THE GREATEST SHOWMAN : Soundtrack

[jo]

He may have felt like Hugh Jackman -- but he looks not a mite like Hugh Jackman

Sorry, Simon


Re NEVER ENOUGH -- sometimes those who do covers treat it like nothing but a powerhouse ballad, worthy of a singing Olympics. The higher the notes go, the more people applaud it. I am also not very fond of singing where they bend the notes ( sorry, Babs) to establish their personal signature for the song.

Me, what I found really heartwrenching about the song in the movie was the way Jenny/Rebecca performed with emotions overflowing on her face and her expressive body language. It was outstanding topnotch acting ( trying to mesmerize the audience, Barnum included) and complemented by gorgeous vocal delivery ( with dubbing by Loren Allred)! Sorry - but to each his own

[jo]

Someone tweeted that maybe Hugh was sorry he was not in MammaMia 2... after THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, it will be a real tough act to follow for even Hugh! To have been part of an original movie musical, with every new song well-loved by the public and the acting of the cast universally praised -- Hugh may not have even dreamt that this would be the way the movie musical would be received across demos and borders!




And repeats itself even in faraway New Zealand

On the other hand

Psst: Everyone knows that Simon loves the movie and the musical score

[jo]

One more time -- A Million Dreams!

[jo]

And when you think there is no more way to celebrate the soundtrack -- here comes someone who seems to be energetically enjoying it Cool!

[jo]

[jo]

Aug 23, 2018 2:04:53 GMT -5 jo said:

And when you think there is no more way to celebrate the soundtrack -- here comes someone who seems to be energetically enjoying it Cool!

Greg Wells, who produced the soundtrack album of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, sent in his response

Further twitter conversation --

Geneva London
@iamgenevalondon
15h


Replying to
@greg_wells

@greatestshowman
and 5 others
I am lost for words! Thank you!

It is an Amazing song and one day I want to play it live in front of a big crowd

***********************************


Greg Wells

@greg_wells
14h

Careful what you wish for!


************************************


Geneva London

@iamgenevalondon
49m


I am ready for it!

[jo]

At last -- finally found the official RIAA 2 times Platinum certification for the soundtrack album of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN!

www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=various&ti=the+greatest+showman&lab=atlantic&genre=SOUNDTRACK&format=Album&date_option=release&from=2017-12-08&to=2018-12-31&award=M&type=&category=&adv=SEARCH#search_section

Release Date/Previous Certification(s) | Date(s)/Category/Type/Certified Units/Genre

December 8, 2017
2x Multi-Platinum | August 15, 2018
None
Standard
2 Million
SOUNDTRACK

Platinum | March 27, 2018

Gold | January 29, 2018

Official CONGRATULATIONS to ALL THOSE INVOLVED in the album release -- the composers, the recording artists, the music producer! Of course, special CONGRATULATIONS to Hugh Jackman - Double Rock Star status now


Jo

[jo]

Synchronized swimming display is...the greatest show!

[jo]

Cover very lovely done by two sisters -- A MILLION DREAMS! This has been on the internet for sometime now but only saw a tweet sharing the duet just now.

[jo]

I don't remember that we posted this article from Variety on Greg Wells and the success of the soundtrack album ( there was one article on him, but it was another media publication in my recollection) --

variety.com/2018/music/news/greatest-showman-soundtrack-producer-greg-wells-interview-1202863532/

Many of the things discussed have been repeated in other features, but not this one on THE OTHER SIDE ( how it came into its own and held its own against the other outstanding numbers in the score) --

What was the trickiest number to nail for the soundtrack?

If I had to pick one song that was the hardest one to decode for me, it was “The Other Side,” which is a scene where Zac Efron and Hugh are sitting in a bar, and Barnum is trying to convince him to come on board with the circus. It’s some of my favorite choreography in the movie, but musically I had real trouble trying to get that to match how good the performances were visually. We tried a lot of different things, and I could not figure out why they weren’t working. Justin was playing me a lot of references and kept mentioning Ed Sheeran. Eventually I was working in Sweden for a month at the private studio of Benny Andersson, the piano player from ABBA. His original mini-Moog is sitting there, painted white, because the “Voulez Vous” tour in the early ‘80s had a white set. I said, “Does this work?” and the engineer said, “Yes, it sure does.” So we plugged it in, and I put down this really fat bass synth part from the ABBA mini-Moog circa 1980. It added all of these sub-elements to a song that didn’t really have that kind of cathartic explosion. That’s not really written into it melodically — it’s not a big, soaring, Vikings-coming-over-the-mountains moment, melodically, but a more chilled out, almost conversational chorus. But when I dug down deep and made the bottom really heavy and quite funky, everyone started jumping around the studio. That was the secret with that song, and it took me a long time to figure that thing out. It’s the weirdest, most circuitous process, trying to make things come through speakers that would excite me as a listener the same way a live performance would.

