the score with Richard Rodgers writing both music & lyrics. One of these songs, “This Isn’t Heaven” is, in my opinion, one of the finest songs Rodgers ever composed and is sung beautifully by Bobby Darin in the film. Dot Records released a truncated 30 minute version of the soundtrack on LP at the time of the film’s release which Ken Darby hated, mostly because the songs were severely edited and the excessive added reverberation undermined the vocals. Varese Sarabande released a CD featuring both the 1945 & 1962 soundtracks from superior studio sources in the 1990s but surprisingly the optically recorded 45 version was better preserved than the newer film which was recorded on multi track stereo magnetic film which had deteriorated by the time of the CD release, rendering some of the vocal stems unusable. My new remastering of the soundtrack is essentially complete with all the vocals as heard in the film, in some cases more complete and including the intros recorded especially for the sound track album. This remix was compiled from a private 1/2 inch tape of the soundtrack sessions and a copy of the Dot soundtrack master which was used to fill in some of the missing material. The sound is slightly improved from the source used for the Varese CD, in my opinion. The album mixes of 3 songs which sound like they are from different takes are also included here in addition to bonus tracks from a long out of print and almost forgotten album recorded for the 20th Fox label at the time of the film’s initial release of Sonny Lester conducting the Fox Orchestra in 10 instrumental arrangements of the songs from the remake of STATE FAIR, mastered from a fairly clean stereo LP. I hope you enjoy this remix and more complete remastering of the 1962 STATE FAIR soundtrack. The film may not be as memorable as the 1945 version but musically it is, in different ways, equally superb.

MP3 (320 kbps):
https://mega.co.nz/#!Po8ATJzC!fnFgDiNYURJDJl4_nSpF_DncHd6BJJimPzdGwUJ IGTU

The tracks are programmed to play without any pause in between.

Thanks for another great remaster!

Thanks