In recent months, Cherry Red's El imprint has turned its attention to a pair of legendary American composers.  Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and Burt Bacharach (1928-2023) were born just a decade apart, though Bacharach lived more than three decades longer than Bernstein.  Neither man was born in New York City, but both created much of their remarkable work there.  Both were proud Jewish Americans, and both wrote for the musical theatre.  An American in New York: Leonard Bernstein - The City Scores brings together recordings of Bernstein's musicals On the Town, Wonderful Town, and West Side Story plus a variety of extras, while Bacharach's Dream Big! The First Decade of Songs compiles three discs of early rarities plus a disc of music that may have inspired the young composer.

Indeed, Leonard Bernstein's three most successful Broadway musicals - On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), and West Side Story (1957) - all featured New York City as a main character.  It was the city where Bernstein worked mightily to expand the profile of classical music, to make it accessible for all via his vibrant live performances as conductor of the New York Philharmonic, recordings, and television appearances.  Bernstein's music captured the essence of post-war Manhattan from rapture to melancholy.  Intense, thrilling, soaring, and rhythmic, his melodies incorporated jazz, classical, and in the case of West Side Story, Latin styles while always sounding distinctively Bernstein.

Disc One of El's 4-CD box presents two recordings of Fancy Free, the 1944 ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins which inspired On the Town.  Both the ballet and musical were concerned with three sailors on shore leave in NYC, though Bernstein's score for each was unique.  Disc One continues with the few 1945 Decca sides recorded from On the Town.  (The show, with book and lyrics, by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, did not receive a full original cast recording.  Comden and Green and Nancy Walker preserved parts of their performances while Mary Martin was also brought in for a couple of numbers.)  The second disc jumps to Columbia Records' evergreen 1960 studio cast album featuring Comden and Green, Walker, and Cris Alexander from the original cast plus John Reardon, George Gaynes, and Michael Kermoyan.  Bernstein conducted and Goddard Lieberson produced this still-definitive recording of the score.  Bonus tracks including performances of On the Town songs from Frank Sinatra, Blossom Dearie, and Bill Evans complete the disc.

The third disc opens with 1953's Wonderful Town, a spiritual successor to On the Town again featuring lyrics by Comden and Green, this time with a book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov based on their 1940 play My Sister Eileen.  Decca's cast album starring Rosalind Russell and Edie Adams opens Disc Three and is followed by another selection of jazz covers from Lena Horne, and pianists Marian McPartland and Dave Brubeck.  Bernstein's 1954 score to director Elia Kazan's film On the Waterfront - set not too far away from New York in neighboring Hoboken, New Jersey - is also included on this disc as performed by Bernstein for Columbia with The New York Philharmonic.  It proved to be Bernstein's only original film score.

Bernstein's arguable crowning achievement as a composer - and the score which most powerfully united his sophisticated, ambitious sensibility with sheer universality and accessibility - West Side Story inevitably concludes El's package, uniting the record-breaking Columbia original cast recording starring Larry Kert. Carol Lawrence, and Chita Rivera with jazz interpretations from Stan Kenton ("America"), Cal Tjader ("Tonight"), Andre Previn ("Maria"), Dave Brubeck ("Maria"), Oscar Peterson ("Somewhere"), and The Hi-Lo's ("Something's Coming").  Even divorced from Stephen Sondheim's remarkable lyrics, these melodies remain imbued with passion and emotion.

As a portrait of the artist - one of the most influential figures in 20th century music and art - An American in New York only scratches the surface.  But as an overview of a less-than-15-year period of Bernstein's career in which he gifted Broadway with three scores while prolifically also working in the classical realm, it's hard to top.  The City Scores not only still endure but are regularly revived both around the world and in the "helluva town" that Bernstein, Comden, and Green so vibrantly brought to life onstage.

