Vinyl Memories

Harbinger's latest album, Geraldine Fitzgerald's Streetsongs, is now available as a special collector's edition ON VINYL! Yes, that's right, TMTP is now entering the retro-hip era of the  LP record. So, with great nostalgia, the staff recalled memories of their most beloved vinyl cast recordings growing up and how listening to original LPs influenced their love of musicals today.

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"I remember sitting on the living room floor listening to this record and staring at the golden album cover in my lap. I'd try to match each character to their song based on what they looked like and how they were posed in the line. I would pick my favorites and try to dress and stand like them in front of the mirror. Imagine a 7 year-old singing 'Dance: Ten; Looks: Three' around the house!"
​- Joanna May Cullinan

"I received this album as a gift when I was 10 or so, and fell completely in love with it. The music was hauntingly beautiful and the orchestration featured delicate jazzy arrangements. I longed to play those beautiful piano parts, so I asked for the score and started learning the music. Even now, when I hear those first few notes of the Overture, I am taken right back to that sweet time when emotions were heightened and everything seemed possible. The musical formed me in so many ways."
- Nancy Maier

"On my 6th birthday I received BOTH the movie soundtrack and the original cast recording from my parents. I created groundbreaking choreography to 'Greased Lightning' (jogging across the room repeatedly was a defining sequence) and forced my 4-year-old brother to perform it with me. I'm sure he remembers the experience fondly."
- Heather Meeker​

"In the 1960s, when Original Cast Albums were super-popular, Columbia Records in particular often made them LAVISH. You opened up the sleeve as you would a book to find liner notes and photos on a two-sided printed sheet glued to the cover. Meredith Willson's Here's Love from 1963 may not have been his best musical (he wrote The Music Man, after all), but you'd never know it from the spectacular photo layout on the inside. I have the album on CD, of course, but I treasure the LP, which I bought at Disc Records at Severance Center with money earned from my paper route!
- Bill Rudman

"This 2-album brown cover set was integral to my Good Friday traditions while growing up. I have very vivid memories of lying on the floor on my stomach in our family room listening  and following along closer to the lyric insert to make sure I knew every word and who was saying what. I still listen to this soundtrack during Holy Week most years and it's one of the few albums I still have from my childhood."
​- Debbie Schinker

"I remember I saw a stage production of My Fair Lady when I was 10 years old and was obsessed with all the music. I saved my money all year and purchased the album with my own money. I listened to the songs over and over. However, one song in particular, 'Wouldn't it be Loverly' was played more than others. I was determined to be able to mimic Eliza's accent. For the next couple of years, I would sing this song every chance I could get."
- Heidi Lang