When you have singers of this caliber it's impossible to determine who is the best. Each singer interprets the song differently. It's just a matter of personal taste.

Gordon MacRea is still the best IMHO, so beautiful and lyrical.

@crazyorganist1609

Жыл бұрын

Hampson has the vocal power Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted

@AuntieMamie

Жыл бұрын

I don’t disagree. Just curious… have you heard the original Broadway performer John Raitt’s version. It’s not too shabby.

Mr. Hampson gives an excellent performance of this classic. Because he is an accomplished opera singer, it is technically on the money. It is different from legit performers who tend to use different readings with the lyrics. I loved John Raitt's many recorded performances, and Gordon M. was memorable in the movie. Robert Goulet was also terrific in the made for TV version of Carousel. Let's raise a toast to them all!

@MrDanamp

7 жыл бұрын

Well said, Bill Brimmer!

@flannerymonaghan-morris1317

4 жыл бұрын

His acting is really good too....

@lesleyheller2271

4 жыл бұрын

Completely disagree - his intonation is spotty, and his low range is weak. Clearly, John Raitt was operatically trained - his technique is flawless, and his voice is buttery gorgeous! The best opera singer version is by Bryn Terfel. kzread.info/dash/bejne/jIagyrSsidqcgc4.html

Very well done but not anywhere in the performance category of John Rait . John became Billy. This fellow is singing Billy.

This song always made my darling husband cry. Our first child was a girl !!!!!

Superbly sung and acted to emotionally involve the listener. Free of opera singer traits, but the masterful voice, full of richness one is lucky to hear in a lifetime. And despite a concert setting, Mr. Hampson became the character, Billy Bigelow. BRAVO!

listen to the audience go crazy ...this is what singers long to do....carry an audience into complete experience of the music and story. Masterful magnificent magical performance by a virtuoso. Thank you for posting it.

This guy!! This guy!! He's like a hurricane!! He blows people away with his voice!

Nothing much to say about this. Superficially well sung, sure. Faint praise indeed. John Raitt, Gordon MacRae, Alfred Drake. They had the magic in this music. You won‘t find it here. Best version? Not even close.

Nathan Gunn another baritone does it greatly. I am digging up my cd of Thomas Hampson's Leading Man. I will upload it to my iTunes. I miss that cd!

Thanks for uploading!

No one can top John Raitt like no one can top Rogers and Hammerstein.

Brilliant. On the stage Raitt, recording Frank. I heard Sinatra sing this for years before other versions. Tough for me to hear anyone else in my mind.

Yes, indeed! It is a supreme performance....

Love it. And I love how he flubs the words. Real, live performance. Raitt was a tenor without high notes and I prefer this with a baritone like Hampson. And Rodgers always imagined an operatic singer. This is one of my fave versions.

@flannerymonaghan-morris1317

4 жыл бұрын

It would make sense for the character, given that Billy is a young working class poor uneducated carnival worker (who would naturally speak in a natural, non eloquent way). He also is really excited and sings/talks at a very fast pace during this song, so it would also make sense for the character to have flubs, as most of us do when we speak/sing quickly.

@pinano3411

2 жыл бұрын

Raitt was a baritone WITH high notes.

@danielakerman8241

2 жыл бұрын

@@pinano3411 Raitt wasn’t truly a baritone. At least not in a classical sense. He was a Broadway tenor and sang up to about a high G or A flat - about as high as Billy’s music goes. A true (classical) tenor would have at least a high B flat or more. Classical baritones regularly sing as high as A flat but with much more heft and meat to the voice than someone like John Raitt. I absolutely love John Raitt, but this is more in keeping with the original concept for the role and is what I prefer.

@Branes51

2 жыл бұрын

Actually, the role in the film was originally offered to Frank Sinatra but he had to turn it down. I can't imagine him in that role.

@allenjones3130

Жыл бұрын

@@Branes51 I couldn't imagine Old Blue Eyes as Billy either!

He forgot the words, in one of the important moments of the entire show. It makes the entire song, and is one of the more important moments in the entire first act, and he forgets the words.

This and MacRae and Ovenden are at the top of the list for me. I give Hampson the edge because he never lets up on the desperation at the end. The anguish is right up front, through that last note, with nothing careful or opera-singerish about it.

#1. John Raitt #2. Thomas Hampton. I think Hampton is terrific. There are a couple of LIVE versions sung by Raitt from the 1950s and he is incomparable. I heard Raitt sing it in a cabaret in NYC in 1980 and I practically had to be carried out of the place. He wiped me out with his rendition.

Don't care who sings it....Rodgers and Hammerstein are the geniuses!

