Editing Oklahoma! (section)

==Recordings==
{{further|Oklahoma! (original Broadway cast recording)}}
[[Bing Crosby]] and [[Frank Sinatra]] both recorded versions of "People Will Say We're In Love" and "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" in 1943.<ref name=Carter226>Carter 2007, p. 226</ref> Due to the [[1942–1944 musicians' strike]], however, these recordings featured no instrumental accompaniment and instead "were lugubriously weighed down by ''a cappella'' backup."<ref name=Maslon>[[Laurence Maslon|Maslon, Laurence]]. [https://nytimes.com/2019/07/10/theater/oklahoma-cast-album.html How ''Oklahoma!'' revolutionized the cast album], ''The New York Times'', July 10, 2019. Retrieved April 6, 2021</ref> Producers of ''Oklahoma!'' lamented the lack of high-quality official recordings, with [[Theresa Helburn]] writing to a colleague in August 1943: "There are no records of ''Oklahoma!'' that we can send you. As you know, the [[James Petrillo|Petrillo]] ban on the union musicians still holds. They cannot play for broadcasting so the only record that has been made is a singing of "People Will Say We're in Love" with Frank Sinatra, which if it sounds anything like his radio singing of the same must be terrible."<ref name=Carter226/> [[Decca Records]] president [[Jack Kapp]] settled with the union in September 1943, and three weeks later he hastily booked the original cast and orchestra of ''Oklahoma!'' into a recording studio.<ref name=Maslon/>

At a time when Broadway numbers were typically recorded by popular singers with smaller bands, it was unique for ''Oklahoma!'' to record its original cast with full orchestration.<ref>O'Dell, Cary. [https://loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/OKLAHOMA!.pdf "''Oklahoma!'' Original cast recording 1943"], 2003, Library of Congress. Retrieved April 6, 2021</ref> Although some tunes were not included due to time and cost constraints, most of the songs from ''Oklahoma!'' were released on a record album by [[Decca Records]] in 1943 containing six 10-inch double-sided discs in 78 RPM format. It sold more than one million copies, prompting the label to call the cast back into the studio to record three additional selections that had been left out of the first set. These were issued as ''Oklahoma! Volume Two''. In 1949, Decca re-released the first set on LP but not the second set, which soon became a very rare collectors' item.  All subsequent LP releases were similarly incomplete. Finally in 2000, Decca Broadway went back to the original glass masters to generate a new high fidelity transfer of the complete song program and released it on CD, utilizing the original 78 album artwork.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deccabroadway.com/product/default.aspx?pid=56721&aid=96945 |title=''Oklahoma''  |publisher=Deccabroadway.com |date=May 16, 2000 |access-date=March 7, 2012}}</ref>

The success of the original ''Oklahoma!'' cast album set a precedent for the production of [[cast album|original cast recordings]] of Broadway musicals, which became an essential part of a musical's dissemination and endurance in popular culture.<ref>Stempel, p. 311</ref> Later cast recordings of ''Oklahoma!'' include the 1979 Broadway cast recording, the 1980 London cast recording, the 1998 Royal National Theatre cast recording, the 2019 Broadway cast recording, and a [[Oklahoma! (soundtrack)|soundtrack album]] of the [[Oklahoma! (film)|1955 film]]. There have also been more than 20 studio cast recordings of the show, featuring stars such as [[Nelson Eddy]], [[John Raitt]] and [[Florence Henderson]] in the leading roles.<ref>Fick, David. [http://musicalcyberspace.wordpress.com/musicals-l-o/oklahoma/4/ "''Oklahoma!'' Cast Recording Reviews"]. Musical Cyberspace, March 31, 2003, accessed September 26, 2010</ref>