Janis Paige may have had an on-again-off-again relationship with the correct key, and there’s no denying that many better pure singers have played Babe in this show since, including such vocal luminaries as Doris Day, Judy Kaye and Kelli O’Hara. But Paige invented the mannerisms that have become indelibly associated with the role, such as those utterly distinctive hillbilly yodels on “There Once Was a Man” (the authors apparently didn’t even think of it as a hillbilly song until they heard her perform it), to the point where everyone who has played the role since is basically just doing an impression of her. And while some of those impressionists may have sung the music better than she did, no-one ever brought more personality or vitality to the role, and in spite of her tendency to go off-key, there are a lot of people who would rather hear her in the role than any of the more secure singers that followed her.
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