Marilyn Monroe - Marilyn Monroe Collection 1949-62 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Marilyn Monroe was legendarily one of the most iconic personalities of the post-war era, an almost impossibly glamorous film actress and one of the showbiz figures who came to encapsulate the essence of her times and how they are remembered. Best-known, of course, as a film actress, she was also a much-underrated singer, who could turn her hand to a variety of different material when singing in her films, and had a highly individual and seductive vocal style in her sadly somewhat limited studio output. This 34-track 2-CD set brings together most of the extant recorded examples of her performing in a musical environment. Most of these, inevitably and quite reasonably, are performances from the soundtracks of her movies, the primary exceptions being titles she recorded for RCA outside of a movie environment in 1954, and the legendary performance of InchHappy BirthdayInch for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962 a few months before her tragic and untimely death. The films from which songs in this collection are taken are InchLadies Of The ChorusInch, InchNiagaraInch, InchThe French DollInch, InchGentlemen Prefer BlondesInch, InchRiver Of No ReturnInch, InchThere's No Business Like Show BusinessInch, InchThe Seven Year ItchInch, InchBus StopInch, InchThe Prince And The ShowgirlInch, and InchSome Like It HotInch. (It does not include a recording of InchWhen I Fall In LoveInch which has sometimes been attributed to Marilyn by other compilers, but is generally recognised as having been performed by Sandra Dee). It's a fascinating and revealing showcase of an aspect of Monroe's varied talents and attributes which has sometimes been ignored