The Magic Of Marilyn

 

Sound: B-     Music: B

 

 

The market for Marilyn Monroe has had some dips, but optical media has seen an upswing in her work lately.  A special edition of her singing on CD was updated in 2001 by DRG under the title The Magic of Marilyn, which adds the “never before released track “Down In The Meadow” to the previous 15-track set Never Before & Never Again.  With collections scattered about, how good is this CD?

 

Well, “Down In The Meadow” also found itself the same year on the exceptional DVD The Complete Marilyn Monroe, which featured 24 songs form her career (film music) in only Dolby Digital Stereo or Mono, but not the snippet of “Happy Birthday Mr. President” that is way too short on this CD.  Of course, when the DVDs of the actual films are available in at least 4.0 Dolby Digital Stereo, they tend to sound a bit better.  That is still not DTS, and none of her work has yet to surface on Super Audio CD or DVD-Audio high-definition sound-only formats, so that argument has limits to begin with.

 

With hundreds of CD-only players still out there, there is still room for a good Marilyn CD.  As compared to others on the market, it is one of the better sets.  A Marilyn Monroe Anthology was issued July 2003 that offered music form TV appearances, but does not have all the tracks here.  Varese Sarabande has a CD tie-in to Fox’s DVD Diamond Collection series, but also does not have tracks featured here.  There are many other CDs that are cheap or so old, that their price is being lowered.  As for imports, that is too scattered to even begin to address.

 

Tracks include:

 

Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

A Little Girl From Little Rock

When Love Goes Wrong

Bye Bye Baby

Do It Again

Kiss

You’d Be Surprised

(This Is) A Fine Romance

She Acts Like A Woman Should

Heat Wave

I’m Gonna File My Claim

River Of No Return

Down In The Meadow

Lazy

My Heart Belongs To Daddy

Happy Birthday to JFK

 

Despite some limits on the sonics here, this is one of the best CDs of her material to date and is nicely packaged.  The Magic of Marilyn is collectible enough for fans who want a well-rounded collection, but this is a special limited edition, so get it while you can.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo