"If I Were A Bell" from Guys and Dolls

"If I Were A Bell" from Guys and Dolls. Music by Frank Loesser, from the Original Broadway Cast Recording.

Ok, I would like to start by saying that the woman who sings the part of Sarah on this CD is TERRIBLE. I mean really really bad. I was horrified to hear her sing. She is always off pitch and has a really harsh quality to her voice. Ok, end of rant.
This song happens the very first time Sarah gets drunk. She sings this song to Sky Masterson. I like this song because it has a different style than some of the other music from this show, because it has a very jazzy feel to it. This is nice because it contributes to the drunk feeling. Thereis really no build or climax to this song... so I will just kind of make general statements.
The singing is very speechlike, which is good since this lady can't sing. It's more of a talk-singing quality, and the jazzy/blues like notes allow her to slide around and be messy and harsh, which is good for the character, and good because if I haven't mentioned it yet, she's a terrible singer. She never really has to sing until the very end of the song. I always find it funny when singers who obviously have very classical voices and classical training make an attempt to sing musicall theatre. They hit a certain point in their range where they can no longer sing in their mix, so they have to make a big obvious change to head voice. At the end of the song, she is singing in the mix part of her voice... and then she sings the very last part "ding dong ding dong ding" in this huge classical voice. For one it doesn't go with the character, and for two it doesn't go with the style of the song. I could go on for hours about this problem... but I will just stop here :-)
The accompaniment is very cool. It is your typical jazz accompaniment. The light jazz drum beat is just great... as are the horns. I don't know a lot about jazz, so I can't put a lot of it into words... but the blues feel is neat.
That's really all I've got about this one.