The Sound Of Music Soundtrack (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2015 reissue on the Craft label.

If you like Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals (I do) and are a fan of Julie Andrews (she's a treasure), you can't do any better than this album.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "outstanding soundtrack package"
• CashBox: "an unforgettable experience"
• High Fidelity: "much more palatable in its individual parts than as a whole"
• Record World: "RCA Victor must have one of the all-time top-selling soundtrack albums"
• Stereo Review: "The burden of the singing falls on Julie Andrews, and she almost succeeds in putting some spice into this overcooked stew of sentimentality."

For the record, the five Academy Awards won were Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise), Best Sound (James Corcoran & Fred Hynes), Best Film Editing (William Reynolds), and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (Irwin Kostal).

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• CashBox: #2 (kept out of the top spot by another Julie Andrews soundtrack, Mary Poppins)

In 2015, Billboard named this soundtrack album the second-best charting album of all time, behind Adele's 2011 album, 21.

Tracks: I know it's an easy cliché to claim that My Favorite Things is one of my favorite things, but it's true so I'm gonna go ahead and claim it. Other favorites include Sixteen Going On Seventeen, The Lonely Goatherd, and Edleweiss. But I'll happily listen to the whole thing.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I've seen both the stage musical and the 1965 movie multiple times; I always enjoy the show. I've never been in the cast of the show - my lone R&H cast experience was as Lt. Cable in South Pacific - but I once worked on the backstage crew of a touring company production when they passed through town back in the '90s.

When I was in high school, I received a Walkman knock-off for Christmas (probably 1983) and, for reasons unknown to me all these years later, opted to listen to my father's pre-recorded cassette of this album more than once that Christmas Day instead of any of my own tapes.