Burt Bacharach's Dream Big! The First Decade of Songs is surprisingly adorned with a photo of the composer from his third decade of songs. But the material on this 4-CD set, by and large, doesn't represent the Burt Bacharach sound that would be oft-imitated (but never duplicated) by the mid-1960s.  Instead, these are the Kansas City-born composer's baby pictures: the songs on which he honed his craft with a variety of lyrical collaborators including Bob Hilliard, Mack David, Paul Hampton, Norman Gimbel, Jack Wolf, Sammy Gallop, Edward Heyman, and his most significant partner, Hal David.  Dream Big!, in essence, is a repackaging of three prior El compilations dedicated to Bacharach's early oeuvre: The First Book of Songs: 1954-1958 (ACMEM166CD, 2009), Long Ago Last Summer: 1959-1961 (ACMEM233CD, 2012), and Make It Easy on Yourself: 1962 (ACMEM285CD, 2013).  These have been tweaked, however, for their appearances in this box - with some tracks dropped, others added, and many resequenced.

The purview of The First Book of Songs has grown from 1954-1958 to 1952-1959.  In these formative years, Bacharach gamely tackled rock-and-roll, rockabilly, country, jazz, pop, and plenty of novelty songs that would bring him no small embarrassment in later years with titles like "Underneath the Overpass" and "Peggy's in the Pantry," sung by Jo Stafford and Sherry Parsons, respectively.  (The latter was one of the first two songs ever written by the Bacharach/Hal David team.)  But there's plenty on this initial disc that's worthy of a spot in the Bacharach pantheon: Johnny Mathis' silken "Warm and Tender," Margaret Whiting's sultry "Hot Spell," Tony Bennett's dreamy "The Night That Heaven Fell," and Steve Lawrence's bright "Loving Is a Way of Living," to name a few.  Peggy Lee ("Uninvited Dream"), Della Reese ("How About"), and Jack Jones ("Make Room for the Joy") all delivered classy renditions of Bacharach melodies.  The title of the box set, Dream Big, is derived from the 1959 Sonny James single which was the first collaboration of Bacharach and lyricist Paul Hampton.  The First Book of Songs also includes Bacharach and Hal David's breakthrough hits "The Story of My Life" and "Magic Moments" as performed by Marty Robbins and Perry Como.  In the U.K., these two songs became the first-ever tunes by a songwriting duo to become back-to-back Number Ones; over there, the hit version of "Story" belonged to Michael Holliday.  (Both Holliday and Robbins' versions are included.)  Hints of the composer's idiosyncratic style come to the fore often, too, as on The Five Blobs' goofily endearing "The Blob."  The compilers have even included an early solo single in which the young Bacharach showed his piano prowess on other songwriters' florid compositions (Edward Heyman and Victor Young's "Searching Wind" and Dick Manning and Abe and Edna Osser's "Rosanne").

Disc 2, Long Ago Last Summer, encompasses the much shorter period of 1959-1961.  It takes its title from the 1960 song of the same name, recorded by Diana Trask and originally intended as an "exploitation song" to promote the film version of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer before Bacharach and David's publisher Famous Music thought better of it.   (Numerous such exploitation songs abound on this set, no more famous than Gene Pitney's smash "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" on Disc 3.)  Like Disc 1, there's plenty here that falls into the oddball novelty category - perhaps none more so than a pair of 1960 sides from Paul Hampton.  The A-side, a death disc in which the singer-lyricist rues his fateful "Two-Hour Honeymoon" over a languid saxophone, was paired with the even stranger "Creams," a lament that a girl won't share her chocolate creams.  It's set to a wacky French horn melody that could almost pass for a Casino Royale score outtake.  Burt might have forgotten "Two-Hour Honeymoon" but he held onto the memory of Dick Van Dyke's "Three Wheels on My Wagon," co-written with Bob Hilliard.  (Its even more bizarre B-side, "One Part Dog, Nine Parts Cat," alas, isn't included here.)  "Three Wheels" is notable as the very first single to feature a Bacharach credit as producer on both the label and sleeve, as in "Produced by Hilliard and Bacharach."  The composer remembered the song for years later, joking that it was "a bomb."  The song was written for Van Dyke, post-Bye Bye Birdie but pre-Dick Van Dyke Show, drawling in an exaggerated country-western voice over wild "Indian" whoops.

