View source for Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign
| type       = Album
| artist     = [[Dory Previn]]
| cover      = Marycbrown.jpg
| alt        =
| released   = November 1972
| recorded   =
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = Singer-songwriter
| length     =
| label      = [[United Artists]]
| producer   = [[Nik Venet]]
| chronology = Dory Previn
| prev_title = [[Reflections in a Mud Puddle]]
| prev_year  = 1971
| next_title = [[Live at Carnegie Hall (Dory Previn album)|Live at Carnegie Hall]]
| next_year  = 1973
}}
'''''Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign''''' was the fourth solo [[vinyl record|LP]] by [[Dory Previn]], released in November 1972. This was a thematic album about Hollywood misfits.  The songs were intended for a musical revue that ran briefly in Los Angeles. It was planned to stage it on Broadway, but the previews were poor and the show was cancelled before it opened.
== Reception ==
{{Album reviews
|rev1 = [[Allmusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Donovan|first=Charles|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mary-c-brown-and-the-hollywood-sign-mw0000849595|title=Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign – Dory Previn|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|accessdate=April 22, 2020}}</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
|rev2Score = D<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: P|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=P&bk=70|accessdate=March 10, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>
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[[Robert Christgau]], writing in ''[[Creem]]'', panned the album, saying "Previn doesn't just belabor a cliche, she flails it with barbed wire, and she never writes about a concrete situation when with extra words she can falsify it with abstraction."<ref>"Christgau's Consumer Guide, ''Creem'', April 1973, p.70</ref>
Charles Donovan, for ''[[AllMusic]]'', wrote: "Even when writing in cliché she impresses: "The Perfect Man" is her take on the tale of the golden man with feet of clay, and should by rights be toe-curling and unimaginative. Instead, it's an arresting piece with a pretty, counterpoint piano accompaniment. Only the grating honky-tonk arrangements elsewhere disappoint."
== Track listing ==
# "Mary C. Brown and The Hollywood Sign" (4'41)
# "The Holy Man On Malibu Bus Number Three" (4'45)
# "The Midget's Lament" (4'07)
# "When a Man Wants a Woman" (2'25)
# "Cully Surroga He's Almost Blind" (5'12)
# "Left Hand Lost" (4'56)
# "The Perfect Man" (3'11)
# "Starlet Starlet On The Screen Who Will Follow Norma Jean?" (2'36)
# "Don't Put Him Down" (3'55)
# "King Kong" (3'54)
# Medley (8'36)
## "Morning Star/Evening Star"
## "Jesus Was a Androgyne"
## "Anima/Animus"
== Personnel ==
* Laurindo Almeida – guitar
* David Cohen – guitar
* Bryan Garofalo – bass
* [[John Guerin]] – drums
* Peter Jameson – guitar
* Tom Keene – keyboards
* Michael Lang – keyboards
* [[Joe Osborn]] – bass
* [[Earl Palmer]] – drums
* Reinie Press – bass
* Dory Previn – vocals, guitar
* Peggy Sandvig –  keyboards
* [[Ron Tutt]] – drums
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Dory Previn}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1972 albums]]
[[Category:Dory Previn albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Nick Venet]]
[[Category:United Artists Records albums]]