THANK YOU..to flashy714 for sharing this.I always loved Hampson. I try to not say anything, unless it's kind. I must make an exception here and am QUITE certain this MOST WONDERFUL operatic baritone can ...as O.H.'s lyrics say... "Take IT" ...but this is -w-a-y too rushed. Appeared to me that Thomas just could NOT wait to get this "over with." It's a given that the lyrics are a "trifle" (?) outdated here in 2014... and we are now in the era of the "sonogram" etc. The "his mother won't make a Sissy out of him", and the "my little girl is "half again as BRIGHT as girls are meant to be"... and so forth. HOWEVER, I'm STILL a sucker for this song.... AND this musical! Billy Bigalow swaggers around with all of his false bravado, treats his wife like (fill in the blank)... but it's because he truly feels like a failure. I always found it interesting that this "fantasy" (and it is)..demonstrates how a person is so profoundly impacted by the news (and this in most cases is NOT fantasy) that they will become a parent. They are changed. They realize that they need to become a grown up at last. Julie Jordan always knew this. Billy really didn't... until after he was dead! It was then that he realized what it meant to be a REAL husband to his wife... and father to his child. I suppose that is why I still love this. As far as Gordon MacRae.... yes, very moving... but unfair to compare someone who can lip-sync to their own voice from a studio recording, as they "run around on a beach."

Nope this is forever Gordon MacRae's song.

JOHN RAITT, amazing Singer...He also sang Opera...Amazing Performance....

I grew up with McCrae, but I also love the version Terfel does.

@thissignupisretarded

6 жыл бұрын

Terfel's is the best!

A wonderful song thought great enough to be sung by a fine operatic baritone. But having grown up with the Gordon MacRae version I find it hard to switch this loyalty. Hanson has a glorious voice, however, and uses the grittier version that 50s America frowned on. Carousel remains musically my all-time, tying for first place with South Pacific with the great Ezio Pinza..

Nice job but I think Macrae nailed it the best--

What a performance

Gordon MacRae is definitive but check out Nathanial Hackmann. Gives me chills when I listen to him 👌🏻

Very operatic & flamboyant but the version by Sammy Davis, Jr. is much better...........and you can understand the lyrics.

Thomas does a very good job... but not like John Raitt... not even close.

@flannerymonaghan-morris1317

4 жыл бұрын

In all fairness, he did originate the role, and those who came after him have big shoes to fill.

Why must the image be stretched?

the tempo is a little too fast in the beginning----check out Robert Goulet's version!!!

guess you havent heard anthony warlow then people..

I saw Patrick Wilson as Billy when he was young. IMO he was perfect for the part; he sounded like a YOUNG guy trying to figure out fatherhood and the vocal sound was perfect. Most of the other guys were 20 years too old and maybe too classy. The character is supposed to be a young thug who is used to a fresh groupie every night and then totally surprises himself by falling in love.

Damn good version BUT, for me Gordon MacRae is tops.

@lesleyheller2271

4 жыл бұрын

MacRae is excellent, but no comparison to the original, John Raitt, who ends the soliloquy much more powerfully on a high Bb. MacRae settles on an F below, the fifth of the chord rather than the tonic. Plus, MacRae was recorded so he could do it over, but Raitt is on live TV, no mic in sight, just like he did it on Broadway.

@joelweisberg

4 жыл бұрын

Lesley Heller Yep Raitt was fabulous alright. What you wrote was all true. You seem to know your stuff. Are you a singer? I’ve been singing and playing keyboards for 45 years.

@lesleyheller2271

4 жыл бұрын

Joel Barry Thank you! I am a violinist with the Met Opera orchestra - very many years, so I have come to know quite a bit about opera, operetta/musicals (pre mic days), as well as pop greats such as Sinatra and Peggy Lee. Hampson has sung many, many times with us, so I am quite familiar with his voice. In this performance, he sounds uncomfortable in his low range, and his intonation is not spot on.

Best hair I’ve ever seen

On his CD called LEADING MAN

Mr. Hampson is good, but Sammy Davis Jr. takes it to a whole other place. Nobody I've ever heard comes remotely close.

Absolutely sensational!!! One of my favourite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs :)

Agree with comments already made -- too operatic, overly "musical" without the feel of a "bum". In addition though I am a bit amazed as he is "pitchy" at times. I think it was his attempt to be the character, but it was just off sometimes as a result!! Wow -- did I just say that about an opera singer???

Hampson's terrific!

They're all great but Thomas Hampson is the best of all and still with us, :)

@crazyorganist1609

Жыл бұрын

I agree. There's a depth to Hampson's performance

Try listening to Nathaniel Hackmann singing this - he is the best ever !

Always thought Hampson was a tenor masquerading as a baritone.

He should listen to Sammy Davis, Jr's version to know how it should sound.

It's okay, but listen to Julian Ovenden singing this before committing yourself!