Glimmers of the sophisticated Bacharach sound can be heard on Rosemary June's "Your Lips Are Warmer Than Your Heart" and The Shepherd Sisters' "Deeply."  With a Drifters-style baion beat and production by Leiber and Stoller, it's a clear step towards R&B for Bacharach, this time writing with Norman Gimbel.  (Bacharach and Gimbel would team up again in the 1970s.)  Gene McDaniels convincingly croons "At Times Like These," although the ballad doesn't anticipate more adventurous songs like "Tower of Strength."  That Top 5 hit from 1961 isn't reprised here, but the compilers have instead opted to include Gloria Lynne's soulful "answer record," rewritten to order by Bacharach and Hilliard as "You Don't Have to Be a Tower of Strength."

Another Gloria, Ms. Lambert, invites to an alien to "Make yourself at home, Moon Man" (!) while The Rangoons serve up the fun instrumental "Moon Guitar" on the 1961 song otherwise only notable for bearing the first-ever "Produced by Bacharach and David" credit.  (Too bad Buddy Clinton's "Take Me To Your Ladder (I'll See Your Leader Later)" was overlooked in favor of the its less interesting B-side "Joanie's Forever."  The vocalist tries to seduce some giant moon women in the former!)  Science fiction yields to Western for a song inspired by director Michael Curtiz' 1959 film The Hangman.  The song might be more memorable than the movie, with singer John Ashley's earnest declaration that "The Hangman wants to be loved by any other man..."

Among the best of the unknown songs here might be The Wanderers' lovely, doo-wop-flecked ballad "I Could Make You Mine," and Connie Stevens' "And This is Mine," with a dramatic Neal Hefti arrangement.  As Long Ago Last Summer delves into 1961, the songs become more familiar.  Chuck Jackson's "I Wake Up Crying" is one of the earliest examples of the mature Bacharach sound; the latter portion of the disc also spotlights The Shirelles' "Baby It's You" (which would inspire a certain Fab Four) and The Drifters' "Don't Go (Please Stay)."

In 1962 alone, Burt Bacharach premiered more than 30 new compositions, recorded by a variety of artists from Marlene Dietrich to The Drifters.  It's fair to say that '62 was the year the composer truly came into his own, and those twelve months are chronicled on Make It Easy on Yourself, the third disc of the Dream Big box.  While previous years offered their share of hits for the songwriter ("I Wake Up Crying," "Tower of Strength," "Baby, It's You," "Magic Moments," "The Story of My Life"), the Bacharach sound hadn't completely crystallized.  With Jerry Butler's July 1962 single of Bacharach and Hal David's "Make It Easy on Yourself," Bacharach became his own producer.  Vee-Jay's Calvin Carter turned over the sessions to the songwriter when he realized "he felt the song better than anyone else did."  The credit on the 45 still just read "Arranged by Burt Bacharach," but a new chapter was being written.

One of the essential "love triangle" songs in all of pop music, the stirring "Make It Easy on Yourself" was the fullest expression yet of the adult R&B style Bacharach was pioneering with unusual time signatures, fiendishly tricky chord changes, and Latin-inspired rhythms.  Ethereal backing vocals melded with majestic strings and wistful, sighing horns before Jerry Butler bleakly intoned, "Breaking up is so very hard to do..." in a way that Neil Sedaka couldn't have imagined.  David found beauty and poetry in the blues while Bacharach's orchestration melded the above instruments with roiling drums, chiming percussion, and well-placed guitar licks, adding up to just over 2-1/2 minute of tension in which the music and lyrics were in perfect harmony.

