Calamity Jane

The 1953 Columbia Records soundtrack album for the film Calamity Jane went out of copyright in Europe on January 1, 2004, and British label Prism Leisure, which specializes in unlicensed reissues of material new to the public domain, lost no time in putting out its own version on this CD. Upfront are the eight tracks from the Columbia album. It was a 10" LP, and notable as the first collection of songs from a film featuring actress/singer Doris Day actually to feature soundtrack performances, as opposed to studio re-recordings. Actually, the breakdown seemed to be about half and half. Aural evidence suggested that "The Black Hills of Dakota," "Just Blew in from the Windy City," "A Woman's Touch," and "'Tis Harry I'm Plannin' to Marry" were really studio recordings. But the rest sounded like they did come from the soundtrack, including Howard Keel's solo, "Higher Than a Hawk (Deeper Than a Well)." Unlike most other Day vehicles, this one had an all-new original score written by Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain and, unlike most other Day albums, this one spawned a hit single, "Secret Love," which reached number one. Hence, the album was a cut above the tie-in LPs Day recorded for earlier films, but the project was still derivative, particularly of Annie Get Your Gun, to which it was clearly inferior. To bring the disc up to the respectable length of 45 minutes, Prism adds half again as many tracks, all derived from those earlier tie-in albums for the films Romance on the High Seas, Young Man with a Horn, and My Dream Is Yours.