Castle Writers
Out of the Cocoon
Athlone 2020
Lip Sync and Ghost Singers Lip sync battles are featured on TV at the present time. Lip sync is a technical term for pre recorded vocals matching a speaking or singing persons lip movements "The hills are alive with the sound of Music". Julie Andrews's singing was as authentic as the lady herself. She had no need to avail of a "ghost singer", or to lip sync, as she played the role of Maria in the wonderful production "The Sound of music" filmed in 1965. It is the story of a young woman who left a convent to become a governess to the seven children of Captain Von Trapp. She later married him, and they formed a concert group. A lady called Marni Nxon played the role of Sr. Sophia in that film, she had a beautiful singing voice and actually dubbed other star's voices in many films. The King and I, also a Rogers and Hammerstein production was filmed in 1956. Yul Brynner played the King of Siam opposite Deborah Kerr who played Anna. Marni Nixon sang six of Kerr's songs, but she only received the paltry sum of $10.000 and the film made millions at the box office. She also sang for Audrey Hepburn in Lerner & Loewe's "My Fair Lady ". Audrey herself sang "Just you wait ‘Enri ‘Iggins ". Rex Harrison, the male lead in that film, had a poor singing voice, but spoke his songs in key which proved effective, as in "Why can't a woman be more like a Man". Marni Nixon was an accomplished singer in her own right. She sang opera and recorded many songs. She also dubbed Natelie Wood in Leonard Bernstein's "Westside Story". This film was the 1961 version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It was set in New York and featured rival gangs that became violent and the film ended in tragedy. A lady called Betty Wand sang for Rita Marino in this film, and she also dubbed Lesley Caron in the film Gigi. Male ghost singer Bill Lee sang for Christopher Plummer in the afore mentioned film" The Sound of Music". Plummer's voice was deemed to be weak so Bill Lee sang the beautiful song " “Edelweiss". He also provided many voices for Walt Disney.
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