This disc also makes room for the sublime original recording of "Any Day Now," the most successful song penned by Bacharach with Bob Hilliard.  Soul great Chuck Jackson anticipates his lover's departure with just enough anguish and pathos, finding the space in the offbeat arrangement which featured Bacharach playing an ashtray (!) as percussion.  But Bacharach would find his most essential partner in David, with whom he would begin writing exclusively in 1963.  Tremolo guitar and tinkling piano notes signify Tommy Hunt's "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," another unbearably lonely, and unbelievably beautiful, song.  Hal David, as always, put into the words feelings that so many - perhaps everybody - had experienced at one time or another: "Goin' to a movie only makes me sad/Parties make me feel as bad/When I'm not with you, I just don't know what to do..."  Bacharach matched David's words with another eloquent, dramatic melody that ran the gamut of emotions itself, veering from serene to pensive to pained.  It's no wonder everybody from Elvis Costello to the White Stripes cottoned to the song.

Tommy Hunt is also the (unexpected) voice you'll hear on the first appearance here of "Don't Make Me Over."  This was the song that changed the lives of Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, and Hal David forever, beginning pop's most successful "triangle marriage."  But not long after Dionne charted with the defiant powerhouse of a ballad, Scepter reused its backing track for Hunt's recording which sat on the shelf until 1986.  "Don't Make Me Over" works just fine with a male singer, proving early on the adaptability of Bacharach's hits, and both Hunt and Warwick's recordings are featured.  (Dionne's "I Smiled Yesterday," with its deliciously unusual mid-song lurches, is also part of the set.)

Another great soul man, Jimmy Radcliffe, has his breakup moment with Bacharach and David's deliciously offbeat, Latin-flavored "There Goes the Forgotten Man."  One of the best of the quotient of (relatively) rare tracks here is Joey Powers' "Don't Envy Me," which only received one other recording, by George Hamilton in 1963.  Both Powers' vocal and the production by Hugo and Luigi are a touch histrionic, but the song has a killer melody rendered with almost reggae-style percussion, not to mention an amusing lyrical conceit from Hal David: the singer has lots of girls, but none of them love him...so he's "filled with such misery," imploring, "don't envy me!"  Bobby Vee's teen waltz "Anonymous Phone Call" is another enjoyable find, flecked with a light country sound.

Few know that Marlene Dietrich introduced the song that eventually became the Warwick hit "Message to Michael" - in German, as "Kleine Treue Nachtigall," or "Small True Nightingale."  For Dietrich's recording, her longtime arranger/conductor Bacharach proffered the backing track he originally recorded for Jerry Butler's "Message to Martha."  Butler's rendition was recorded first, but sat on the shelf till nearly a year after Dietrich's German recording was released.  Though albums exist of Bacharach accompanying Dietrich, "Nachtigall" is still the only recording of Dietrich performing a Bacharach song.  A second Dietrich recording, Bacharach's fine arrangement of Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," is more incongruously included here.

"Flowers" does feature a rare arrangement of a folk song from Bacharach, though some of his own material could nearly qualify (think: "What the World Needs Now is Love," for one).  There are other numerous throwbacks here, too, to Bacharach's days writing in every conceivable style from rockabilly to blues.  The Four Coins' square "The Windows of Heaven" was released in 1962 but dated back to 1959, and is all but unrecognizable as the work of Bacharach and David.

The brassy "Too Late to Worry" appears in a French version sassily sung by (the very Italian) Sophia Loren which was released just a couple of months after Babs Tino's original (dropped from the 2013 version of this release).  The girlish Tino also appears with the charming and more Bacharach-esque "Forgive Me (For Giving You Such a Bad Time)."  Both have Hal David lyrics.  A pair of songs for Jack Jones co-written by Bacharach and Bob Hilliard before the composer and singer hit paydirt with the Hal David lyric to "Wives and Lovers" are both enjoyable: the sweet, loping ballad "Dreamin' All the Time" (with a whistling introduction and chiming, swooning backing vocals!) and the bluesier, nightclub-style tune "Pick Up the Pieces."  The former is a better fit for Jones and one of the many hidden gems here.

