Columbia Masterworks Records by John Gielgud—the longest-running "Hamlet" in Broadway history to date. Columbia Masterworks' most successful Broadway album was the original cast recording of "My Fair Lady" (OL-5090, 1956), starring Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway and Robert Coote. This first album was issued only in mono, but the first stereo recording of "My Fair Lady"—featuring the same four stars, this time with the London cast—followed in 1959. And in 1964, Columbia Masterworks issued the film soundtrack album of the show, starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn's "singing voice", Marni Nixon. The most successful film soundtrack release on Columbia Masterworks was the
Wouldn't It Be Loverly Wouldn't It Be Loverly "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a popular song by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, written for the 1956 Broadway play "My Fair Lady". The song is sung by flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her street friends. It expresses Eliza's wish for a better life. In addition to pronouncing "lovely" as "loverly", the song lyrics highlight other facets of the Cockney accent that Professor Henry Higgins wants to refine away as part of his social experiment. In the stage version it was sung by Julie Andrews. In the 1964 film version, Marni Nixon dubbed the song