Sold Date: February 19, 2023
Start Date: February 12, 2023
Final Price: $4,999.99 (USD)
Bid Count: 1
Seller Feedback: 253
Buyer Feedback: 0

Here it is folks...the stuff of legend! Maybe the only time you'll ever be able to get your hands on one of these!! The complete Andre & Dory Previn recordings for Goodbye Mr Chips on 2 one sided acetates in NM condition....plus the infamous 3 acetate 2 sided LPs 'Losers Sing' material for the film...only 10 pressed originally and given as a 'gag' gift to close friends by the producer at wrap of the production. Includes material from the Previns, Rod McKuen, Tony Hatch, and much more. There was so much rejected material submitted to the producers on this project that it filled 3 LPs. All in NM condition except one of the sides has some light marks....maybe VG++ . 80% of this material cannot be found anywhere else.

info from FSM interview:

 Facts about the very beginning of the process are a bit sketchy, but when Previn left the project in late 1967, he said he’d been working o­n it for five years, so that would put the start in late 1962, which was right around the time that MGM reissued the 1939 version of Chips. Previn apparently pitched the idea of a musical version to the studio at that time, and then started writing songs with his wife Dory doing the lyrics. With his track record and string of Oscars, it’s no wonder that the studio went for the idea. So it was in development a while before Arthur Jacobs came into it in mid-1964. Jacobs was going to do Doctor Dolittle with Alan Jay Lerner writing the music, but there was another non-musical project that Lerner wanted to do with Jacobs, which was for a property that MGM had bought. Lerner and Previn were doing the film version of My Fair Lady at Warner Bros. then, so that could be how Jacobs connected with Previn o­n Chips, since Jacobs was looking for original screen musicals to produce after Mary Poppins became such a success. The first official announcement of Chips was in October of 1964, and it said that some of the songs were already written. Terence Rattigan was hired as screenwriter by the end of the year, by which time Jacobs was trying to get Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews to star in the film. Vincente Minnelli had agreed to direct it, so Previn, at that time, probably felt that it was shaping up to be a huge production. As the script evolved, he continued to add and change songs, but he was already growing frustrated with Hollywood by then, so when all of the delays started happening — mostly to do with the casting — I suspect he became gradually disenchanted.

NSB: So Previn never composed songs specifically for the Rattigan script?

MM: The first songs he did were generic, meaning that they fit into the general story line as depicted in the novel and in the 1939 film, which, you must remember, was as well known at that time as something like E.T. is now. When Rattigan came aboard, he suggested making Katherine (Mrs. “Chips”) a stage performer. It was felt that this element validated the story as a musical, gave it a foundation in the genre. So based o­n that, some of Previn’s songs changed. “Hi There, Harry” was written then, for example, because that was the song Katherine sang o­n stage. By the time they recorded thirteen Previn demos with orchestra in October 1966, some of the songs he had previously written were dropped and some new o­nes had been added based o­n the screenplay.

NSB: This version of Chips would have been a much more traditional musical with the songs advancing the story, right? Were the Previn songs bigger and more broad than the Bricusse songs because of this?

MM: It’s hard to tell how “big” some of the songs would be based o­nly o­n piano demos, but the orchestral demo session is a good indicator. Yes, it was to be a traditional book musical, with all of the characters singing o­n screen, but whether that technique advances the story is debatable. In this case several of Previn’s songs focus o­n the characters’ thoughts and emotions, so I think it was already pointed in the direction it ultimately ended up going. Had it been done right after he proposed it, say, in 1963, I think it might have done very well and certain songs, like “Has He Come Too Late?” and “Nothing Is Impossible” may have become popular. There aren’t really any big production numbers to speak of. A song to be sung by the schoolboys called “Teachers Never Teach You” was probably the biggest o­ne, and I guess you could also think of “When I Am Older” as the Bricusse counterpart. But as I think about it now I’m realizing that Previn’s songs really did take a more interior monologue kind of approach in what they are actually conveying, so although the voiceover/fragment/montage technique became defined later, I think that was a natural progression from what Previn’s score was attempting.

NSB: So you got to hear all of Previn’s songs while preparing this album?

MM: Yes, I did. We had the master for the orchestral demo session, and several other demos were o­n an acetate album called “The Losers Sing Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” This was a four-platter set put together by Arthur Jacobs at the end of production, really as a gag because so many unused songs were written for the film. In addition to Previn’s, there were also a bunch submitted by poet/songwriter Rod McKuen, and several unused Bricusse songs, some of which are o­n our disc 3. My articles for FSM go into all of this in detail and finally sort it all out. There were o­nly ten copies of “Losers Sing” made, and Ian Fraser kindly loaned his for the project. Between that and the demo session, there are 24 Previn songs that exist in some recorded form. He wrote at least three others, but there’s no evidence that demos were made.