Listen to Christopher Plummer’s Original ‘The Sound of Music’ Vocals

For the first time ever, the hills will be alive with the sound of Christopher Plummer. You can now listen to the late actor’s heretofore unused vocal tracks from The Sound of Music. Plummer’s long-unheard vocal tracks from the classic musical will be released on a new deluxe edition of The Sound of Music‘s soundtrack.

A first look at Plummer’s singing has been released on YouTube, featuring Plummer’s romantic duet with Julie Andrews on “Something Good”, one of the original songs Richard Rodgers wrote exclusively for the film version of the stage musical he wrote with Oscar Hammerstein II. To the untrained ear, Plummer’s singing sounds perfectly fine, but studios were quick to overdub an actor’s singing at the time.

The remastered soundtrack will include all of Plummer’s vocals and the overdubbed versions, as well as a number of songs that were cut from the finished film. It will be available in a number of formats; they will all be released on December 1, 2023 – just in time to end up in brown paper packages tied up with strings for the holidays.

Why Was Christopher Plummer Dubbed In ‘The Sound of Music’?

Although Plummer did sing all of his parts during the filming of The Sound of Music, he did not have the vocal range or extensive musical training of his co-star Julie Andrews. Thus, in the finished film, Plummer’s vocal tracks were re-recorded by Bill Lee, a member of the singing quartet the Mellomen. The Mellomen were used in a number of Disney productions, including Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, and Lady and the Tramp; Mellomen founder Thurl Ravenscroft later achieved fame as the singer of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and as the voice of Tony the Tiger.

At the time, it was not at all uncommon to dub over actors in movie musicals; in 1961’s West Side Story, all four main leads had their singing voices dubbed. Plummer, who did not have a great appreciation for The Sound of Music in general, did have praise for Lee, stating in a 2012 NPR interview that he sounded very much like himself in the finished film.

Released in 1965, The Sound of Music tells the story of Maria (Andrews), a free-spirited nun who becomes governess to the von Trapp family. She soon wins them over – and wins the heart of their widowed patriarch Georg (Plummer). Unfortunately, this all takes place in Austria in 1938, forcing the family to make a dramatic escape from the Nazis. Directed by the legendary Robert Wise, the film was an enormous success with audiences, and was the highest-grossing film of all time for many years – although it may not have fully captured the true story of the von Trapp family. The Sound of Music remastered soundtrack will be available December 1, 2023. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and listen to Andrews and Plummer duet on “Something Good” below:

The Sound of Music

A young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.

Release Date

April 1, 1965

Director

Robert Wise

Cast

Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr

Rating

G

Runtime

172 minutes

Main Genre

Musical

Genres

Biography, Drama, Musical

Studio

20th Century Fox

Writers

Howard Lindsay, Russel Crouse, Ernest Lehman, Maria von Trapp

Tagline

The Happiest Sound In All The World!