Diamonds, featuring some of Marilyn’s greatest hit songs, will be released on red vinyl by Not Now Music on September 13, and can be pre-ordered now from all good record shops (and via Amazon.)
“Many have followed in her stiletto-heeled footsteps, yet there is, was and only ever will be one Marilyn Monroe. Amazing as it now seems, Hollywood’s greatest ever sex symbol enjoyed less than a decade at the peak of the acting profession. The movies she made and the iconic images they contained, such as the billowing skirt from The Seven Year Itch, remain staples of popular culture. Andy Warhol turned her image into pop art, but Marilyn’s ‘15 minutes of fame’ made an unprecedented impact. Music was another gift she left the world, and this collection of songs reminds us she could do much more than merely look good.”
Beginning with ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’ and ending with ‘Happy Birthday Mr President,’ the sixteen-track album follows an eponymous CD boxset first released back in 2015 with fifteen more songs, plus five bonus tracks including interview snippets, a commercial, and other musical clips. (Notable omissions from the vinyl edition include ‘Kiss,’ ‘Bye Bye Baby,’ ‘Lazy,’ and ‘Running Wild.’)
The cover art uses a 1953 John Florea photo, but Marilyn’s dress was actually orange. Designed by Travilla for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn also wore the ruched chiffon gown at a benefit gala for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. Like many of her movie costumes, it was later repurposed – and worn again by singer Abbey Lincoln in The Girl Can’t Help It (1956.)
The back cover of Diamonds features a smaller, black-and-white photo by Milton Greene of Marilyn in Bus Stop. However, the sleeve notes incorrectly state that ‘A Fine Romance‘ was from a movie of the same name.
In fact, the Jerome Kern standard was one of several tracks Marilyn recorded with pianist and arranger Hal Schaefer during sessions for There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) – while emulating her idol, Ella Fitzgerald – but Marilyn would never perform ‘A Fine Romance’ on stage or screen.
A Bert Reisfeld pin-up shot from the same period graces the cover of another Not Now collection, Va-Va-Voom! Ultimate Screen Sirens, with three of Marilyn’s songs (‘I Wanna Be Loved By You,’ ‘After You Get What You Want,’ and ‘Diamonds’) among sixty bombshell classics.
‘Loved By You’ is also featured on a third Not Now boxset, American Heartbeat: The ’50s. With a byline posing the eternal question, ‘Is Marilyn Monroe More Than Sexy?’ – alongside a Frank Powolny photo, plus a smaller bikini shot by Anthony Beauchamp – the September 1953 cover of Movie World magazine is part of a suitably retro collage, juxtaposed with a vintage John F. Kennedy cover for LIFE.
Thanks to Fraser Penney
The Marilyn Report 