Red Garters, which is both a stylized Western and a musical, boasts a song score by
Jay Livingston and
Ray Evans realized by the cast, including pop singers
Rosemary Clooney,
Guy Mitchell, and newcomer
Joanne Gilbert. Half of this soundtrack album (
Clooney's rendition of the title song,
Gilbert's single number "This Is Greater Than I Thought,"
Clooney's "Bad News," and the
Clooney/
Mitchell duet "Man and Woman") actually comes from the film itself. The other four songs were recorded subsequently in the recording studio under the auspices of
Mitch Miller and
Percy Faith.
Clooney is better at the ballads, especially "Good Intentions," than at the feistier material, though she also gives a good reading to the bluesy "Bad News."
Mitchell breezes through his songs winningly. "Man and Woman" is an amusingly contentious duet in the manner of "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun, but not nearly as witty. ~ William Ruhlmann