Bali Ha'i - Juanita Hall 's own voice - South Pacific

Even though Juanita Hall sang in close to 900 performances of "South Pacific" on Broadway, according to vocal arranger Ken Darby her voice had taken on a much heavier tone by 1957 and she was having trouble sustaining high notes.

Music director Alfred Newman thought that it was unnecessary to dub her and asked Ken to work with Hall on smoothing out her voice to a level and vocal style that Richard Rodgers would approve.

By the time of the recording sessions she was singing better than she had in the original 1949 stage production, but even though she achieved a vocal quality closer to what Rodgers preferred, Rodgers was enamored with and always preferred Muriel Smith's voice (Smith played Bloody Mary in the London production). It was at his insistence that Hall's vocals were dubbed.

No prerecordings were ever made of Hall since by the time of the recording sessions it had already been decided that she would be dubbed. Hall was a good sport about it and was grateful to have the opportunity to preserve her Tony Award-winning performance as Bloody Mary in the film.

Ken Darby said that she was one of the nicest and hardest working performers with whom he was ever privileged to work.

Director Joshua Logan, in his book "Movie Stars, Real People, and Me" wrote:

"Juanita Hall had her own style of singing and it seemed a shame to miss its special quality in our picture. Still, they were the experts on music and, more than that, my bosses, so in spite of my misgivings, I was forced to say okay."

Here is Juanita's vocal from the original Broadway cast recording, synched to the film. This clip also includes a deleted scene, apparently due to its gay overtones.
.