Play It Again: Anyone Can Whistle's "With So Little To Be Sure Of"

 Play It Again:

Anyone Can Whistle's

"With So Little To Be Sure Of"

For this new series, Jeff has invited me to choose some classic Broadway show tunes and compare versions of these songs from several different cast recordings. Wherever possible, I’ll link to the songs on YouTube, where I listen to most of them myself.

This week I (re-)listened to three recordings of “With So Little to Be Sure Of” from Sondheim’s famous and beloved early flop, Anyone Can Whistle. In this song, diffident nurse Fay Apple and jaded ex-idealist J. Bowden Hapgood celebrate their complementary natures, even as they realize that they have to part for now. The influence of Sondheim’s mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II, is apparent in this gorgeous, sprawling, slightly rambling love duet that, but for some slight rhythmic trippiness and piquant Sondheim harmonies, wouldn’t sound all that out of place in a classic R&H show. 

As of 2024, Anyone Can Whistle has only been recorded three times, at fairly regular intervals of about 30 years, including (somewhat miraculously) an original Broadway cast album, a live capture of a star-studded Carnegie Hall concert, and the long-delayed release of JAY’s complete studio recording. Given the recent talk of a high-profile New York revival of this ultimate cult classic, I’m confident we won’t have to wait until 2054 to get a fourth recording.

My overall favorite version is marked with two stars (**); one star (*) is used to indicate that a particular version stands out in terms of singing, orchestra, sound, or other miscellaneous qualities.

ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST (1964) - YouTube

Hapgood: Harry Guardino; Fay: Lee Remick

SINGING: Guardino’s vocals are a disappointment here; his tone is a little stodgy, a few high notes show some strain, and his phrasing is sometimes off (as in “it’s been marvelous to know [breath] you” near the end of the song). Remick is much more secure in her singing and very pleasant to listen to, if not as juicy in her delivery as her successors (though I love how she sings the line “being sure enough of you”). Worst of all, they don’t sound compatible at all when they sing together.

ORCHESTRA: Don Walker’s lovely orchestrations, which foreground fairly active string and woodwind motifs with just a few brass touches, are used for all three recordings, and they sound very good here, played by a rather luxurious, and probably expanded, pit orchestra.

SOUND: The vocals are definitely very forward here, with the orchestra a little muddy and hard to hear against the singers.

MISCELLANEOUS: This version omits the passage sung in counterpoint by Hapgood in the song’s middle section, where Faye sings “Thanks for everything we did.” It also uniquely ends with a fortissimo orchestral recapitulation of the song’s main melodic theme; the others feature a quieter, more theatrical cadence.

CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT (1995) - YouTube

Hapgood: Scott Bakula; Fay: Bernadette Peters

SINGING: Bakula wisely goes for character development rather than vocal perfection, varying his tone and volume between and within phrases; the end result is quite satisfying, though the final held notes of some of the lines are a little too subdued. Peters, in her vocal prime here, is magnificent, and a spot-on choice for this role; Fay’s desperation is palpable in lines like “I guess I need you more than you need me.” Perhaps inevitably, their unison singing is unbalanced, with Peters overpowering Bakula. (I get the impression that this pairing would have been nearly perfect in a full production with more rehearsal time to fix these various issues.)

ORCHESTRA: Surprisingly, the orchestra seems more restrained and less colorful than the original. This could be due, once again, to lack of rehearsal time for a one-off event, or perhaps it’s just an artifact of recording a live performance in a huge concert hall.

SOUND: The sound is fairly clear for a live recording, though the orchestra is again not nearly as clear as the vocalists.

*MISCELLANEOUS: This track begins with a bit of dialogue to set the scene, including Fay’s quotation of a few bars from “Come Play Wiz Me.” The tempo of the song itself feels just slightly, and pleasantly, slower here than on the other two recordings.

**STUDIO CAST RECORDING (2023) - YouTube

Hapgood: John Barrowman; Fay: Maria Friedman

*SINGING: This version features two accomplished singers who are at their best on this recording. Barrowman’s delivery is not as dramatically nuanced as Bakula’s, but he makes up for it by nailing Sondheim’s tricky melodic contours and maintaining vocal power throughout the sometimes long musical phrases. Friedman is perfect vocally and her characterization is heartbreaking; when she sings “I need you more than I can say,” you can hear both Fay’s sincerity and her fear at the prospect of exposing herself emotionally like this. The two singers sound sublime together, whether singing in counterpoint or in unison at the song’s climax.

*ORCHESTRA: The full symphony orchestra allows for all layers to be heard more fully; some small details that are lost on the other recordings come across vividly here. The orchestral swells at the end of Hapgood’s verse and near the end of the song add a nice sense of drama.

*SOUND: The recording is very clear and generally well-balanced, though Barrowman’s vocals are a little too overpowering in a few spots.

MISCELLANEOUS: A fuller version of the pre-song dialogue (and Fay’s mini-reprise of “Come Play Wiz Me”) is included on the track.