Fiddler on the Roof [Original London Cast] [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Music composed by Jerry Bock.
Principal cast includes: Topol (Tevye); Miriam Karlin (Golde).
Producer: Norman Newell.
Compilation producer: Thomas Z. Shepard.
Engineers include: Charles Harbutt.
Recorded in London, England in Feburary 1967. Includes liner notes by Didier C. Deutsch.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Music composed by Jerry Bock. Lyrics written by Sheldon Harnick.
Music adapted and conducted by John Williams, solo violin played by Issac Stern.
Principal cast includes: Topol (Tevye); Normae Crane (Golde); Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris); Paul Michael Glaser (Perchik); Michele Marsh (Hodel);
Molly Picon (Yente); Issac Stern (Fiddler On The Roof).
Compilation producers: Gregg Ogorzelec, Cheryl Pawelski.
Includes liner notes by Didier C. Deutsch.
Digitally remastered by Ron McMaster.
Personnel: Jerry Bock (vocals, piano); Brian Hewitt-Jones, Susan Paule, Jonathan Lynn, Cynthia Grenville, Sandor Eles, Heather Clifton, Caryl Little, Maurice Lane, Linda Gardner, George Little, Paul Whitsun-Jones, Miriam Karlin, Sheldon Harnick, Chaim Topol (vocals).
Liner Note Authors: Sherlie Matthews; Didier C. Deutsch; Thomas Z. Shepard.
Recording information: London, England (1967).
Unknown Contributor Role: Ken Fredette.
Long-running Broadway musicals owe much of their continuing success to the replacements who people their casts as the original stars move on, but these performers generally go unacknowledged -- not eligible for awards, passed up for cast recordings. Fiddler on the Roof, which went on to become the longest running musical in history up until then, after opening on September 22, 1964, enjoyed several excellent actor-singers in the starring role of the turn-of-the-century Russian-Jewish dairyman Tevye, starting, of course, with Zero Mostel. In November 1965, the part was taken over by Herschel Bernardi, a 42-year-old veteran who had considerable experience with stage works that, like Fiddler on the Roof, were based on the writings of Sholom Aleichem. Bernardi's portrayal was so strong that it earned him a Columbia Records contract and this recording, on which he sings songs from the show. But that's not all. Joseph Stein, the show's librettist, has written a narration that simultaneously gives the songs context and liberates them from the storyline of the musical. Bernardi has a rich, resonant baritone that allows him to inhabit the songs fully, but he stops short of actually playing Tevye. With new, pop-oriented orchestrations by Peter Matz, this is a vocal album, not a cast recording, but it offers an illuminating gloss on the show. Bernardi even sings two songs from the score not heard on Broadway. The amusing, if irreverent "When Messiah Comes" was cut for time during tryouts, and "Fiddler on the Roof," based, like "Tradition," on the familiar "Fiddler's Theme," was written as a promotional pop song and even became a minor hit for the Village Stompers. This album was also a minor hit, entering the charts in the fall of 1966 and reaching the Top 100 in some rankings. It deserves to be better known. ~ William Ruhlmann