Short Takes, Holiday Edition: "Beetlejuice" Offers Demos, Anne Murray Collects Christmas Favorites

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Halloween might be over, but the party still continues: Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Legend has it that if you say his name three times, the demon - introduced on screen by Michael Keaton and then on Broadway by Alex Brightman - appears before you. While Beetlejuice: The Musical had its New York run curtailed by COVID-19 after 366 performances, you can't keep a good demon down. The Ghostlight Records cast recording starring Brightman, Sophia Anne Caruso, Rob McClure, Leslie Kritzer, and Kerry Butler has become a runaway hit, with over 250 million streams in the United States and 760 million streams around the world. Attesting to its resonance with the younger generation, its songs have been used in over one million TikTok videos. Now, Ghostlight is allowing fans of the cult musical a chance to hear composer-lyricist Eddie Perfect's stylistically and melodically varied score anew with Beetlejuice - The Demos! The Demos! The Demos!

Perfect, a singer-songwriter and former Masked Singer celebrity in his homeland of Australia, has served up 24 recordings from the show's road to Broadway. These include embryonic versions of the songs that made the final score, and many that didn't (including multiple early stabs at the opening and closing numbers). These recordings were made between 2014 - when Perfect first threw his hat in the ring to the pen the score - to 2019, the year the show opened in all its ghoulish splendor at Broadway's Winter Garden. With Perfect taking on all of the roles including Beetlejuice, Lydia, Charles, Delia, and more, The Demos! The Demos! The Demos! is a unique listening experience in its own right, and a fascinating window onto the creation of the macabre and wacky musical. Note that these aren't spare piano-and-voice demos; rather, they're fully produced with instrumentation and multitracked vocals. Currently, this release is available for streaming and download only. An installment of the Ghostlight Shines On podcast features Perfect discussing the demo tracks. The Original Broadway Cast Recording of Beetlejuice is available on CD, 2-LP, and digital formats.

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Back in 2017, Canadian chanteuse Anne Murray released The Ultimate Collection, a career overview available in 1- and 2-CD editions. Now, Murray is revisiting another part of her classic songbook with the November 20 release of The Ultimate Christmas Collection, a companion disc filled with her favorite seasonal songs. The Ultimate Christmas Collection features 22 personally-selected tracks drawn from the numerous Christmas albums she has released since 1981 through 2008 (her final studio recordings to date). In the press release, the singer states, "I have always loved Christmas and over the years, my Christmas tours were my favorites. I loved looking out over a sea of Christmas sweaters and happy faces while they sang along to the familiar carols and other songs of the season. This collection is made up of those songs that have given me the most joy to record and perform over the years."

Four-time Grammy winner Anne blazed many trails - she was the first Canadian female solo vocalist to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, the first to earn a Gold record, and the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Country Music Awards - but in a catalogue filled with pop and country riches, her holiday recordings are among the most beloved. The Ultimate Christmas Collection features traditional carols and hymns ("Go Tell It on the Mountain," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Away in a Manger"), Tin Pan Alley tunes ("Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Michael Bublé, "Silver Bells," "Winter Wonderland"), and Murray specialties (Art Podell and Randy Sparks' "Christmas Wishes," Rita MacNeil's "The Season Will Never Grow Old"). The set is due from Universal Music Canada/UMe in CD and digital formats in the U.S.; a 2-LP edition is also coming in Canada.

Eddie Perfect, Beetlejuice - The Demos! The Demos! The Demos! (Ghostlight, 2020) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) (Also available at all digital service providers)