Academy Award Performance: And the Envelope, Please

Academy Award Performance: And the Envelope, Please is Maureen McGovern's third studio album, released in 1975. It was her last album for 20th Century Records.

Background

Primarily a cover album, this album is completely devoted to Oscar-winning movie themes from the 1930s to 1974; it capitalizes the fact that it took McGovern only one year to introduce a second Oscar-winning song. The fourth track is a medley of "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Over the Rainbow". The album begins with just 34 seconds of the song "Thanks for the Memory" then fades into the next song. "Thanks for the Memory" is also the last track on the album and continues where it left off but fades immediately after the next verse.

Release

There were two singles to come from this album: "We May Never Love Like This Again" and "The Continental". Also during this year, McGovern recorded an entire album's worth of material for what would have been her fourth album on 20th Century Records. Only two singles from the project were released - "Even Better Than I Know Myself" and "Love Songs Are Getting Harder To Sing" - but due to poor reception of these singles on the pop chart, a full album was never released and remains in the vaults at Universal

Personnel

Perry Botkin, Jr. - special effects
Tom Hensley, Mike Lang, Pete Jolly - piano
Lee Ritenour, David Cohen, Neil Levang - guitar
Max Bennett, Reinie Press, Steve LaFever - bass
Joe Correro, Sol Gubin - drums
Gene Estes - percussion
Iz Baker, Paul Shure, Jerry Vinci, Sid Sharp, Tibor Zelig, Henry Ferber, Assa Drori, Jimmie Getzoff, Harry Bluestone, Erno Neufeld, Nate Ross - violin
Dave Schwartz, Allan Harshman, Gerry Nuttycombe, Sven Reher - viola
Ray Kramer, Fred Seykora, Armand Kaproff - cello
Johnny Rotella, Gene Cipriano, Ronnie Lang, Bud Shank, Bill Green - woodwind
Gayle Levant - harp
Bill Peterson, Bud Brisbois, Tony Terran, Cappy Lewis, Buddy Childers - trumpet
Charles Loper, Dick Nash - trombone

;Technical

Musical contractor: Charles H. Stern
Engineers: Stan Ross, Joe B. Mauldin
Design: Queens Graphics
Photography: Sunny K. Kohn