Doris Day - Calamity Jane and The Pajama Game

This release includes two film soundtracks which Doris Day starred in - Calamity Jane and The Pajama Game.

Calamity Jane is a "Wild West"-themed film musical released in 1953. It is loosely based on the life of Wild West heroine Calamity Jane and explores an alleged romance between Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok in the American Old West. The film starred Doris Day as the title character and Howard Keel as Hickok. It was devised by Warner Brothers in response to the success of Annie Get Your Gun.

The Pajama Game is a 1957 musical film based on the stage musical of the same name. The principal cast of the Broadway musical repeated their roles for the movie, with the exception of Janis Paige, who was replaced by Doris Day. Workers at a pajama factory demand a seven-and-a-half cent raise, but things get derailed when the woman leading their cause falls in love with the factory superintendent.

Greatest Rarities Archive '56-'57

Paul Robeson - Greatest Rarities Archive '56-'57 is now avalable on iTunes. To find out more about these rare tracks and their history check out our blog post here


Tracklist includes:

1.   The Four Rivers
2.   Hassidic Chant
3.   The Minstrel Boy
4.   Jerusalem
5.   The House I Live In
6.   Song of the Warsaw Ghetto
7.   There’s a Man Going ‘Round Taking Names
8.   Sleep Baby
9.   Witness
10. Night
11. Passing By
12. Welcoming speech by President of South Wales Miners (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
13. Reply to welcoming speech by Paul Robeson (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
14. Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
15. All Through the Night (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
16. This Little Night of Mine (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
17. All Men Are Brothers (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
18. Schubert’s Lullaby (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
19. Y Delyn Aur (The Golden Harp) (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)
20. (a) Land of my Fathers (excerpt) (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957) (b) We’ll Keep a Welcome in the Hillside (from ’Transatlantic Exchange’, 1957)

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem First Performance

Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” was given its first performance as part of the celebrations of the dedication of the new Coventry Cathedral, on May 30th 1962. It was broadcast ‘live’ by the B.B.C. and was one of two performances given by the original participants. The soprano Galina Vishnevskaya was unavailable for these and was replaced by Heather Harper. The first commercial recording was issued in 1963 and the soloists were as originally intended, however, other changes included the organist and boys’ choir.

A chance conversation with John Cooper, the organist of the first performance, led to a search for a recording of the broadcast from Coventry. We were enjoying lunch in a restaurant in Lowestoft, just across the road from Benjamin Britten’s birthplace, when the subject of “War Requiem” was raised. Had anyone recorded it?

The Digital Gramophone Company has access to a large private sound archive, and I, with some trepidation, searched the catalogue. There, to my great delight, was “War Requiem”, First Performance, Coventry, etc.” The tape was located, and had survived in good condition. The complete broadcast, announcements, et al., recorded ‘off air’ by an enthusiast, and in good quality sound, with only minor deterioration over fifty years, and found in the house where I was born – a mere stone’s throw from where Benjamin Britten was born! Coincidences can be remarkable.

We are proud to make available to the public, after fifty years, a digitally restored recording of this very important first performance, under the composer’s direction.

    Terry Hepworth

Available now on all major download stores.

Noel Coward - Live in Vegas

Noël Coward Live in Vegas has just been released on all major download stores. If you want to know Noel Coward, and only buy one recording, this should be it.

This was Coward's first appearance on the Las Vegas Strip, with Coward claiming that the dates gave him "one of the most sensational successes of my career, and to pretend that I am not absolutely delighted would be idiotic." Life magazine wrote that Coward was paid $40,000 per week for the engagements.  Coward was accompanied by Peter Matz, who also provided the orchestrations, Matz arranged Coward's next live album, Noël Coward in New York.


1.Noël Coward Medley – 5:19
2."Uncle Harry" – 3:45
3."Loch Lomond" (Traditional) – 2:28
4."A Bar on the Piccola Marina" – 4:48
5."World Weary" – 3:11
6."Nina" (Coward, Cole Porter) – 4:22
7."Mad Dogs and Englishmen" – 3:14
8."Matelot" – 4:35
9."Alice Is At It Again" – 3:33
10."A Room with a View" – 3:04
11."Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" (Porter) – 4:30
12."The Party's Over Now" – 1:44

The Sound Of Music - Original London Cast 1961 in stereo

DATE: June 1961. This is the London production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's final musical - The Sound of Music which opened on May 18 1961. It was an even bigger hit than its Broadway counterpart running 2385 performances until January 14 1967. This made it the longest running West End production of a Broadway musical which is a record that still stood 30 years later. It was directed by Jerome Whyte and used the original New York choreography, supervised by Joe Layton, and the original sets designed by Oliver Smith. The cast included Jean Bayless as Maria, followed by Sonia Rees, Roger Dann as Captain von Trapp, Constance Shacklock as Mother Abbess, Eunice Gayson as Elsa Schrader, Harold Kasket as Max Detweiler, Barbara Brown as Liesl, Nicholas Bennett as Rolf and Olive Gilbert as Sister Margaretta.

Now available on all major download stores.

Paul Robeson - Two Rare And Historic 10-inch LPs

This Digital Gramophone release comprises twenty tracks taken from two rare and historically important Paul Robeson 10-inch LPs made in 1956 and 1957 respectively.
Robeson's passport was confiscated by the American Authorities in 1949, and not restored until 1958.
The first 10-inch LP, issued by 'Horizon Records' in 1956, comprises eleven tracks where is accompanied by pianist Alan Booth. The numbers include  'The Four Rivers', 'Hassidic Chant', 'Song of the Warsaw Ghetto' and 'Sleep Baby' by Gretchaninov.

Robeson's association with Wales went back to 1939, when he starred in the film 'The Proud Valley'. The second 10-inch LP is a transcription from The Miners' Eisteddfod at Porthcawl on 5th October 1957. Paul Robeson, in New York, sings 'down the line' in a Transatlantic Exchange between himself and the Welsh miners, and the five songs he sings come over loud and clear (again he is accompanied by Alan Booth). The recording opens with a welcoming message from the President of the South Wales Miners, Will Paynter and ends with two songs delivered by the famous Treorchy Male Choir.

Both will be available soon on all major download stores.

The Black and White Minstrel Show Greatest Collection Archive '60-'62

The Black and White Minstrel Show was first broadcasted on the BBC of 14 June 1958. It began as a one-off special in 1957 called The 1957 Television Minstrels featuring the male Mitchell Minstrels (after George Mitchell, the Musical Director) and the female Television Toppers dancers. It was popular and soon developed into a regular 45-minute show on Saturday evening prime time television, featuring a Sing-along format with both solo and minstrel pieces (often with extended segueing), some Country and Western and music derived from other foreign folk cultures. The show also included "comedy interludes" performed by Leslie Crowther, George Chisholm and Stan Stennett.

During the nine years that the show was broadcast in black-and-white, the black-face makeup was actually red as black did not film very well.

The Digital Gramophone Company has just released on all major download stores an archive collection of The Black and White Minstrel show from 1960 to 1962. The album consists of 26 minstrel medleys from their popular TV show on the BBC.