Spoken word album
A spoken word album is a recording of
Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album
has been awarded annually since 1959.
Early beginnings
Spoken word albums have been made since the early days of recording; examples include the popular
Columbia Masterworks, which had previously released an album of excerpts from Shakespeare's Richard II with Maurice Evans, made a complete recording of Margaret Webster's famed (and never filmed) 1943 Broadway production of Othello, starring Paul Robeson, José Ferrer, and Uta Hagen, on an 18-record 78-RPM set running a total of two hours and eight minutes. It was later transferred to LP.[2] It was the longest spoken word album made up to that time.[citation needed
] The album gave millions of listeners who otherwise were unable to attend a theatrical performance a chance to hear Robeson as Othello and Ferrer as Iago.
LP influence and educational value
After the advent of LPs, spoken word albums became much more common.
- The above-mentioned Ronald Colman A Christmas Carol was transferred to LP, as were many other 78-RPM spoken word albums made by American Moby Dick, with Charles Laughtonas Captain Ahab; an uncredited actor provided the voice of Ishmael, the narrator.
- Disneyland Records issued many spoken word albums for children, including narrated adaptations of the Disneyfilms in their "Disneyland Storyteller" series.
- Notable Broadway productions, such as Columbia Masterworks.
- José Ferrer was heard in an album of excerpts from Cyrano de Bergerac, with members of the cast of the 1946 Broadway revival in which Ferrer first played Cyrano, on Capitol Records.[3]
- Caedmon Records recorded the complete plays of Shakespeare as well as recordings of other plays, such as Death of a Salesman with original stars Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock, The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Tandy,[4] and a nearly complete Cyrano de Bergerac with Ralph Richardson, who had triumphed in the role in London in 1946.[5] Many of these recorded dramas were played in high school literature classes to enable students to hear the play and follow along in their textbooks at the same time.[citation needed]
- After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, memorial collections of his speeches began to appear on LP.[citation needed] Most of the soundtrack of the commemorative documentary John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums (1966), narrated by Gregory Peck, was released on a Capitol Records LP.
- Dialogue excerpts were also released of the film soundtracks of National Theatre of Great Britain production of Much Ado About Nothing, starring Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, and Albert Finney.[9]
- Emlyn Williams recorded an edition of his one-man performance as Charles Dickens (for Argo Records).
- Hal Holbrook recorded excerpts from his one-man Mark Twain Tonight! for Columbia Masterworks.
- Having Fun with Elvis on Stage (1974), a spoken word album consisting only of banter by the singer during concerts, was created as a ploy by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, so he could self-release an Elvis Presley album that his label RCA Records would not own the rights to.[10]
Decline
With the advent of
Harper Audio, a division of HarperCollins, which now owns Caedmon.)[5] The 1968 album of Romeo and Juliet excerpts has also appeared on CD, and Pearl has issued the Robeson Othello in that medium, but the CD edition of the Othello has, unfortunately, attracted little attention in comparison to the history-making vinyl record release of the 1940s,[11] and now that Cyrano de Bergerac, A Man for All Seasons, the Olivier Othello, the Zeffirelli versions of Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, the television version of Mark Twain Tonight, and Richard Burton's Hamlet are all available on DVD
, this has become for most a more preferred way to experience these productions.
Although
Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw and Jack Kerouac
, as well as autobiographical reminiscences.
Today's spoken word albums
There have been some spoken word albums over the past 15 years or so[Ages of Man (1959), once available on LP, are now available as a manufactured-on-demand CD.
Today, such websites as
Hollywood Theater of the Ear, and ZBS offer full-length recordings on CD of their dramatic productions.[12] These recordings are possibly the closest that modern day discs have come to the spoken word albums of the 1960s.[citation needed
]
References
- ^ Dein, Alan (17 July 2015). "The bizarre world of instructional LPs". BBC. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ "SONY Masterworks". masterworksheritage.com.
- ^ "Cyrano De Bergerac". Books and Collectibles.
- ^ "The Glass Menagerie CD by Tennessee Williams". HarperCollins.com.
- ^ a b "HarperCollins Search results". HarperCollins.com.
- ^ SOUNDTRACK LP THE TAMING OF THE SHREW TAYLOR / BURTON (1968)
- ^ "Romeo & Juliet: Nino Rota: Music". Amazon.com.
- ^ LAURENCE OLIVIER IN OTHELLO RCA RED SEAL RECORD
- ^ TIME
- ^ Greene, Nick (October 7, 2014). "Listening to Elvis Presley's Bizarre Album of Stage Banter". Mental Floss. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
- ^ Amazon.com: Shakespeare: Othello: William Shakespeare, Mischa Spoliansky, Uta Hagen, Victor Young, Jose (i) Ferrer, Paul Robeson, Jane Manning, Lawrence Brown: Music
- ^ "Audio Sales". amazonwebstore.