Original Soundtrack - Singin In The Rain (Deluxe Edition) / O.S.T. (CD)

All Music Guide

The movie Singin' in the Rain was one of old Hollywood's rare successful looks at its own history, artistically as well as commercially, and the Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown score was every bit as impressive as a look back on the history of the musical. Drawing on Freed and Brown's output from the 1920s and 1930s, the music provides a vivid portrait of what popular songs were like during the period in which sound came to motion pictures. Beyond the title track and numbers like "Wedding of the Painted Doll," there are burlesques of styles that were in vogue at the time, although the soundtrack's really popular numbers are done in a straight popular vein, including one of Gene Kelly's most effective singing performances, "All I Do Is Dream of You." [The 2002 reissue of Singin' in the Rain coincides with the 50th anniversary of the film. The CD includes the original soundtrack with seven supplemental tracks (four of which were previously unreleased), plus a second disc featuring 20 different versions of the tracks from the original movie that were previously recorded for different films. These tracks are taken from movies such as The Broadway Melody (1929) and Babes in Arms (1939), and they feature versions of the title track from 1929 (by Cliff Edwards) and 1940 (by a young Judy Garland.)]

- Bruce Eder, All Music Guide