Murdoch Mysteries serve up three chords and the sleuth with the soundtrack to Why Is Everybody Singing? — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The first-ever musical episode of the CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries was a hit with just about everybody. Now everyone who was positively enchanted by Why Is Everybody Singing? can relive its meticulously orchestrated delights over and over again. The episode’s musical soundtrack — and then some — has been collected on a digital album.
The track list makes for a compulsively listenable, audio-only encore run through the episode’s clever plot, in which turn-of-the-century Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) gets shot in the head by a mysterious assailant and has to solve the crime while languishing in a coma. All he has to go on is the overheard musings of his worried colleagues — observations he’s now hearing entirely as show tunes.
The actors all sang their own songs, which were written for the episode by scripter Paul Aitken. The digital album includes all 14 numbers, plus a host of extras. There are eight tracks from composer/musical director Robert Carli’s original score, overlaid with character dialogue, a re-orchestrated version of the Murdoch Mysteries theme song, and more. It’s 40 minutes of joy that hits with the same impish charm poured into it by Jono Grant (who produced and arranged the songs) and Ron Proulx, producer of the soundtrack itself.
Bringing Why Is Everybody Singing? to the air was the culmination of a process, and nobody had tried the approach on Canadian TV until Murdoch Mysteries used it as the premise of the 22nd episode of its 17th season. While a gutsy move on paper, having the Murdoch characters repeatedly break out into song was a logical enough step in its own way for the show, which has built up a fervent worldwide audience with its inherently quirky approach to the mystery genre. Its concept and execution have made the program a favorite of viewers not just in its native Canada, but across the U.S., Australia the UK and Europe. Everywhere it’s shown, fans sit for multiple viewings of each adventure, even when they already know how it comes out.
Listen to the soundtrack below, check it our on your preferred streamer HERE, and watch the making-of documentary above.