Blues of a more authentic variety can be sampled on Bacharach and Hilliard's torch song par excellence "Waiting for Charlie to Come Home," as recorded by Etta James.  Chanteuse Jane Morgan covered "Charlie" in a more strident manner than James, but here she delivers a classy reading of the big romantic ballad "Forever My Love," written to plug a Paramount historical epic of the same name.  The song flirts with a classical flavor and is far more pop than soul, but has some of the touches (tremolo guitar, prominent trumpet) that Bacharach would continue to develop.  Another almost-but-not-quite-there ballad on the set is Gene McDaniels' somber "Another Tear Falls," which The Walker Brothers turned into a mini-masterpiece thanks to Scott Walker's dark vocal which ratcheted the tension up a notch.   Another enduring tune is "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle," co-written with Larry Kusik and introduced by Paul Evans.  Bacharach's first holiday song, it would receive later recordings from Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass, The Anita Kerr Singers, and the composer himself.

The fourth disc of Dream Big brings together "Influences and Inspirations."  Still, it's not uninteresting.  In his memoir Anyone Who Had a Heart, Bacharach cited Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern as influences; works by all three are featured here.  He similarly credited Maurice Ravel for opening his mind to classical music as a child; Ravel's Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloe is heard in a Detroit Symphony recording conducted by Paul Paray.  Among the other selections in which you might be able to connect the dots to the Bacharach sound are a movement from Leonard Bernstein's The Age of Anxiety, a selection of pieces from Bacharach's teacher Darius Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil, and jazz tunes from Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and two of Burt's favorites, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.  Burt Bacharach's passing this year at the age of 94 marked the end of an era.  But collections such as Dream Big prove that there's still much to revisit in his sprawling catalogue.

Note that there are a couple of errors in this sprawling set.  Patti Page's "Another Time, Another Place" is not the work of Bacharach and David.  Though they were erroneously credited on the original 1958 single label, the song was penned by the team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.  Similarly, Mel Torme's "Desperate Hours" is not the Bacharach/Wilson Stone composition recorded by Eileen Rodgers but a similarly titled song by Torme, George Duning, and Stanley Styne from the television series Dan Raven.

Both Dream Big and An American in New York feature thick booklets in El's typical style, eschewing linear essays for written "snapshots" of the subjects from various books, interviews, and periodicals.  Discographical annotation is also missing.  Sound quality on the Bacharach set is expectedly variable but eminently listenable.   Both Dream Big and Bernstein's An American in New York are housed in slipcases, with each CD in an individual paper sleeve.  This pair of titles is available pursuant to current U.K. public domain laws.  You'll find track listings and order links for both releases below!

Burt Bacharach, Dream Big! The First Decade of Songs (Cherry Red/El ACME369CDBOX, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: The First Book of Songs (1952-1959)

1. Once in a Blue Moon - Nat "King" Cole (from Penthouse Serenade, Capitol H 332, 1952)
2. Keep Me in Mind - Patti Page (Mercury single 70579, 1955)
3. These Desperate Hours - Mel Tormé (*) (initially unreleased, included on Tormé reissue, Polygram Jazz 823 010-2, 1989)
4. Peggy's in the Pantry - Sherry Parsons (Unique single 361, 1956)
5. The Morning Mail - The Gallahads (Jubilee single 45-5252, 1956)
6. I Cry More - Alan Dale (Coral single 9-61699, 1956)
7. Beauty Isn't Everything - June Valli (RCA Victor single 47-6662, 1956)
8. How About - Della Reese (Jubilee single 45-5278, 1957)
9. Warm and Tender - Johnny Mathis (Columbia single 4-40851, 1957)
10. Underneath the Overpass - Jo Stafford (Columbia single 4-40926, 1957)
11. The Story of My Life - Marty Robbins (Columbia single 4-41043, 1957)
12. The Story of My Life - Michael Holliday (Columbia (U.K.) single DB 4058, 1957)
13. Sad Sack - Jerry Lewis (Decca single 9-30503, 1957)
14. Winter Warm - Gale Storm (Dot single 45-15666, 1957)
15. Uninvited Dream - Peggy Lee (Capitol single F-3811, 1957)
16. Love Bank - Bob Manning (RCA Victor single 47-6903, 1957)
17. Magic Moments - Perry Como (RCA Victor single 47-7128, 1957)
18. Humble Pie - The Four Preps (Capitol EP EAP-1-1064, 1958)
19. Country Music Holiday - Bernie Nee (Columbia single 4-41132, 1958)
20. Another Time, Another Place - Patti Page (*) (Mercury single 71294X45, 1958)
21. It Seemed So Right Last Night - Mary Mayo (Columbia single 4-41190, 1958)
22. The Night That Heaven Fell - Tony Bennett (Columbia single 4-41237, 1958)
23. The Blob - The Five Blobs (Columbia single 4-41250, 1958)
24. Wendy, Wendy - The Four Coins (Epic single 5-9286, 1958)
25. The Last Time I Saw My Heart - Marty Robbins (Columbia single 4-41282, 1958)
26. Dream Big - Sonny James (Capitol single F4127, 1959)
27. Loving Is a Way of Living - Steve Lawrence (ABC-Paramount single 45-10005, 1959)
28. Make Room for the Joy - Jack Jones (Capitol single F-4161, 1959)
29. Paradise Island - The Four Aces (Decca single 9-30874, 1959)
30. Searching Wind - Burt Bacharach (Cabot single CA 108, 1957)
31. Rosanne - Burt Bacharach (Cabot single CA 108, 1957)

