Something about "Turkey Lurkey Time" renditions...

[Steve Schenck]

Has anyone else noticed this - almost never do I hear TLT rendered live, in video clips, or other cast recordings exactly the way it's played and sung on the original Broadway cast album. I'm talking just about a few select places in the score. It has to do with the orchestra voices going high on the Broadway cast album, when I hear them going low on live clips online or also in the London cast recording; same with the trumpet part during the dance riff the trumpet does. Never does it sound quite as good and well-defined as on the Broadway cast album. I'm wondering why? Is the cast album rendition too difficult for most trumpet players and voices to do live, without the opportunities for re-takes that album recordings have? Every time I hear an online clip of this song, even from the Tony Awards in 1968, the score is never rendered exactly as it is on the cast album. I don't find that with other songs from this show, or other shows, to quite the same extent.

[Rio]

You just pointed out what may have been what most disturbed me in the City Center production. I also noticed it in other live presentations. Once you hear how it should be, it is like in these other versions the musicians killed time for a while. It falls flat, and I would feel as if I had been left in mid-air. I think of Burt and how he would feel every time I listen to those versions.

My personal, lay interpretation is that it is probably too difficult for the average Bdway player to do what a studio musician can do after having worked on it for a while. My guess is that a studio musician would at least try and get something interesting out of his live attempt.

I am in total agreement with nymusicalguy, though, when he says that the Encores! production (even with the flaw I mentioned) would likely do much better on Broadway. They could've kept every actor, and, if necessary, word of mouth (and certainly not as weak reviews) would do the rest. Also, IMHO, You've Got It All Wrong should have been kept in. I love that duet. (But it loses some of its sharpness with the prolonged ending, I think.)

Finally, I had a faint hope that maybe Stephen Holden, rather than Ben Brantly, woud write the NYT review. If some changes are made to the show, maybe Mr. Holden will have the opportunity to express his views, sparing the music and providing valuable insights to the usual NYT reader.

[steveo_1965]

Hi,
I would agree that "Turkey Lurkey Time" is one of the more difficult numbers to execute...
there are unusual time changes, and then it whips into that cut time thang ala Bond Street...
The original cast had wonderful backround singers that sang high, especially when it swwops up to that note.
I heard the LAwrence Welk Show do it years ago as a song and dance number. I'm suprised they did it, cause Lawrence didn't like complicated songs as a rule...It came off ok, but not "as good" as the United Artists Lp
version....The guitar players on the soundtrack were excellent as well, keeping that chinky rhythm going.

Steveo