You know the movie Singin' in the Rain? Awesome movie, right? Y'know how the plot revolves around Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) dubbing her voice for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), because Lamont's voice is so terrible?
Well, technically-not-ironically-because-it's-not-a-reversal-of-expectations-but-the-word-ironic-should-honestly-just-be-appropriated-for-these-kinds-of-funny-coincidences, Debbie Reynolds own voice was dubbed over in a couple numbers, "Would You?" and "You are My Lucky Star" by Betty Noyes.
Here's Debbie Reynolds singing "You are My Lucky Star", in a scene cut from the movie:
And here's Betty Noyes dubbing for Debbie Reynolds at the end of the film (skip to 3:05).
Wikipedia doesn't say why, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say it's because Reynolds is a low alto, which is incompatible with Gene Kelly's tenor voice. For a song like "You are My Lucky Star", which spans an octave, it would be hard to transpose it to be comfortable for a tenor and alto duet. Instead, they needed a soprano to match Kelly.
Compare: Betty Noyes, singing in the key of C#.
Debbie Reynolds singing in the key of G.
Well, whaddaya know.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, tenors should never ever lead other people in song. Not even little kids can comfortably sing with them. (Incidentally, guess who leads the songs on our parish's VBS music CD? You guessed it, a tenor!)