(*) these tracks erroneously included; not composed by Burt Bacharach

CD 2: Long Ago Last Summer (1959-1961)

1. Moon Man - Gloria Lambert (Columbia single 41402, 1959)
2. The Hangman - John Ashley (Dot single 15775, 1959)
3. With Open Arms - Jane Morgan (Kapp single 284, 1959)
4. Heavenly - Johnny Mathis (from Heavenly, Columbia CS 8152, 1959)
5. Faker, Faker - The Eligibles (Capitol single 4265, 1959)
6. In Times Like These - Gene McDaniels (Liberty single 55231, 1959)
7. Faithfully - Johnny Mathis (from Faithfully, Columbia CS 8219, 1959)
8. A Girl Like You - Larry Hall (Strand single 25013, 1960)
9. Your Lips are Warmer than Your Heart - Rosemary June (United Artists single 219, 1960)
10. Two Hour Honeymoon - Paul Hampton (Dot single 16084, 1960)
11. Creams - Paul Hampton (Dot single 16084, 1960)
12. We're Only Young Once - The Avons (Columbia U.K. single 4461, 1960)
13. Close - Keely Smith (Dot single 16089, 1960)
14. I Looked for You - Charlie Gracie (Roulette single R-4255, 1960)
15. Long Ago Last Summer - Diana Trask (Columbia single 41711, 1960)
16. Boys Were Made For Girls - Everit Herter (Capitol single 4383, 1960)
17. Ten Thousand Years Ago - Rusty Draper (Mercury single 71706, 1960)
18. I Could Make You Mine - The Wanderers (Cub single 9075, 1960)
19. Joanie's Forever - Buddy Clinton (Monroe single 114, 1960)
20. Three Wheels on My Wagon - Dick Van Dyke (Jamie single 1178, 1961)
21. And This is Mine - Connie Stevens (Warner Bros. single 5217, 1961)
22. Three Friends (Two Lovers) - The Turbans (Roulette single R 4326, 1961)
23. Moon Guitar - The Rangoons (Laurie 3096, 1961)
24. Don't Go (Please Stay) - The Drifters (Atco single 45-2105, 1961)
25. Love in a Goldfish Bowl - Tommy Sands (Capitol 4580, 1961)
26. I Wake Up Crying - Chuck Jackson (Wand 110, 1961)
27. The Answer to Everything - Del Shannon (Big Top 3083, 1961)
28. Deeply - The Shepherd Sisters (United Artists 350, 1961)
29. You Don't Have to Be a Tower of Strength - Gloria Lynne (Everest 19420, 1961)
30. You're Following Me - Perry Como (RCA Victor 47-7962, 1961)
31. The Miracle of St. Marie - The Four Coins (Jubilee 5411, 1961)
32. Baby, It's You - The Shirelles (Scepter 1227, 1961)

