Starlight Express [Original Cast Recording]

by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Overview

When Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Starlight Express opened in the West End in 1984, it was accompanied by an original London cast album released on Polydor Records. Three years later, when Starlight Express opened in New York, no original Broadway cast album appeared. Instead, Lloyd Webber helped put together a various artists/studio cast version, Music and Songs From Starlight Express, on which such performers as El DeBarge and Richie Havens sang over tracks produced by Phil Ramone. Such an approach was appropriate to the pop-rock style of the music, and probably was intended to break out a pop hit. Onstage, Starlight Express' music was swamped by its visual style, with its performers roller skating around the stage in their futuristic costumes. Minus the staging and given overtly contemporary pop arrangements dominated by synthesizer parts, however, the music still sounded bland, even when an expressive vocalist like Havens or session singer Marc Cohn (years before his commercial breakthrough) was leading the charge. Essentially Lloyd Webber's attempt to get in on the Flashdance/Footloose sound of the mid-1980s, the music remained the least intriguing part of Starlight Express. [As a bonus, the album contains a previously unreleased 1977 recording of "Engine of Love," featuring Earl Jordan and produced by Lloyd Webber that the composer described as "the grandfather of the whole project." It has more of a disco feel than the rest of the album.] ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	06/07/2024
Label:	Verve
UPC:	0602465086850
Rank:	2337

Tracks

1. Rolling Stock
2. Pumping Iron
3. AC/DC
4. He Whistled at Me
5. The Race
6. Starlight Express
7. U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.
8. Right Place, Right Time
9. I Am the Starlight
10. One Rock 'n' Roll Too Many
11. Light at the End of the Tunnel
12. Crazy [From The New Starlight Express]

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Andrew Lloyd Webber   Primary Artist
Richie Havens   Primary Artist
Marc Cohn   Primary Artist
Josie Aiello   Primary Artist
Harold Faltermeyer   Primary Artist
Earl Jordan   Primary Artist
Pete Hewlett   Primary Artist
El DeBarge   Primary Artist
Stephanie Lawrence   Vocals
Frances Ruffelle   Vocals
Lon Satton   Vocals
Gary Love   Vocals
Chrissy Wickham   Vocals
Starlight Express Cast Ensemble   Choir/Chorus
Michael Staniforth   Vocals
Debbie Wake   Vocals
Paul Reeves   Vocals
Attlee Baptiste   Vocals
Nancy Wood   Vocals
Carole Amphlett   Vocals
Ray Shell   Vocals
Jeffrey Daniel   Vocals
Kofi Missah   Vocals
Richard Bodkin   Vocals
Eddie Kemp   Vocals
Danny John-Jules   Vocals
P.P. Arnold   Vocals
Trevor Nunn   Director

Technical Credits

Richard Stilgoe   Composer,Lyricist
John Napier   Design
Arlene Phillips   Choreographer
Nobby Clark   Photography
Peter Reeves   Composer
David Mackay   Remixing
Martin Levan   Sound Technician
Nick Webb   Digital Remastering
Alan Shacklock   Producer
David Caddick   Production Director
David Hersey   Lighting
Andrew Lloyd Webber   Composer,Producer