[xoalxscrzox]

Who sings your favorite version of I Dreamed a Dream and why ? My favorite has to be Elena Roger, she sings the song in spanish and puts so much emotion into it that it makes me cry when I listen to it

[flying_pigs]

Kerry Ellis!

[l'ivrogne transfiguré]

Do you mean just in terms of singing the song, or does this include how they act it?

For instance, of the current West End Fantine (Rebecca Seale) and her understudy (Natalie Day), I prefer Rebecca's voice and how she sings the song, but I prefer how Natalie acts it.

[Orestes Fasting]

Louise Pitre made me cry just listening to the recording.

Vocally, Nikki Renée Daniels, Sophie Josslyn, and Lea Salonga were all fantastic.

[beyondthebarricade]

I actually like Ruthie Henshall (who sang in the TAC)'s version the most. But of course, there are many good ones... and if I'm not wrong Michael Crawford sang it too?

[Yakko]

[The Very Angry Woman]

Linda Pierson-Huff, Lea Salonga, Jayne Paterson.

Not in any order.

[Monsieur D'Arque]

Crawford recorded a version, as did other male actor/singers Mandy Patinkin, Dennis DeYoung, and Adam Pascal- at least, I think Pascal did for a cabaret or something.

[The Very Angry Woman]

So did Michael Ball.

[mm10]

And Neil Diamond - think he had a hit with it

[Monsieur D'Arque]

Did Les Miserables predate "Cats," or come after it?

I had thought that Memory was the last standard written, but it's looking like I Dreamed A Dream is making a late-period comeback, recorded by pop stars and standards singers, and made mega-famous by Susan Boyle.

[l'ivrogne transfiguré]

Cats is the older. It opened in London in 81, and Les Mis took the title of longest-running musical from Cats when it closed.

[MizzieFan]

My favorite has to be Ruthie Henshall, but Natalie Day is very close second

[Monsieur D'Arque]

Well, then, as of right now, "I Dreamed A Dream" is the last standard.

[MizzieFan]

^And why is that? How EXACTLY do you mean that? I am rather curious.

[Monsieur D'Arque]

A standard is a song that passed into the mainstream pop music "cover song" vocabulary, traditionally but not always from a musical. In the old days, when Broadway wrote the hit songs before the rock and roll boom, almost every good show would produce at least one or two standards. With the change in styles, less and less songs from Broadway became ubiquitously known, sung and covered.

"Memory," from Cats, is a well-known song regardless of its connection to Cats, and was often considered to be the so-called "last standard," because it was one of the last few songs from a musical to cross the genre gap and become a mainstream popular song, but "I Dreamed A Dream" has made a late-period comeback, having been covered by mainstream artists (albeit retro ones) Neil Diamond and Dennis DeYoung, and now made notorious by Susan Boyle, elevating it to a hit single and album in a way that the old standards used to. And, being written a while after Cats, this makes "I Dreamed A Dream" the newest and so far the last standard in the music industry.

[musialman]

I love Lea Sagola's (sp?) version.

[The Very Angry Woman]

[MizzieFan]