[jo]

Maybe it is very arguable, but THE GREATEST SHOW seems to be becoming as the most popular one from the soundtrack, as it has emerged as the song of celebration. Btw, This Is Me has gone Platinum, while The Greatest Show, Rewrite the Stars, A Million Dreams, The Other Side, Never Enough, and Come Alive have gone Gold, per RIAA certification. The album itself has been certified as Double Platinum ( at least 2 million) in the USA.

[jo]

A special SING-A-LONG edition of the soundtrack album will be released on October 19, 2018!


www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/1017155/The-Greatest-Showman-sing-a-long-soundtrack-release-date-Hugh-Jackman-PT-Barnum

Excerpts :

With such huge success it should come as no real surprise that a sing-a-long version of the soundtrack is being release this October.

A description from Atlantic Records reads: “The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Sing-a-Long Edition is a deluxe repackaging of the album, which has undeniably been music’s runaway success story of the year so far.

“The album is presented as a hardback CD book, with a 32-page booklet containing all song lyrics from the film, as well as a bonus disc of sing-a-long tracks.

“The ‘sing-a-long’ disc features unique instrumental versions of the tracks, giving fans the chance to be the stars of their favourite The Greatest Showman songs for the very first time!”

It's already available on pre-order with AMAZON.CO.UK.

[jo]

It's almost fall -- and time for football matches and marching bands!

The University of Toledo marching band plays 3 selections from a musical which opened almost 9 months ago!

*The Greatest Show
*Come Alive
*This Is Me

[carouselkathy]

Not a football fan, but I do love marching bands! Thanks, Jo!

[jo]

Requested as wedding music ?

Why not?

Never Enough

[jo]

[jo]

The Greatest Show sounding a bit more country

You can listen to this rendition recorded on Sound Stages Nashville on SPOTIFY.

[jo]

Beyond the appeal of A MILLION DREAMS to kids ( because it is truly their song) -- it seems that the strongest attraction to the movie for the kids is the CHOREOGRAPHY ...and the loud singing of a group.


Look at this --

It's noticeable how they do like the silhouette movements at the start of THE GREATEST SHOW, the whirling around of Phineas in the same song ( one could get dizzy watching young kids follow Phineas turning around and around)... and the time when Philip dances with gusto as he inherits the top hat and cane at the end. They also like the singing and the dancing of COME ALIVE a lot! The attraction for kids of THIS IS ME ( much more than it is for teens and adults) is the brisk dance routine. They've also tried the complicated THE OTHER SIDE, but I guess the lyrics are a real effort...but they do like the short dance routines of Barnum and Carlyle. FROM NOW ON -- I had seen a very young girl ( maybe about 3 years old) trying to duplicate the fantastic dancing of Mishay ( the albino girl) and her parents who shot the video were laughing so hard at her efforts. The only routine that young kids are not duplicating ( too hard - LOL) is the Fred-and-Ginger with a touch of Curly-and-Laurey dancing routine of A MILLION DREAMS!


But of course in the confined space of a car - the young karaoke singers do like belting THIS IS ME, NEVER ENOUGH, FROM NOW ON -- so, they continue to be attracted by the loud appeal of the songs


Jo

[jo]

The music legend of 2018 in the UK!


www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-greatest-showman-soundtrack-success

Culture

The Greatest Showman soundtrack refuses to go away

Having belted them out from the top of the charts for eleven weeks solid, The Greatest Showman soundtrack is being bought, downloaded and streamed by, well, absolutely everyone

Friday 21 September 2018


Unless Adele has a new album that she’s not telling anyone about, it’s very likely Britain’s biggest-selling album of 2018 will be songs from a Hollywood musical about a 19th-century circus impresario. The Greatest Showman soundtrack, a potent bit of feel-good razzmatazz based on the life of PT Barnum, equalled Adele’s record of eleven consecutive weeks at No1 back in March and has since refused to go away. Its rival chart-toppers have been treated like rodents in a game of whack-a-mole. Up they pop for a single week – George Ezra, Kylie, Arctic Monkeys, Post Malone – before getting thumped back into their holes by The Greatest Showman. Barnum is credited with saying, “Always leave them wanting more,” but this show has run and run.

This is quite a twist. The last movie soundtrack to dominate its year was Saturday Night Fever in 1978, and that was a package of disco hits. To find an equivalently huge set of show tunes you’d have to go back to The Sound Of Music, the Thriller of the Sixties. Every year between 1956 and 1969, Britain’s top seller was either a soundtrack or a Beatles album. The Americans were hipper – in 1968, they had Jimi Hendrix while we had The Sound Of Music again – but in Britain the Beatles stood alone. Until rock music found a mass adult audience, starting with Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, the musical was popular music’s generation-straddling goliath. Might that be happening again?


