Little Shop of Horrors

Before Alan Menken became famous for this Disney efforts, Little Shop of Horrors became something of a cult hit both as a stage musical and as a movie, based on the Roger Corman low budget original movie. This, the film version, which starred Rick Moranis as Seymour, Ellen Greene as Audrey and with cameos by Steve Martin (who appears in Dentist!), John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest and Bill Murray. Some of the songs from the original have been missed out and the ending was rather dramatically changed. The songs are all great fun, although I didn't find them as instantly memorable as later Menken efforts. Menken's long time lyricist, Howard Ashman contributes many memorable lyrics which go a long way to drag this above the kind of dross that it could have become ('I've given you sunlight, I've given you rain, looks like you're not happy, 'less I open a vein.....'. The musical style throughout is Doo-wop (most notably in Da-Doo) and fans of Hercules will probably enjoy this a great deal. In fact many of the songs are arranged in a similar way with the lead vocal supported by the three person female chorus. No actual underscore (which was composed by Miles Goodman) is included and so the CD is somewhat short, but the songs hold their own very well indeed and tell the story quite effectively. I would be inclined to suggest the original musical version since it contains more songs, although this rendition includes Mean Green Mother from Outerspace which only appears in the stage musical as an encore, but wasn't include on album. There is an infectious zaniness to all the songs that is difficult to resist and makes for an extremely enjoyable listen.