“Hello, Dolly!” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1969)

20th Century Fox Records released the Hello, Dolly! soundtrack album in 1969. When Barbra Streisand was signed to star in the picture, a deal was worked out with her record label, Columbia Records, to allow Streisand’s Dolly vocals to appear on the 20th Century Fox Records label.  The Hello, Dolly! soundtrack was only one of three albums Streisand appeared on that were not released by Columbia Records. (The others:  Funny Girl Original Broadway Cast and Funny Lady).

Jerry Herman contributed two new songs for the movie version of Hello, Dolly! which were not originally in the Broadway play. The new ballad for the film, “Love is Only Love,” is the same music as “Gotta Be A Dream” which Herman wrote for a 1961 musical called Madame Aphrodite (which ran for 13 performances). The song was then rewritten as “Love is Only Love” for Herman's 1966 hit musical, Mame— but it was cut from the show. Herman then interpolated the song into the Hello, Dolly! movie for Streisand.

Hello, Dolly! has had three incarnations as a soundtrack album. First, it was released by 20th Century Fox Records as a "deluxe album" in 1969. The gatefold album unfolded and included liner notes and excerpts of Jerry Herman's lyrics.

In the early 1980s, PolyGram bought 20th Century Fox Records and all assets were consolidated into the company's Casablanca label. Probably around 1982, Casablanca released the Dolly soundtrack again, this time without the gatefold artwork.

For many years, Hello, Dolly! was the only Streisand album not available on CD. In 1994, Philips (parent company of PolyGram) released Dolly on CD for the first time. (PolyGram has, to date, been absorbed by Universal Music Group.) In 1994, Polygram owned the rights to the original album, and Fox owned and archived the actual music elements that went into creating the soundtrack album.

According to George Konder's liner notes for the 1994 Philips CD:

This new digitally mastered release, which marks the film's 25th anniversary, has been lovingly remixed for the first time since the original recording. Utilizing the latest audio technology, the revitalized tracks illuminate the lush symphonic arrangements of the orchestra conducted by Lionel Newman and Lennie Hayton, and brighten the enunciation of Herman's delightful and tender lyrics. Barbra Streisand's incomparable vocalism and interpretations of the songs sparkle anew.

Dolly CD producer Nick Redman worked closely with music score remixer Brian Risner and digital mastering technician Dan Hersch (at DigiPrep in Hollywood) on the original multi-track elements. Redman insisted that the CD be created from a remix of the original multi-track tapes instead of simply digitizing the original analog soundtrack album.

Redman told Guy Vespoint how the remaster was achieved. “In the 1960s, Fox had no tape recording facilities, so they would record directly onto 35mm film. A different piece of a song is recorded onto each strip of film, and you may have up to as many as 18 strips of film which have to be synchronized and put through a Magnatech [a machine that runs magnetic film tracks]. Afterwards, they would take all of the reels of film to the Todd-AO lab where everything would be remixed. They would put the music onto multi-track analog — probably 8-track — tape. From that source, it would be remixed again to a 2-track master. Those 2-track masters would be used to make the albums of those musicals. Consequently, the 2-track master was probably two generations away from the original source.”

Redman and his team used the 8-track analog masters when working with Dolly's soundtrack. “We were able to work with elements that were one generation away from the original source, and we had the latitude and freedom to alter the balance of the music slightly where we felt it fit.”

Fox considered releasing a deluxe soundtrack for Dolly’s 50th anniversary in 2019, but it’s been reported that the original master tapes were too damaged to be used, unfortunately. It was also unfortunate timing that in March 2019, Fox’s film division was acquired by Disney.  Many films and projects in development at Fox were put on hold.

It should be noted that the Hello, Dolly! soundtrack is incomplete, which is why it is unfortunate a “deluxe edition” was never released.  

Missing from all versions of the albums are:

• The Main Credits music
• “Call on Dolly”
• Irene and Cornelius’ verse of “Dancing” is not on the album
• Intermission music
• Outro music
• Jerry Herman wrote one new verse for the song “Elegance” for the film … and it has been excised from the soundtrack album!

Snobs that slobs

Throw roses at

We look down

Our noses at

Pity all the other girls around

When I swing my perfect pearls around

Snubbing folks is chic to us

Sometimes we don’t even speak to us