
I saw “Doctor Dolittle” starring Rex Harrison and Anthony Newley during its maiden 1967 release. I was seven then, far too young to know I was witnessing a train wreck. On the contrary: my three year old brother and I thrilled to the film and the temporary relief its magical world provided from our own mundane existence. Afterwards, my brother and I pouted while our babysitter stopped at a drugstore on the way home. It was there I spied this album, and — seizing upon the balm it promised to my aching, fading memory — I threw a tantrum until the sitter bought it for me. But when I got home, I discovered to my disappointment that I had been taken in by a time-honored bait and switch tactic. What we had purchased was not the original soundtrack recording that I had imagined, but an album of faceless easy listening versions. This was a common fraud perpetrated on unsophisticated consumers back in those days, and I had fallen for it.
Continue reading ‘Camarata And The Mike Sammes Singers: Songs From Doctor Dolittle’
Here’s an article I wrote last year for a proposed column over at 
