‘Merman’ Showcases Some Beloved Tunes

ETHEL MERMAN: ****

“There’s No Business Like

Show Business: The Ethel Merman Collection”

Razor & Tie

Ethel Merman sang with such gusto that she good-naturedly referred to herself as “iron lungs.” It was no exaggeration.

Author-critic Will Friedwald claims in the liner notes to this 21-song retrospective that the late stage star possessed the “biggest and most powerful sound ever to emit from a Broadway theater, and she had the charm and chutzpah to match.”

Merman, who was born Ethel Agnes Zimmerman in Astoria, N.Y., was just out of her teens in 1930 when she made a dazzling Broadway debut in George and Ira Gershwin’s “Girl Crazy.”

The audience “yelped with such surprise and pleasure” when Merman came out and sang “Sam and Delilah,” Friedwald continues in the liner notes, that the singer thought “her garter had snapped or something.”

But the real highlight came a few moments later when Merman delivered a knockout punch with a typically energetic version of “I Got Rhythm.”

“The crowd’s mood shifted . . . to total hysteria,” Friedwald continues. “It wasn’t only their delight of their first exposure to the song that would become a national anthem of American pop and jazz, it was the earthquake-level intensity that the singer projected.

“When she finished the first chorus, instead of reprising the melody for a second time through, she simply belted a single note (a high C) for an entire 32-bar chorus.”

The promise of that night was fulfilled over the years as Merman’s marvelous talent was blessed with material from such landmark songwriters as Cole Porter (she did five of his musicals, including “Anything Goes”), Irving Berlin (two shows, “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Call Me Madam”) and the team of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim (“Gypsy”).

Among the songs from those writers featured in the CD: “You’re the Top,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “It’s De-Lovely,” “Anything You Can Do,” “Some People,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and the title tune. Most of the Porter and Berlin tunes were recorded in 1947 with an orchestra directed by Jay Blackton.

Despite her success on Broadway, Merman had little impact as a musical figure in films. She may be best known on screen for her madcap, non-singing role in the hilarious 1963 comedy “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”

Still, her show business legend is secure. Friedwald, in fact, calls Merman, who died in 1984, the “single most dynamic icon in the history of musical theater.”