FORGET PARIS
Rating: 
Original Review: Although he resorts to all the usual French musical clichés and stereotypes, Marc Shaiman's score for the eminently forgettable Billy Crystal comedy is nevertheless quite pleasant to listen to. The longest cue is his 'Paris Suite' which, at just under seven minutes, combines three 'traditional' accordion melodies with an amusing, attractive fully-orchestral waltz and, sprightly 'chase' theme and a surprisingly downbeat, lonely piano theme to underscore the scenes when Billy Crystal and Debra Winger are apart. 'Swish' and 'Craig and Lucy' are cool 1950s swing cues, the former featuring a tremendous competition between piano and sax to see who can play the most complicated melody, and the finale: the orchestral version of 'When You Love Someone' and 'To Marriage' are wonderful, the former being unashamedly, gushingly romantic and the latter again being a chirpy, chipper swing beat. The movie's main song, 'When You Love Someone' is quite nice in itself as romantic ballads go, but sounds just the same as the dozens of other romantic duets which hit the charts every week. Other songs include a couple of Gershwin numbers, a couple of blues numbers performed by Billie Holliday and the classic 'April in Paris' performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Nothing to write home about particularly, but a diverting hour in itself.
Track Listing:
- When You Love Someone (written by Marc Shaiman, Carole Bayer Sager and Anita Baker, performed by Anita Baker and James Ingram) (4:10)
- Love Is Here To Stay (written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, performed by Billie Holliday) (3:42)
- April in Paris (written by E.Y. Harburg and Vernon Duke) (1:57)
- For All We Know (written by J. Fred Coots and Sam J. Lewis, performed by Billie Holliday) (2:53)
- Lazy River (written by Sidney Arodin and Hoagy Carmichael, performed by Louis Prima) (3:28)
- Come Rain or Come Shine (written by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen, performed by David Sanborn) (4:37)
- April in Paris (written by E.Y. Harburg and Vernon Duke, performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong) (6:35)
- Paris Suite (6:13)
- Swish (2:34)
- Craig and Lucy (1:48)
- Tea for Two (written by Vincent Yeomans and Irving Caesar)/It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing (written by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills) (3:01)
- Nice Work If You Can Get It (written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin) (2:00)
- My Melancholy Baby (written by Ernie Burnette and George A. Norton) (3:00)
- When You Love Someone - Instrumental (4:26)
- To Marriage (1:03)
Running Time: 51 minutes 30 seconds
Elektra 7559-61825-2 (1995)
Music composed by Marc Shaiman. Conducted by Artie Kane. Orchestrations by Jeff Atmajian, Larry Blank and Harvey Cohen. Recorded and mixed by Dennis Sands. Score produced by Marc Shaiman. Album produced by Marc Shaiman, David Foster, Tommy LiPuma and Johnny Mandel.
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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.