In March of 2008, the Original Cast Recording of the 1958 Broadway comedy, Say, Darling, was released on CD for the first time by DRG Records.  Although the play featured nine new songs by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, Say, Darling wasn't really a musical, it was a "Play About a Musical," in which the songs were used as rehearsal or audition material.  RCA Records hired Sid Ramin (who would create the acclaimed Overture for Gypsy a year later) to orchestrate and conduct a full cast album of the show.

Robert Armin, who directed a New York City revival of Say, Darling in 1996, has recently re-edited the album using a digital copy of the original session tapes given to him by BMG Records while he was preparing that production.  He has interpolated five previously unreleased dialogue lead-ins (by Vivian Blaine, Johnny Desmond, David Wayne and Jerome Cowan) which were intended to place the songs in their proper context, but were left off of the original LP release.  These new introductions can be heard before "Try To Love Me," "It's Doom," "The Husking Bee," "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning" (an actual 1871 Christian hymn by Philip P. Bliss) and "Chief of Love."  There were actually two different introductions recorded for the latter song, one with Vivian Blaine and Jerome Cowan, and the following one with Robert Morse, David Wayne and Horace McMahon: 

Robert Morse:  “Jordan, the score for our show will be written by the great Rudy Lorraine.”

David Wayne:  “Rudy Lorraine?  Who’s that?”

Horace McMahon:  “What?  You never heard of Rudy Lorraine’s big rock ‘n’ roll song hit, ‘Chief of Love?’ I'll play the record for you.”

In the play, this introduction was followed by a "rock 'n" roll" version of the song played on a phonograph record.  Since that version of "Chief of Love" was not recorded for the cast album, only Vivian Blaine's lead-in has been included on the remastered CD.  To hear the "long-lost" Robert Morse lead-in, press PLAY below or click here.)

For more information on the 1996 revival, click here to read a TheaterWeek article by Peter Filichia and a New York Daily News review by Howard Kissel.

 Buy the 1958 Original Broadway Cast Recording of Say, Darling