Discussion:
Songs Sung by the Actors in SFU?
(too old to reply)
weft2
2005-09-03 00:41:02 UTC
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I was wondering if Peter Krause actually did the singing in his brief
clip "I Just Want to Celebrate", and if the song was original, or an
already recorded song. I also recall Claire doing a fantastic spoof of
You Light up My Life and another song about moonlight "What a Little
Moonlight Will Do to You (?). I wonder if the latter was an old song,
or another one written just for the series?

BTW, Lauren Ambrose has a fantastic singing voice, espc. the way she
went from humming, to low, lightly open mouthed singing to full out
open mouth belting/singing as she climbed the office desk to present
her ode to itchy stockings.

Apparently she was trained in opera, but the fact that she can sing
jazz and pop is very impressive, espc. since many opera singers
(impressive though they are), often make horrible pop and jazz singers.
I would have liked to hear a snippet of Claire singing opera on the
series. Mabye a bit of Brundhilde from Ride of the Valkyries (sp?) when
she was really ticked off and wanted to plaster someone against a wall.


I also remember Ruth had a nice singing voice, a high soprano, that she
used in a couple of 60's folk songs and the Calling All Angels she and
her friends sang around their dead friend. I think almost all the main
actors have sung (even Billy and George's drunken duet on the porch was
pretty good). And David's hammy Broadway voice was used a couple of
time (or more?) to good effect in the blacker comedy segments. OTOH,
most actors can sing, at least somewhat, so it shouldn't be suprising
that a show with so many good actors also used their singing voices.

It would be nice (though they never do this) if the cds of music from
the show had these songs sung by the actors included. I guess they'd
have to be rerecorded in their full versions, rather than the snippets
presented. Another thing most tv shows' music cd's never seem to
include is all the fascinating atmospheric music written by the
composers for each show. In this case, Thomas Newman is sparsley
represented on both SFU cd's, except for the themes.

My vcr cut off the closing credits of the final episode of the whole
series. Later I saw a repeat of 512 on pay tv, and I thought the final
music (not Sia's song, which was also lovely) composed by Newman was
one of his best. But there's no way they'll ever include that on a
compilation cd. The only time I saw something approaching that was in
the movie Solaris, where atmospheric music was pretty much throughout
the movie and helped move the plot along.
Sparky Spartacus
2005-09-03 01:41:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by weft2
I was wondering if Peter Krause actually did the singing in his brief
clip "I Just Want to Celebrate", and if the song was original, or an
already recorded song. I also recall Claire doing a fantastic spoof of
You Light up My Life and another song about moonlight "What a Little
Moonlight Will Do to You (?). I wonder if the latter was an old song,
or another one written just for the series?
BTW, Lauren Ambrose has a fantastic singing voice, espc. the way she
went from humming, to low, lightly open mouthed singing to full out
open mouth belting/singing as she climbed the office desk to present
her ode to itchy stockings.
Apparently she was trained in opera, but the fact that she can sing
jazz and pop is very impressive, espc. since many opera singers
(impressive though they are), often make horrible pop and jazz singers.
I would have liked to hear a snippet of Claire singing opera on the
series. Mabye a bit of Brundhilde from Ride of the Valkyries (sp?) when
she was really ticked off and wanted to plaster someone against a wall.
She's way too young for that kind of role; maybe Susanna (Marriage of
Figaro) or Mimi (La Boheme)?
manitou
2005-09-03 01:55:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by weft2
I was wondering if Peter Krause actually did the singing in his brief
clip "I Just Want to Celebrate", and if the song was original, or an
already recorded song. I also recall Claire doing a fantastic spoof of
You Light up My Life and another song about moonlight "What a Little
Moonlight Will Do to You (?). I wonder if the latter was an old song,
or another one written just for the series?
BTW, Lauren Ambrose has a fantastic singing voice, espc. the way she
went from humming, to low, lightly open mouthed singing to full out
open mouth belting/singing as she climbed the office desk to present
her ode to itchy stockings.
Apparently she was trained in opera, but the fact that she can sing
jazz and pop is very impressive, espc. since many opera singers
(impressive though they are), often make horrible pop and jazz singers.
I would have liked to hear a snippet of Claire singing opera on the
series. Mabye a bit of Brundhilde from Ride of the Valkyries (sp?) when
she was really ticked off and wanted to plaster someone against a wall.
I also remember Ruth had a nice singing voice, a high soprano, that she
used in a couple of 60's folk songs and the Calling All Angels she and
her friends sang around their dead friend. I think almost all the main
actors have sung (even Billy and George's drunken duet on the porch was
pretty good). And David's hammy Broadway voice was used a couple of
time (or more?) to good effect in the blacker comedy segments.
Michael C. Hall has an excellent Broadway-type bass-baritone, though
like most US stage singers he uses way too much vibrato for my taste.

When David auditioned for the chorus at the start of S3, it seemed they
deliberately gave him something above his more comfortable range, to
make his singing for this have the right, tentative quality (this was
done for the opera singer in "Citizen Kane").
Post by weft2
most actors can sing, at least somewhat, so it shouldn't be suprising
that a show with so many good actors also used their singing voices.
It would be nice (though they never do this) if the cds of music from
the show had these songs sung by the actors included. I guess they'd
have to be rerecorded in their full versions, rather than the snippets
presented.
There likely are coypyright snags that would make this prohibitively
expensive.
Post by weft2
Another thing most tv shows' music cd's never seem to
include is all the fascinating atmospheric music written by the
composers for each show. In this case, Thomas Newman is sparsley
represented on both SFU cd's, except for the themes.
TN wrote only the main title music.









C.
Peter Alerich
2005-09-04 17:43:35 UTC
Permalink
Post by manitou
There likely are coypyright snags that would make this prohibitively
expensive.
Not necessarily prohibitively. Probably not much more than what they
have to pay to use a snippet of the original. Folks talk about this
alot over in the music related newsgroups. It appears they'd need the
owner's permission to use the Rare Earth recorded version of
"Celebrate" (for example) but they can re-record it an pay the
licensing fee and use that.

The oddest thing is that it seems you can own a song (not a recording)
and must be paid a royalty by anyone who wants to record or perform it
but as long as they pay that royalty *anyone* can record it in
whatever manner they choose. The owner only controls their actual
master recording of the song. You can't use that without their
permission. Years ago Styx wanted to do a greatest hits album and
wanted to use the original version of "Lady" and their first label
owned the master and declined its use. So they re-recorded it for the
greatest hits album.

I'd have to go back and listen to the video again but it sounded like
the original Rare Earth version to me and it's a good thing that
Lauren Ambrose can sing. She'll have something to fall back on because
she sure can't act.

Peter
black panda
2005-09-04 23:39:14 UTC
Permalink
"What a Little Moonlight Can Do" is a jazz standard. One of the most
popular versions of it was done by the great Billie Holiday.
Patricia Butler
2005-09-05 16:48:12 UTC
Permalink
Post by weft2
I was wondering if Peter Krause actually did the singing in his brief
clip "I Just Want to Celebrate", and if the song was original, or an
already recorded song.
No. He was lip syncing to "I Just Want to Celebrate" by Rare Earth.
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