' Gee, Officer Krupke' ( Russ Tamblyn, Jets) – 4:14.' Tonight' (Jim Bryant, Marni Nixon) – 6:43.' America' ( Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Sharks & Girls) – 4:59.'Dance at the Gym' (Blues, Promenade, Mambo, Cha-cha, film dialogue, and Jump) – 9:24.' Something's Coming' ( Jim Bryant) – 2:32.'Jet Song' ( Tucker Smith, Jets) – 2:06.Vocal performers listed parenthetically after song title. Track listing Īll music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. While the film was released by United Artists, the soundtrack album was produced and released by Columbia Masterworks Records as part of rights it acquired in producing the Broadway cast album. Although it was not industry standard at the time, Nixon arranged to receive a small percentage of the royalties for sales of the soundtrack, which, as she did not receive credit for her performance on the album, she indicates helped 'salve any wounds'. Nixon also dubbed several lines for Moreno in the latter part of the 'Tonight' ensemble, because the range of that section was too high for both Moreno and Betty Wand. But after filming was complete, Nixon post-dubbed or 'looped' all of Maria's songs while watching film loops.

According to various sources, Wood was assured throughout the recording and filming process that her vocals would be used for most of Maria's singing in the film, with Nixon's voice dubbed in only for the higher, more challenging vocal sections, and Wood did lip sync to her own pre-recorded tracks of the songs during filming. Smith himself sings his character's song 'Cool' and his own lines in the 'Tonight' ensemble.įinal determination of which voices would be used and to what extent for the film's songs was left to producer Saul Chaplin, who at various times told Nixon that her voice would be used to supplement or extend that of actress Natalie Wood or to replace it altogether. Russ Tamblyn, who plays Riff in the film, provided his own vocals for the song 'Gee, Officer Krupke' and for a few lines in the 'Tonight' ensemble, but in the 'Jet Song' he was dubbed by Tucker Smith, who plays the role of Ice in the film. According to Moreno herself, Wand dubbed all or part of her singing in 'A Boy Like That', although it's not clear if that was the total extent of the dubbing she did. Very little of the singing in the finished film and on the soundtrack album was contributed by the on-screen stars of the film while George Chakiris did all of his own singing for the few solo lines of his character Bernardo, Jim Bryant entirely dubbed the singing role of Tony for Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno's singing as Anita was partly dubbed by Betty Wand (and by Nixon). In her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, Marni Nixon writes about singing the role of Maria and of her observations of some of the other singers whose voices were dubbed into the film. Though the album was released just a few years after the release of the original broadway cast recording, it is according to musical theater historian Ethan Mordden preferred by some to the earlier version both sentimentally, as the film succeeded in establishing the musical as a 'popular masterpiece', and musically, as it contains 'beefier orchestration'. In the United States, it was one of the best-selling albums of the 1960s, certifying three times platinum by the RIAA on November 21, 1986. In 1962, it won a Grammy award for 'Best Sound Track Album – Original Cast'. It did also spend 6 weeks at the top of the Billboard chart for mono albums. 1 of any album in history, although some lists instead credit Michael Jackson's Thriller, on the grounds that this run for West Side Story was on a chart for stereo albums only at a time when many albums were recorded in mono. 1 on Billboard 's stereo albums charts, giving it the longest run at No.

Released in 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at No.

West Side Story is the soundtrack album to the 1961 film West Side Story, featuring music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Rita moreno 1960s