Best Music Movies of 1962

In this animated musical version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", Ebenezer Scrooge - via Mr. Magoo's starring performance in a stage production of the classic - doesn't have a ghost of a chance unless he learns the true meaning of Christmas from the three spirits who haunt him one Christmas Eve.

Maria Callas’ legendary live performances from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1962 and 1964 celebrate her triumphant return to the Covent Garden stage. Repertoire from these performances include Verdi: Tu che le vanità (Don Carlo), Bizet: Habanera & Séguedille (Carmen) and Puccini: Tosca (Act II complete). Her vivid portrayals of the tragic Elisabeth de Valois, the tantalising Carmen, and her vulnerable Tosca (directed by Franco Zeffirelli) captured the hearts of the London audiences. This is Maria Callas as the world remembers her. Renato Cioni, Tito Gobbi, Robert Bowman, Dennis Wicks Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden- Conducted by Georges Prêtre & Carlo Felice Cillario.

Over the course of one eventful evening, the anniversary celebration of the musical and romantic partners Aurelius Rex and Delia Lane, a jealous, ambitious drummer, Johnny Cousin, attempts to tear the interracial couple apart.

Mama Rose lives to see her daughter June succeed on Broadway by way of vaudeville. When June marries and leaves, Rose turns her hope and attention to her elder, less obviously talented, daughter Louise. However, having her headlining as a stripper at Minsky's Burlesque is not what she initially has in mind.

Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall is an American musical comedy television showcase starring Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, broadcast on CBS on June 11, 1962. The special was produced by Bob Banner and directed by Joe Hamilton. Banner came up with the idea in the Fall of 1961. Burnett was then a regular on The Garry Moore Show and Andrews had appeared as a guest twice, performing the song "Big D" from the musical The Most Happy Fella in the first appearance; and in the show's 1961 Christmas special, she did a number with Burnett and fellow guest Gwen Verdon plus an early performance of "My Favorite Things" (three years before she performed it as Maria while filming The Sound of Music). Mike Nichols wrote the script and co-wrote the song "You're So London" with Ken Welch. Writing began in February 1962 and the stars rehearsed for two weeks before the March 5 taping

Mewsette is a starry-eyed cat who grows weary of life on a French farm and heads for the excitement of 1890s Paris. Her tomcat suitor, Jaune-Tom, and his furry cohort, Robespierre, chase after Mewsette, but she's already fallen under the spell of a feline modeling-school racket run by Madame Rubens-Chatte and her slimy assistant, Meowrice.

Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.

When the Kwimper family car runs out of fuel on a new Florida highway and an officious state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading. He and his son Toby and their 'adopted' children—Holly, Ariadne, and the twins—start their own little community along a strip of the roadside.

After completing his military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.

A partly dramatised account of the life of classical composer Sir Edward Elgar. An episode of the BBC arts series Monitor.

The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.

Texan farmers the Frake family head for the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The parents are focused on winning the competitions for livestock and cooking. However, their restless daughter Margy and her brother Wayne meet attractive new love interests.

A group of prisoners are encouraged to form a jazz band and vow to go straight when they are released to tour the country. However, the trumpets and clarinets are just a cover for a series of robberies. Musical comedy, starring British jazz star Acker Bilk as himself, alongside Jimmy Thompson and Jennifer Jayne.

Experimental short uses Ray Charles' “What'd I Say” as accompaniment to constantly shifting collage of female nude, cartoons, and newsreels of atomic bomb explosions.

When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor, Ross Carpenter, has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel.

Four teen-aged Teds are persuaded to form a rock group and undertake the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme to keep them out of trouble.

Supported avidly by his mother and more reluctantly at first by his father, a working-class Austrian boy joins the Vienna Choirboys, where he proves to be unusually talented.

A struggling singer and his band befriend an heiress who, against the wishes of her father, is searching for the lover who she has been forbidden to see and with whom she is hoping to elope.

Professor Ludwig von Drake plays a variety of popular music, all of which he wrote. First, ragtime: the Rutabaga Rag, with vegetables dancing in stop-motion. Next, the Charleston, with cut-out animation of a singer and dancers. Dixieland and more cut-out animation; the crooner/love ballad; 50's doo-wop; and finally, rockabilly.

The hero and heroine want to popularize a trad jazz in their town. Some older people feel displeased about a trad jazz, and prevent their trying. The hero and heroine go to London television studio to ask trad jazz musician to support their trial.

Lively scenes of Paris, all narrated by Maurice Chevalier, link together four dramatic ballet choreographies by Roland Petit: La Croqueuse de diamants (The Gold Digger), Cyrano de Bergerac, Deuil en 24 heures (A Merry Mourning), and Carmen.

