Product Description Richard Rodgers wrote both the music and lyrics for this 1962 Broadway musical, and he picked pianist/arranger Ralph Burns to orchestrate it. But there were strings attached (thus the subtitle): NO strings, just woodwinds, brass, harp and percussion. The result is a unique sound and a score that really swings; here's the complete Tony-winning score, on CD for the first time! Amazon.com No Strings is the only full show for which Richard Rodgers wrote both music and lyrics. In addition, the score was to be performed by a stringless band. And so, one oddity deserved another: arranger and conductor Ralph Burns's take on the show. Which means we get a full orchestra and no lyrics, no Diahann Carroll, but a bazillion strings, flying in full formation on tracks such as "Love Makes the World Go" and "Nobody Told Me." The score itself, written in 1962, is Rodgers at his perkiest--far, far away from the occasionally treacly offerings of his late collaborations with Oscar Hammerstein. "The Sweetest Sounds" and "You Don't Tell Me" recall Henry Mancini at his slinkiest (think Arabesque and Charade) and should delight amateurs of '60s cocktail swing. Elsewhere, "Be My Host" swings like there's no tomorrow--it's enough to make you wonder what was in Rodgers's chamomile when he came up with that stuff. All in all, No Strings (with Strings) may frustrate musical-theater fans, because it's not a cast album per se, but exoticats of all stripes will eat it up. --Elisabeth Vincentelli