CD 3: Make It Easy on Yourself (1962) (all tracks released 1962)

1. Make It Easy on Yourself - Jerry Butler (Vee Jay 451)
2. Donne-Moi Ma Chance (Too Late to Worry) - Sophia Loren (Barclay (France) 70513)
3. Dreamin' All the Time - Jack Jones (Liberty 55469)
4. Pick Up the Pieces - Jack Jones (Kapp 461)
5. The Windows of Heaven - The Four Coins (Jubilee 5419)
6. Another Tear Falls - Gene McDaniels (Liberty 55405)
7. Mexican Divorce - The Drifters (Atlantic 2134)
8. Waiting for Charlie to Come Home - Etta James (Argo 5409)
9. Forever My Love - Jane Morgan (Kapp 450)
10. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Gene Pitney (Musicor MU 1020)
11. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - The Fairmount Singers (Dot 45-16340)
12. Manpower - The Exotics (Coral 63210)
13. Any Day Now - Chuck Jackson (Wand 122)
14. Forgive Me (For Giving You Such a Bad Time) - Babs Tino (Kapp 472)
15. The Love of a Boy - Timi Yuro (Liberty 55469)
16. Don't You Believe It - Andy Williams (Columbia 4-45213)
17. Only Love Can Break a Heart - Gene Pitney (Musicor MU 1022)
18. Little Betty Falling Star - Gene Pitney (from Only Love Can Break a Heart, Musicor LP MM 2003)
19. I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself - Tommy Hunt (Scepter 1236)
20. Don't Make Me Over - Tommy Hunt (from Kent LP 059, issued 1986)
21. It's Love That Really Counts - The Shirelles (Scepter 1237)
22. (There Goes) The Forgotten Man - Jimmy Radcliffe (Musicor 1024)
23. Keep Away from Other Girls - Helen Shapiro (Columbia (U.K.) 4908)
24. Don't Make Me Over - Dionne Warwick (Scepter 1239)
25. I Smiled Yesterday - Dionne Warwick (Scepter 1239)
26. Don't Envy Me - Joey Powers (RCA Victor 47-8119)
27. Anonymous Phone Call - Bobby Vee (Liberty 55521)
28. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle - Paul Evans (Kapp K-499X)
29. Kleine Treue Nachtigall - Marlene Dietrich with Burt Bacharach (Barclay 856)
30. Where Have All the Flowers Gone - Marlene Dietrich with Burt Bacharach (possibly HMV EP 7EG 8844)

CD 4: Influences and Inspirations

1. The Christmas Song - Mel Tormé
2. Reflets dans l'ea from Images Pour Piano Book 1 (Debussy) - Marcelle Meyer, piano
3. Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2 (Ravel): Lever du Jour / Pantomime / Danse Generale - Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Paray
4. Selections from Saudades do Brasil (Milhaud): Overture / Soracaba / Botafogo / Corcovado - Concert Arts Orchestra, conducted by Darius Milhaud
5. Parable of a Sculpture: Andante pastorale from The Parables for large orchestra (Martinu) - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karel Ancerl
6. Intro to The Tides of Manaunaun - Henry Cowell
7. The Tides of Manaunaun - Henry Cowell
8. Moonstruck from Pierre Lunaire, op. 21 (Schoenberg) - Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Rosbaud
9. Allego Misterioso from Lyric Suite for String Quartet (Berg) - Juilliard String Quartet
10. Langsam, Funeral March (Webern) from Six Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6 - Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Rosbaud
11. The Masque from Symphony No. 2 - The Age of Anxiety (Bernstein) - New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
12. La Nevada - Gil Evans Orchestra
13. Fontainebleau - Tadd Dameron and His Orchestra
14. An Oscar for Treadwell - Charlie Parker and the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet
15. April in Paris - Count Basie Orchestra
16. A Felicidade (Happiness) - Agostinho Dos Santos and Roberto Menescal

Leonard Bernstein, An American in New York: The City Scores (Cherry Red/El ACMEM368CDX, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1:

