Marni Nixon sings Jerome Kern
Ms. Nixon is an American soprano, age 82 now, who, in her prime, sung with major symphony orchestras around the world. She made an album of Jerome Kern’s music, and here is “Bill” a quiet love song from “Show Boat.” The character “Julie” is woman who is half black and who is going through a difficult time when she sings this song in Act II. The lyrics to this song are by P.G. Wodehouse with revisions by Oscar Hammerstein II. PG
Marnie Nixon never achieved the fame she deserved. Her work dubbing non singing actresses is legendary.
A wonderful singer who was known as ‘The Ghostess with the Mostest’. She dubbed or ‘ghosted’ several very famous performers in some of the greatest movie musicals. Debra Kerr in ‘The King and I’ and ‘An Affair to Remember’, Natalie Wood (and Rita Moreno’s high notes) in ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Gyspy’, Audrey Hepburn in ‘My Fair Lady’ who didn’t know it was being done until the previews! She was also rumored to have done some over-dubbing for Marilyn Monroe and a few other high-note-less singers. She rarely recieved screen credit for her work. Her most famous on screen role (thanks to heavy lobbying by Julie Andrews and Richard Rogers supposedly) was the Mother Abbess in ‘The Sound of Music’