Hair (The Actors' Fund Of America Benefit Recording) (2005)

Product Summary UPC: 00791558196825 Release Date: 6/14/2005 Buy.com Sku: 63981690 Item#: M2DETP Buy.com Sales Rank: 25654 Format:  CD Song Listing Disc 1 Song Title Sample 1. Aquarius - Lilias White/Tribe ~ Various Artists 2. Donna - Lea DeLaria/Tribe ~ Various Artists 3. Hashish - Tribe ~ Various Artists 4. Sodomy - Jai Rodriguez/Tribe ~ Various Artists 5. Colored Spade - Chuck Cooper/Tribe ~ Various Artists 6. Manchester, England - Euan Morton/Harris Doran/Tribe ~ Various Artists 7. Dead End - Ana Gasteyer/Tribe ~ Various Artists 8. Sheila Franklin / I Believe In Love - Shoshana Bean/Tribe ~ Various Artists 9. I'm Black / Ain't Got No - Tribe ~ Various Artists 10. Air - Harvey Fierstein ~ Various Artists 11. Initials - Laura Benanti/Tribe ~ Various Artists 12. I Got Life - Adam Pascal/Tribe ~ Various Artists 13. Going Down - Gavin Creel/Tribe ~ Various Artists 14. Hair - Raul Esparza/Harris Doran/Tribe ~ Various Artists 15. My Conviction - Charles Busch ~ Various Artists 16. Easy To Be Hard - Jennifer Hudson ~ Various Artists 17. Don't Put It Down! - John Tartaglia/Christopher Sieber ~ Various Artists 18. Frank Mills - Annie Golden ~ Various Artists 19. Be-In 'Hare Krishna' - Tribe ~ Various Artists 20. Where Do I Go? - Julia Murney/Tribe ~ Various Artists 21. Hippie Life - Eden Espinosa/Harris Doran ~ Various Artists 22. Electric Blues - Toxic Audio ~ Various Artists 23. Black Boys - Kathy Brier/Orfeh/Ann Harada ~ Various Artists 24. White Boys - Brandi Chavonne Massey/Ledisi/Shayna Steele ~ Various Artists 25. Walking In Space - Sherie Rene Scott/Tribe ~ Various Artists 26. Yes I's Finished On Y'all's Farmlands - Tribe ~ Various Artists 27. Four Score / Abie, Baby - Billy Porter/Tribe ~ Various Artists 28. Good Morning Starshine - Liz Callaway/Tribe ~ Various Artists 29. Three-Five-Zero-Zero - Tribe ~ Various Artists 30. What A Piece Of Work Is Man - Darius De Haas/Paul Castree ~ Various Artists 31. Flesh Failures, The (Let The Sunshine In) - Norm Lewis/Harris Doran/Tribe ~ Various Artists   Album Notes and Credits Notes & Personnel Info Performers include: Shoshana Bean (Wicked), Laura Benanti (Swing, Into The Woods, Nine), Charles Busch (Taboo, Tale Of The Allergist's Wife), Gavin Creel (Thoroughly Modern Millie, La Cage Aux Folles), Darius De Haas (Dreamgirls), Lea Delaria (The Rocky Horror Show), Eden Espinosa (Brooklyn), Harvey Fierstein (Fiddler On The Roof, Hairspray), Ana Gasteyer (Saturday Night Live), Annie Golden (The Full Monty, Hair Movie), Jennifer Hudson (American Idol), Norm Lewis (Amour, Dreamgirls), Euan Morton (Taboo), Julia Murney (Lennon), Adam Pascal (Rent, Aida, Rent Movie), Billy Porter (Smokey Joe's Cafe), Jai Rodriguez (Queer Eye For The Straight Guy), Sherie Rene Scott (Aida, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Christopher Sieber (Spamalot), John Tartaglia (Avenue Q), Lillias White (Dreamgirls). A new production of Hair was recorded on October 1, 2004, at the Hit Factory in New York City to benefit the Actors' Fund of America in 2005. And while a number of versions of Hair have been recorded since its introduction in 1968, it never hurts to have a new take on a classic rock opera. The singers here -- Lillias White, Lea DeLaria, Jai Rodriguez, Chuck Cooper, and many others -- are uniformly excellent, embodying the spirit that imbued the original production. On a purely aesthetic level, Hair is musically bombastic and in one's face, paving the way for musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar. While the play certainly conjures up the '60s (or at least one version of it), the lyrics -- raw and occasionally offensive -- of songs like "Colored Spade" and "Sodomy" will still probably shock some listeners or at least be taken as politically incorrect. Of course, for everyone else these songs and others like "Black Boys" are also very funny challenges to societal prejudice and prudery. On the non-button-pushing side, however, Hair is inspirational, bequeathing hippie anthems like "Aquarius," "Good Morning Starshine," and the title track. Gerome Ragni and James Rado's lyrics and Galt MacDermot's music are incredibly eclectic, encompassing everything from far-out rock to gentle ballads to joyous pop with odds and ends (old show tunes and funk) thrown into the mix. For those unfamiliar with the soundtrack, this 2005 release is fine place to start. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. Producer: Seth Rudetsky   Technical Info Release Date : 06/14/2005 Original Release Date : 2005 Catalog ID : 81968 Label : Ghostlight Number of Discs : 1 Studio/Live : Live Mono/Stereo : Stereo SPAR Code : n/a UPC : 00791558196825    Product Image