1. Big Stuff - Billie Holiday (from Decca DA 406, 1944)

Fancy Free (1956 Recording) (Columbia CL 920, 1956)

2. Enter Three Sailors
3. Scene at the Bar
4. Enter Two Girls
5. Pas de Deux
6. Competition Scene
7. Variation I: Galop
8. Variation II: Waltz
9. Variation III: Danzon
10. Finale

Fancy Free (1944 Recording) (Decca DA 406, 1944)

11. Enter Three Sailors
12. Scene at the Bar
13. Enter Two Girls
14. Pas de Deux
15. Competition Scene
16. Variation I: Waltz
17. Variation II: Danzon
18. Variation III: Galop
19. Finale

On the Town (1945 Recordings) (Decca DA 416, 1945)

20. I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet/New York, New York - Lyn Murray Chorus and Orchestra
21. Carried Away - Betty Comden and Adolph Green
22. Lucky to Be Me - Mary Martin
23. Lonely Town - Mary Martin
24. I Can Cook, Too - Nancy Walker
25. Ya Got Me - Nancy Walker

On the Town Ballet Music (1945 Recordings)

26. Lonely Town Pas de Deux
27. Times Square
28. Subway Ride
29. The Great Lover Displays Himself
30. Ivy and Gabey Pas de Deux

CD 2

On the Town (1960 Recording) (Columbia OS 2028, 1960)

1. I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet
2. New York, New York
3. Dance: Miss Turnstiles Variations
4. Come Up to My Place
5. Carried Away
6. Lonely Town
7. Carnegie Hall (Do-Do-Re-Do)
8. I Can Cook, Too
9. Lucky to Be Me
10. Dance - Times Square
11. So Long, Baby
12. I'm Blue
13. Ya Got Me
14. Subway Rider
15. The Imaginary Coney Island
16. Pas de Deux
17. Some Other Time
18. Dance - The Real Coney Island

Bonus Tracks

19. Overture to 'On the Town' - 'Curtain Going Up' Orchestra conducted by Lehman Engel
20. Lucky to Be Me - Bill Evans
21. Lonely Town - Blossom Dearie
22. Lonely Town - Frank Sinatra
23. New York, New York - Bobby Scott
24. Some Other Time - Bill Evans

CD 3:

Wonderful Town (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Decca DL 9010, 1953)

1. Christopher Street
2. Ohio
3. One Hundred Easy Ways
4. What a Waste
5. A Little Bit in Love
6. Pass the Football
7. Conversation Piece
8. A Quiet Girl
9. Conga!
10. My Darlin' Eileen
11. Swing!
12. It's Love
13. Ballet at the Village Vortex
14. Wrong Note Rag

Bonus Tracks

15. A Quiet Girl - Dave Brubeck Quartet
16. It's Love - Lena Horne
17. It's Love - Marian McPartland

On the Waterfront Symphonic Suite (1960 recording) (Columbia MS 6251, 1961)

18. On the Waterfront: Andante
19. On the Waterfront: Adagio
20. On the Waterfront: Andante Largamente
21. On the Waterfront: Moving Forward
22. On the Waterfront: Allegro
23. On the Waterfront: A Tempo

Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble (1955 broadcast)

24. Prelude
25. Fugue
26. Riffs

CD 4:

West Side Story (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Columbia OL 5230, 1957)

1. Prologue
2. Jet Song
3. Something's Coming
4. The Dance at the Gym
5. Maria
6. Tonight
7. America
8. Cool
9. One Hand, One Heart
10. America (Quintet)
11. The Rumble
12. I Feel Pretty
13. Somewhere
14. Gee, Officer Krupke
15. A Boy Like That
16. Finale

Bonus Tracks

17. America - Stan Kenton Orchestra
18. Tonight - Cal Tjader Quartet
19. Something's Coming - The Hi-Lo's
20. Maria - Andre Previn and His Pals
21. Maria - Dave Brubeck Quartet
22. Somewhere - Oscar Peterson Trio