@adam28xx

5 ай бұрын

At least actor/singer Julian Ovenden was uploaded in the correct screen ratio and not horribly squashed widthways like the guy above ... kzread.info/dash/bejne/hZZhmLeBZNHec8o.html

John Raitt goes up on the last note. I like his better. More powerful and raw and emotional.

@pinano3411

2 жыл бұрын

When Raitt goes up to the Bb for the last note, I get huge goosebumps and I want to stand and cheer, and it is just me here listening to the internet. No one can touch Raitt's performance and interpretation. I had the honor of performing for John, Bonnie, and the entire Raitt family at Pepperdine U in Malibu when I did a national tour of A Christmas Carol in '92. My costume was elaborate, and I flew out of it as quickly as I could to try to meet the Raitts afterwards and shake John's hand to tell him that he was one of my vocal models, but by the time I got out of it (it WAS elaborate) and got out to the parking lot, they were way on the other side of the lot and getting into their car, so I just let it go. Part of me wishes that I had run across the parking lot, but letting them go unbothered was the right thing to do.

He hits the last note but I don’t like how he hit and began it; sounded like a man Annie throwing a tantrum (very specific but I can’t quite pinpoint it)

4:17 The moment a father accepts his trans daughter. 🌈

The announcer forgets the name of the musical...this is pleasant at best. All marching and no heart, also some of the vowel sounds are really ugly...I prefer Gordon MacRae or more lately, Julian Ovenden.

Please...

Too fast through some sections

It's too operatic. He's not a whisky drinking fairground barker. They don't get that music theatre is speech driven. Stylistically, if it gets too resonant, it looses its text quality. You wouldn't get Bernadette Peters to sing Traviata.

@B.H.56

9 жыл бұрын

aavauxhall I agree, can't stand it when opera singers try to do musical theatre. Sounds like they have a steel rod up their *ss.

@LibbySingsMezzo

9 жыл бұрын

Barbara H. You obviously haven't heard Hampson's Cole Porter album. Check out Don't Fence Me In. You'd never know the guy sang opera. Hampson is one of the best crossover opera singers around. And many Broadway performers used to sing legit, back before the screaming and spectacle. Listen to some pre-60's shows.

@Unintelligentful

9 жыл бұрын

+aavauxhall Totally agree. Missed a lot of the comedy too because it's too 'sung'.

@williamduke6997

6 жыл бұрын

Don’t know you’ll see this, but you’re all idiots with sticks up your butts if you think a salad is better than steak. Go starve yourselves of talent and suck it up.

@RR-qv8uz

4 жыл бұрын

William Duke mate , couldn’t have put it better myself ! These comments 🙄 bloody ridiculous, I’ve studied musical theatre , my first love THEN BEL CANTO , bet these idiots aren’t even performers 🤦‍♂️

Stop being so picky. Hampson is the greatest baritone around. He is on another level.. One of the all time greats. period.

@MrDanamp

7 жыл бұрын

Wow, his voice and even his looks, somewhat, remind so much of Harve Presnell.

Here is a 'manly' voice that portrays the toughness of his (Billy's) early life. This performance captures this depth of emotion with all the vocal skill anyone could wish for.

@Unintelligentful

9 жыл бұрын

+Charlie Pinkney Disagree entirely. I don't see any character here. Bill is not a rich well educated aristocrat. This is a performance that LACKS any emotional depth. I just see a great singer singing a song, but no story.

@manthasagittarius1

7 жыл бұрын

You're right -- and he's not usually like this. He's wonderful on stage.

Nobody sings it like Gordon McCrae but a nice try.

Mr. Hampson's voice is magnificent, but he's just too polished to play Billy , not anywhere raw enough. Can you picture him working as a barker at a carousel? But John Rait, although possessing a classically trained voice, is TOTALLY convincing, in EVERY way. His version can't be topped!

That's not all of it

John Raitt 1952

I like much of Hampson's work. But that top G is thin and strained, and I don't that was an interpretative choice.

Gordon McRae made that song prefer his version.

this is the best acting of it soooo far while maintaining the notes.

@LazlosPlane

8 жыл бұрын

Yes, make a fist and then spread your arms out like Jolson, yeah,. . .that's acting. please.

Joshua Henry does it better.

Fine baritone, top class. But this is not an operatic song, try Sinatra or McRea for the best versions.Listen to Hampson sing Io ti lascio, oh cara by Mozart, thats his natural home and he's just great.

@williamduke6997

6 жыл бұрын

CelticMorning hahahaha you’re delusional

Listen to the original - the late, great John Raitt. No comparison!!

Not that good. No sole. Gordon MacRae by far the best.

@o.b.v.i.u.s

6 жыл бұрын

graham smith ~ Yeah... No _sole._ 🙄

@CanadianMonarchist

17 күн бұрын

Cousin Nettie was out of sole that day; they had to eat haddock.