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Michael Sammes made numberous recordings in the 1960s of highlights frommusicals and operettas. His G&S output includes several discs dedicatedto individual operas, plus a"Best of Gilbert and Sullivan" disc consisting, presumably of highlights fromall the others. The singers are not credited with specific roles, butpresumably Sammes sang either the Captain or Sir Joseph. Eric Wilson-Hydewas never a member of D'Oyly Carte, but he made a guest appearance asBob Becket, the Carpenter's Mate on the1960Pinafore, so presumably he sang Dick Deadeye here.Helen Landis was the contralto on all theGilbert and Sullivan For All recordings,so she certainly sang Buttercup here.

The selections are as follows:

The recording is not in my personal collection, but Andrew Tappinprovided the following observations:

Although "Carefully on tiptoe stealing" and "He is an Englishman" appear on a single track, the confrontation between the Captain & Ralph is omitted and the musical patch feels clumsy.In "A simple sailor," 'everything that isn't old' comes from 'Waring & Gillows' rather than 'Gillows' — a totally unnecessary piece of updating that cuts right across the metre.

As other correspondents have noted for other recordings in the series, the orchestration is somewhat idiosyncratic with a very prominent harp.The stereo sound felt over wide or unstable (I'm not quite sure which, but it induced the same kind of queasiness that I get from using headphones).

I'm not sure about the conjecture that Sammes sung the comedian roles for two reasons:

1. Somewhere or other I have a non-G&S recording in which he appears and in which the singers of each song are credited ("Songs from Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang!") and I recall his having a rather heavier voice than the Sir Joseph of this recording — this is, however, a recollection over many (>20) years.
2. Only one of Sir Joseph's songs is recorded while most of the Captain's music is present.