The packaging of this album is a bit misleading, and that may explain its relative obscurity -- to look at the cover, front or back, one would assume it is the soundtrack to the 20th Century-Fox film of the same name, starring Dan Dailey,
Gordon MacRae, and Ernest Borgnine, in a fictionalized biopic of the careers of composers De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson. But what it really says is "music from" The Best Things in Life Are Free, and in point of fact, it's an instrumental album of the music from the movie, not featuring any of the vocals from the movie. (Note:
MacRae did a separate album for Capitol built on his contributions to the film). But that caveat aside, it's still a great showcase for the music of Buddy De Sylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, including most of their best-known songs, among them "The Best Things in Life Are Free," "Broken Hearted," "Varsity Drag," "Birth of the Blues," "Button Up Your Overcoat," "Black Bottom," and "Sunny Side Up"."
Lionel Newman, who was the music director for the movie, does well with the material, and
Billy May's arrangements are sharp and inventive where they have to be. ~ Bruce Eder