Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe, the celebrated Hollywood screen icon, has inspired countless album projects even though she seldom entered a studio to cut commercial sides and took part in only five genuine movie musicals, along with scattered song sequences in her dramatic pictures. The combined discography therefore totals fewer than three dozen numbers, endlessly repackaged on reissues that also incorporate film dialogue fragments and radio or television excerpts. Her pleasing voice nevertheless suited her magnetic screen image, enabling persuasive readings of material by songwriters such as Harold Adamson and Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen, Cole Porter, and Leo Robin and Jule Styne.

Born the illegitimate daughter of Edward Mortenson, who deserted her mother prior to the birth and perished in a motorcycle crash when she was three, and Gladys Pearl Baker, a film editor, Monroe endured early hardship when her mother was committed to an institution at the child’s fifth birthday. She then moved through a series of orphanages and foster homes. In 1942, at age sixteen, she wed aircraft-plant employee Jim Dougherty, who soon joined the merchant marine during World War II. While he served, she contributed to the war effort as a paint sprayer at the Radio Plane Company, where a photographer on assignment for Yank magazine captured her image among women in defense work. Those photographs launched a modeling career, after which she divorced Dougherty in 1946. The same year Twentieth Century Fox awarded her a one-year contract; she adopted her stage name and began acting, singing, and dancing instruction. Brief appearances in two Fox features followed before the studio released her. Columbia Pictures engaged her in March 1948 and cast her in her first significant part, the B-musical Ladies of the Chorus (1949), where she performed the Allan Roberts–Lester Lee numbers “Anyone Can See” and “Ev’ry Baby Needs a Da-Da-Daddy.” Columbia then dropped her option, and financial pressure led her to pose nude for a calendar in exchange for fifty dollars. Freelance bit parts in 1949 and 1950 included the Marx Brothers’ final film Love Happy and the well-regarded dramas The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. She rejoined Fox in 1951 under a seven-year agreement and filled supporting roles in nine pictures across the next two years.

A leading part finally arrived with the January 1953 thriller Niagara, which also featured her singing Lionel Newman and Haven Gillespie’s “Kiss.” That summer she co-starred with Jane Russell in the screen version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, whose Jule Styne–Leo Robin score supplied the show selections “A Little Girl From Little Rock,” “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” and “Bye Bye Baby,” plus the film-added Hoagy Carmichael–Harold Adamson song “When Love Goes Wrong (Nothin’ Goes Right).” Although she largely met the vocal requirements, ghost singer Marni Nixon supplied several notes. MGM Records issued a ten-inch soundtrack LP.

The November release of the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire and the December debut of Playboy’s first issue, which reprinted her 1949 nude photographs, elevated Monroe to major stardom in 1953. She further heightened her profile by marrying former baseball star Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954; the union ended in divorce on October 27. Stardom brought an RCA Victor recording contract. Her next vehicle, the April 1954 Western River of No Return, allowed four songs—“One Silver Dollar,” “I’m Gonna File My Claim,” “Down in the Meadow,” and the title tune—all by Lionel Newman and Ken Darby. Her studio recording of “River of No Return” briefly entered the singles charts in July. December’s There’s No Business Like Show Business, an Irving Berlin anthology starring Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey with Donald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and Johnnie Ray, gave Monroe the new number “A Man Chases a Girl” (shared with O’Connor) plus Berlin standards “You’d Be Surprised,” “After You Get What You Want, You Don’t Want It,” “Lazy,” and “Heat Wave.” Decca’s ten-inch soundtrack LP omitted her vocals because of the RCA contract; Dolores Gray substituted, while RCA issued its own EP of Monroe performing her selections.

After 1954 Monroe worked less often, seeking greater autonomy. Following the spring 1955 comedy The Seven Year Itch, in which she played “Chopsticks” with Tom Ewell, she remained off-screen for a year. During the hiatus she married playwright Arthur Miller on June 29, 1956. Bus Stop, released that summer, showcased one of her strongest performances as a saloon singer delivering a sultry Harold Arlen–Johnny Mercer rendition of the 1942 standard “That Old Black Magic.” The spring 1957 release The Prince and the Showgirl afforded her Richard Addinsell and Christopher Hassall’s “I Found a Dream.” Another extended absence preceded her return to musical comedy in Paramount’s 1959 Some Like It Hot. Set in 1929 and casting her as band singer Sugar Kane, the film supplied three period numbers: the 1922 A. Harrington Gibbs–Joe Grey–Leo Wood tune “Runnin’ Wild!,” the 1928 Harry Ruby–Herbert Stothart–Bert Kalmar standard “I Wanna Be Loved by You,” and the slightly anachronistic 1931 Matt Malneck–Fud Livingston–Gus Kahn hit “I’m Through With Love.” United Artists Records released a soundtrack album and a single coupling “I Wanna Be Loved by You” with “I’m Through with Love.”

She returned to Fox for the summer 1960 release Let’s Make Love, her final movie musical, in which she portrayed an off-Broadway actress pursued by Yves Montand’s billionaire. The score furnished Sammy Cahn–James Van Heusen numbers “Let’s Make Love,” “Specialization,” and “Incurably Romantic,” plus a revival of Cole Porter’s “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Columbia Records issued the soundtrack album. After completing the drama The Misfits, scripted by Miller, the couple divorced in January 1961, shortly before the film’s release.

Her last musical appearance came in May 1962 when she led Madison Square Garden in “Happy Birthday” for President John F. Kennedy. She had traveled from Los Angeles, where she was filming Something’s Got to Give with Dean Martin; repeated absences prompted Fox to dismiss her. On August 5, 1962, she died from a barbiturate overdose that may have been accidental or intentional.

Twentieth Century-Fox Records issued the fall 1962 album Marilyn, containing soundtrack performances from There’s No Business Like Show Business, River of No Return, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; it remained on the charts more than two months and was reissued in 1972 as Remember Marilyn. Around the same period Legends released Marilyn Monroe, mixing film excerpts, a television commercial, and her “Happy Birthday” performance; Sandy Hook later reissued the collection as Rare Recordings 1948-1962. Beginning in the 1990s numerous smaller, often overseas labels issued CDs repackaging the identical material. Monroe’s posthumous fame has continued to grow, sustaining demand for these albums despite repetition and variable quality. In 1998 Varese Sarabande issued a There’s No Business Like Show Business soundtrack edition that included Monroe’s vocals for the first time, while Rykodisc simultaneously reissued an expanded Some Like It Hot soundtrack. Monroe’s singing forms a modest yet meaningful facet of her artistic appeal; because public attention often centers on her celebrity and personal struggles rather than her performances, these recordings merit attention as evidence of the genuine ability she brought to her work.