It should be said that The Greatest Showman is no archaic throwback. Composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the millennial duo who won an Oscar for La La Land’s “City Of Stars”, the soundtrack is a canny fusion of Broadway conventions and 21st-century pop. “The Greatest Show” has the hysterical will-to-power of mid-period Kanye West, “This Is Me” features the walloping drums and lusty chants associated with Jack Antonoff’s productions, and “Come Alive” is the kind of flamboyantly charismatic smash that Robbie Williams can’t write any more. But the craftsmanship – the juicy density of melody, narrative and rhyme – is distinctly Broadway. Pasek, Paul and producer Greg Wells have hit upon a magic formula that takes The Greatest Showman close to the El Dorado of universal appeal.


“I think the film’s banal but wholesome message of self-determination taps into a real need for something totally innocent,” says Guardian film critic Caspar Salmon. “But it wouldn’t have done anything without those earworm songs. Families are going to see the film together. It’s managed to hook Broadway nuts and Adele fans. You can enjoy the torchy aspects if you’re older, but fall for the modern production if you’re younger.”

The soundtrack’s cross-format success bears this out. Now triple platinum, The Greatest Showman’s 900,000 sales are unusually evenly divided between physical, digital downloads and streams, with five tracks breaking the Top 40. “It’s almost unprecedented that Pasek and Paul’s songs are this resonant out of the box,” says Ben Cook, president of Atlantic Records UK. “There was some expectation, but this is a runaway success story now and it’s always hard to predict those.”



Hollywood and Broadway have been annexing pop’s territory for a while now. The Frozen soundtrack and the original cast recording of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton are two of the decade’s biggest musical phenomena, surprising even their creators. Disney hedged its bets by getting Demi Lovato to re-record Frozen’s eff-it-all anthem “Let It Go”, but Idina Menzel’s more traditional version outperformed it four times over. Similarly, Keala Settle’s original recording of “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman, heavily promoted by Atlantic’s UK team, was a hit, while Kesha’s pop remake flopped.

For years, Broadway roots were something to hide, lest they spook the pop audience, but now they’re often the main attraction. “The Greatest Showman and Hamilton are both re-energising the genre in different ways,” says Ben Cook. “Clearly there’s going to be a lot of interest and investment in similar projects, but it’s very difficult to dissect the secret sauce that’s made this so phenomenal.” Caspar Salmon agrees: “There was a time when the film seemed like a whopping flop in the making. You can’t bank on the sort of word-of-mouth success that it’s had.”



Movies are a powerful gateway into pop music. My seven-year-old daughter has fallen for Stevie Wonder and Elton John songs via the soundtrack to Sing and knows Justin Timberlake as the guy from Trolls. Soundtracks such as these and Moana are the albums that give us common ground as a family. In live music, meanwhile, the film composer Hans Zimmer is now an arena headliner and even tribute shows to absent maestros such as John Williams play to packed houses. This year, dozens of sing-a-long outdoor screenings of The Greatest Showman are creating an environment where cinema meets gig. Again, it’s the sound of the movies that brings young and old together.

That’s an experience you can no longer find on Top 40 radio. Streaming has blown the generation gap wide open, turning the Top 40 into a Logan’s Run scenario: as a listener, if you’re over 30, you’re dead. Take Post Malone, the MC whose Beerbongs & Bentleys is the only album to top the US charts this year for as long as Black Panther (another, very different example of the soundtrack’s commercial revival). Starting out as a goofy party rapper, Malone has fared even better as a zonked-out rock-rap buzzkill who makes songs called “Paranoid” and “Rich & Sad”. Younger listeners lap him up, but he’s the musical equivalent of a sign on a bedroom door reading, “Parents Keep Out!”



Unifying hits still exist, such as Ed Sheeran’s sturdily old-fashioned ballad “Perfect”, but they’re getting rarer. The album chart, where CD buyers still have enormous clout, is where different generations continue to interact. Usually they’re brushing past each other without a glance – here comes Cardi B, there goes Roger Daltrey – but occasionally they find something they can agree on. For now, that happens to be Hugh Jackman in a top hat singing, “It’s everything you ever want/It’s everything you ever need.” He may be on to something.

[jo]

Young talent from Scotland do justice to a medley from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN - singing, dancing, and emoting!

[jo]

TAKE THAT, a once-famous pop group/boy band in the UK sings a cover of NEVER ENOUGH for a BBC radio show.




The lead singer is Gary Barlow. No longer with the band is Robbie Williams.

Nice change from the usual histrionics that characterize the delivery of this song

[jo]

Another very good cover -- FROM NOW ON -- from singer/songwriter Peter Hollens.

[jo]

4 x Platinum is minimum of 1.2 million in sales. In the UK, an album is certified with PLATINUM STATUS for minimum of 300,000 sales.

Congrats

[jo]

Check out the choreography!

[jo]

Not really soundtrack covers... but more of new choreography and performance for select SONGS from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN in the popular show DANCING WITH THE STARS!


www.justjaredjr.com/2018/09/20/dancing-with-the-stars-season-27-premiere-night-details-revealed/