50 years ago: Damn Yankees opened on Broadway

Damn Yankees Richard Adler & Jerry Ross (music & lyrics)

Cast Album

Stage Debut: May 5, 1955 Charted: June 11, 1955 Peak: 6 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Soundtrack

Charted: December 1, 1958 Peak: 21 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Songs on Cast Album: Song Title (Performers) [time] Overture (Orchestra) / Six Months Out of Every Year (Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer, Baseball Fans, & Baseball Widows) [4:42] Goodbye, Old Girl (Robert Shafer, Stephen Douglass) [3:13] Heart (Russ Brown, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey, Albert Linville) [4:40] Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo. (Rae Allen, Baseball Players) [3:40] A Little Brains, A Little Talent (Gwen Verdon) [3:37] A Man Doesn’t Know (Stephen Douglass, Shannon Bolin) [3:08] Whatever Lola Wants (Gwen Verdon) [3:10] Heart (Reprise) (Jean Stapleton, Ronn Cummins, Jackie Scholie, Cherry Davis) [1:23] Who’s Got the Pain? (Gwen Verdon, Eddie Phillips) [2:51] The Game (Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey, Baseball Players) [4:30] Near to You (Stephen Douglass, Shannon Bolin) [3:28] Those Were the Good Old Days (Ray Walston) [2:35] Two Lost Souls (Gwen Verdon, Stephen Douglass) [2:15] A Man Doesn’t Know (Reprise) (Shannon Boli, Robert Shafer) [1:25] Finale (The Entire Company) [0:54] Total Running Time: 46:11 Songs on Soundtrack: Song Title (Performers) [time] Overture (Orchestra) [1:43] Six Months Out of Every Year (Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer, Vocal Group) [1:59] Goodbye, Old Girl (Robert Shafer, Tab Hunter) [3:14] Heart (Russ Brown, Jimmie Komack, Nathaniel Frey, Albert Linville) [2:51] Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo. (Rae Allen, Baseball Players) [3:19] There’s Something About an Empty Chair (Shannon Bolin) [2:10] Whatever Lola Wants (Warnber Bros. Studio Orchestra) [2:47] A Little Brains, a Little Talent (Gwen Verdon) [3:26] Whatever Lola Wants (Gwen Verdon) [3:49] Those Were the Good Old Days (Ray Walston) [2:35] Who’s Got the Pain? (Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse) [3:32] Two Lost Souls (Gwen Verdon, Tab Hunter) [4:57] There’s Something About an Empty Chair (Reprise) (Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer) [1:21] Total Running Time: 38:07 Singles/Hit Songs: As was common in the pre-rock era, songs from musicals were often recorded by artists not associated with the musical and released as singles. Here are some of the most notable hit singles resulting from the show: ”Two Lost Souls” – Perry Como (#18, 1955) “Whatever Lola Wants” – Gwen Verdon (#5 HP, 1955), Alma Cogan (26 UK, 1957)

Rating: 3.824 out of 5.00 (average of 9 ratings for cast album and soundtrack combined) Awards (Cast Album and Soundtrack): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Show: Damn Yankees is a musical comedy based on Douglass Wallop’s 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. It is “a modern retelling of the Faust Legend, set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C. during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball.” WK The team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross had a hit the year before with The Pajama Game and they looked to have a bright future before Ross died at age 29 from chronic bronchiectasis. WK The show opened on Broadway on May 5, 1955, and ran for 1,109 performances. It opened at London’s West End on March 28, 1957, and ran for 258 performances. “The all American…subject matter aria treatment” CA “defines 1950s Broadway style” CA “for many musical theater buffs.” CA “Baseball may be the show’s surface theme, but it also deals with questions of aging and disappointment as refracted through a modern retelling of the Faust legend with a number of fantasy elements at play, including a natty but nasty devil, a suddenly young hero, and a sassy temptress. Also, the show teases audiences with a sort of April-November romance between the young man and the wife of his former, older self.” CA “That’s not to say this is a dark musical in sum; its serious notions never become grim and, midway through the first act, it’s galvanized by the brassy allure of Lola, the devil’s choice glamor girl. Gwen Verdon created the role in 1955, and Damn Yankees has been under her flame-haired spell ever since.” CA About the Cast Album: “While the original cast album can’t give us her legendary dance moves, it does present her fetching vocalism in its freshest form. Whatever Lola Wants is essential for the archives, and A Little Brains, a Little Talent is not far behind. Fortunately, the rest of the cast doesn’t fade by comparison. Stephen Douglass was one of the best Broadway baritones of his time, and he’s teamed with the appealingly homespun Meg of Shannon Bolin. Russ Brown expertly growls Heart, Rae Allen is up to the belting of Shoeless Joe, and Ray Walston reminisces amusingly in the devilish Those Were the Good Old Days. This first recording of Damn Yankees is an apt souvenir of a show and an era.” CA About the Soundtrack: The movie version, directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen, “didn’t fare as well on screen as the other Adler-Ross transfer, The Pajama Game. But most of the Broadway leads recreated their roles in the film, and movie star Tab Hunter makes a perfectly acceptable Joe Hardy; Hunter sounds OK here, partly because the role’s more challenging songs (A Man Doesn’t Know and Near to You) were eliminated.” CA “A feeble new tune, There’s Something About an Empty Chair, is sung as a solo by Shannon Bolin. Vocally, Hunter teams well with Verdon on Two Lost Souls. Again in blissful form, Verdon is partnered in Who’s Got the Pain? by future husband Bob Fosse, who choreographed Yankees (and Pajama Game) for both stage and screen. Walston is an even more snide Satan, Brown sings ‘Heart’ with brio, and Jean Stapleton’s distinctive soprano wails in a supporting role. The soundtrack benefits from expanded orchestrations by Ray Heindorf; an instrumental cut of ‘Whatever Lola Wants,’ used as background scoring, is especially lush. But it should be noted that the early-stereo-era sound is somewhat shallow and glassily reverberant. This, along with that dull ‘Chair’ song, puts this enjoyable recording a notch or two below the original.” CA

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Richard Adler DMDB encyclopedia entry for Jerry Ross CA Cast Album Reviews by Richard Barrios WK Wikipedia page about the musical First posted 12/23/2021.