The Body in the Seine is an original "album musical

Album musical

An album musical is a type of recording that sounds like an original cast album but is created specifically for the recording medium and is complete entertainment product in itself, rather than just promoting or reflecting an existing or planned musical theatre production or revue...

" created by songwriter David M. Lippincott

David McCord Lippincott

David McCord Lippincott was an American composer and lyricist.-Education:David McCord Lippincott wrote music and lyrics from an early age. The first evidence of that is a musical revue he wrote while attending the Hotchkiss School called "Little Boy Blue"...

 and given a limited release in 1954. Because of its rarity, many collectors

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

 of original cast albums

Cast recording

A cast recording is a recording of a musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast...

 consider it "the holy grail" of recordings.

Although The Body in the Seine (subtitled "A Musical Tour de Force Through Paris") sounds like the cast album of a Broadway musical

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

, it actually was complete in itself, with no accompanying stage show. Lippincott, was working as a jingle

Jingle

A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...

 writer (Coke

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

, Fig Newton

Fig Newton

The Fig Newton is a Nabisco trademarked version of the ancient fig roll pastry filled with fig paste. Their unusual shape is a characteristic that has been adopted by many competitors including generic fig bars sold by most supermarkets.-History:...

, etc.) at McCann-Erickson, a New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 advertising agency

Advertising agency

An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...

, when he released this collection of twelve songs, hoping to find an experienced writer who would create a book to accompany his tunes. A note on the back of the album read: Help Wanted. Musical score requires immediate services of bright, clever "book." Must be mature, sophisticated and willing to travel.

What makes The Body in the Seine interesting to collectors of Broadway cast albums is the theatrical performers

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

 assembled for the recording, including Alice Pearce

Alice Pearce

Alicia “Alice” Pearce was an American actress. Brought to Hollywood by Gene Kelly to reprise her Broadway performance in the film version of On the Town , Pearce played comedic supporting roles in several films, before being cast as Gladys Kravitz in Bewitched in 1964...

, George S. Irving

George S. Irving

George S. Irving is an American actor, known primarily for his character roles on Broadway. Born George Irving Shelasky in Springfield, Massachusetts, he made his debut in the original 1943 production of Oklahoma!, only to be drafted days later to serve in World War II...

, Barbara Ashley and future U.S. Congressman, Jim Symington

James W. Symington

James Wadsworth Symington is a United States attorney and politician who served as four-term U.S. representative representing Missouri.-Youth, family, and education:...

. The album's orchestrators

Orchestration

Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...

, Joseph Glover and Ralph Norman Wilkinson, were both experienced music arrangers

Arrangement

The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

, and Buster Davis, who conducted

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 the orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 and chorus

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

, had worked on such Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes

High Button Shoes

High Button Shoes is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet. It was based on the semi-autobiographical 1946 novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Longstreet...

, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos...

, Top Banana

Top Banana (musical)

Top Banana is a musical with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and book by Hy Kraft which premiered on Broadway in 1951. Comedian Phil Silvers starred, and won the Tony Award in 1952.-Production:...

 and Make a Wish.

Songs

• Opening: See The World
• A Lady Like You
• Chacun à son Goût
• You Really Didn't Have To Do That
• But Wonderful
• Love On The Left Bank's A Wild, Wild Thing

• The Body in the Seine
• A Little Change of Scene
• Where Do I Go From Here?
• Dirge
• Why Can't You Be You?
• Finale: What The Hell Is So Wide About the World?