In this musical, fairly light movie, two young people, Joey and Piper are in love. They embark on a cruise to Paris to get married, with the acerbic but kind Aggie as a chaperon. Along the way, their sweet innocent romance runs into trouble when Coco, a french dancer uses Joey to make her straying boyfriend jealous.

A TV executive tries to create a musical special to save his network.

A young rock & roll hopeful is given a shot at the big time by the unscrupulous owner of a small record company.

The 1959 concert finds Callas just 1 year before the loss of her voice and although her voice is not what it was in 1952 you can still hear the Vocal Miracle. The repertoire interchanges between heavy dramatic soprano (Lady Macbeth, Elisabetta), to soprano coloratura (Rosina) and to soprano dramatico d'agilita (Imogene in Pirata, Gulia). The maturity of the interpretation regarding the legatti, the phrasing is astounding and Callas dominates each aria singing them in the only possible way. "Tu che invoco" appears as a cataract of dramatic phrases in a fine classical style of this classical period opera, then Lady Macbeth appears diabolical & dark although she avoids keeping her voice in the high C, her Rosina is sparkling and facile in the coloratura as if it is a natural way of speaking and Elisabetta is where time stops: the drama in this aria holds a metaphysical aura. Finally her entire Mad Scene from Pirata shows all her talent as an actress and bel canto singer.

A musical special celebrating the fruitful collaboration of Broadway lyricist/librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. Stars from the current Broadway hit "Camelot" and from past triumphs such as "My Fair Lady," and the film "Gigi" perform the romantic, sophisticated songs of Lerner and Loewe.

The Bolshoi Ballet performs the Russian fairy tale of a Queen Maiden (Maya Plisetskaya), a stableboy (Vladimir Vasiliev) and a lucky horse (Alla Shcherbinina).

The Eurovision Song Contest 1962 was the 7th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. The contest was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), and was held at the Villa Louvigny on Sunday 18 March 1962. The host was the Luxembourgish speaker Mireille Delannoy.

Pakistan's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1963

One of Lawrence Jordan's earliest animated films, PINK SWINE is an energetic and playful mix of various animation styles. Described as "an anti-art dada collage film," this free-form short presents cut-out images animated across old photos (a style picked up by Terry Gilliam a few years later) and found objects that dance to the beat of the rock-and-roll soundtrack. He produced this short during a summer spent with Joseph Cornell and Jordan edited the film entirely in camera, making the upbeat visual rhythm of this delightful lark even more impressive. –Sean Axmaker

Originally a pilot for a series called "Gallaway House" that was never picked up. The patrons of a late-19th Century America theater flock to see the latest production, a Western tale of redemption. Johnny Laredo, a middle-aged gunfighter fleeing his many enemies by traveling at night, stops briefly at the campfire of Tim Dawson's team of cattle drivers for a cup of coffee and a bit of human companionship. Dawson offers Laredo a job, but Laredo is afraid to return to Wyoming where he killed a number of men. Stopping in a small Texas town for supplies before heading across the Mexican border, the gunfighter is forced to fight a inexperienced youngster trying to make a reputation and kills him. Even though he is acquitted, the gunfighter has had enough and returns to Dawson, accepts the job, and hopefully, the opportunity for redemption.

Desdemona in Verdi's Otello was a career role for soprano Renata Tebaldi, from her first operatic performance outside of Italy to her final appearance on the opera stage. Between those landmarks she performed the role nearly 100 times all over the world and made studio audio recordings that became reference recordings for the role. This 1962 production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Giuseppe Patane was planned as a media event from the outset and blessedly captures a consummate artist in a signature role at the peak of her gifts.

1962 charity concert by The Chairman of The Board, in London.

Stravinsky and Balanchine's take on the apocalyptic Biblical tale. An opera composed for video.

The 10,000th performance of Disneyland's venerable "Golden Horseshoe Revue," featuring special guest stars.

The legendary Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920 - 1995), playing at the height of his powers, performs Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor and other music by one of the instrument's most brilliant and idiomatic writers, in the famously rare 1962 RAI television recording, newly restored and remastered for this release. Michelangeli's fine control and perfect clarity - always present in his playing - have positioned him among the most outstanding recording artists of any generation. ""His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired...""

Opera version of the novella by Charles Dickens.

Mr. Hong, a talented music teacher, arrives at a betel nut producing village in southern Taiwan. He meets the beautiful Yue-Hsia and they fall in love. However, Yue-Hsia's father wants to marry her off to a rich businessman.

A Taiwanese opera (koa-á-hì) tiayupian by Lee Hsing