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My Fair Lady (Broadway cast recording)

My Fair Lady
Cast recording by
the original Broadway cast
ReleasedApril 2, 1956 (1956-04-02)
RecordedMarch 24, 1956 (1956-03-24)
StudioColumbia 30th Street, New York City
GenreShow tunes
Length53:44
LabelColumbia Records
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

The Broadway cast recording of the musical My Fair Lady was first released April 2, 1956 by Columbia Records,[2] with songs by Lerner and Loewe, conducted by Franz Allers, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. Columbia president Goddard Lieberson provided the $375,000 needed to stage the show in return for the rights to the cast recording.[2]

A commercial success, the album became the first LP record to sell 1 million copies.[3] The album topped US Billboard 200 charts for fifteen weeks at different times in 1956 (eight consecutive weeks), 1957, 1958, and 1959.[1]

After the musical transferred to London in April 1958, the album spent 19 consecutive weeks atop the UK charts, the biggest-selling album of the year.[4] The musical's renewed success sent Andrews, Harrison, and the London cast to the recording studio in 1959 to capture the score in stereo: the London cast recording shares all the same principals as the Broadway cast.

Columbia first released the Broadway album on compact disc in 1988, followed by numerous subsequent reissues.[5] As of 2023, the original cast recording remains among the longest-charting albums in the U.S., with 480 weeks on the Billboard 200.[6]

  1. ^ a b Ruhlmann, William. "Album overview and Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
  2. ^ a b "Background information". Masterworks Broadway. 2002-05-28. Archived from the original on 2012-11-14. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
  3. ^ "LP's 54% of Pop Sales - Lieberson". Variety. March 12, 1958. p. 1. Retrieved October 1, 2021 – via Archive.org.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chart was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "CD issue". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
  6. ^ Young, Simon (2023-03-03). "Here are the 20 longest-charting albums in the history of the Billboard 200". louder. Retrieved 2024-02-04.

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