I didn't really purchase a lot of cast albums when I was a kid. I know I'd check out records from the library and tape them, and I'd get albums as gifts. The most exciting was when a pre-release pressing of A Chorus Line arrived. It's possible I purchased Annie, although it's somewhat more likely I purchased They're Playing Our Song, which I'd admired on its pre-Broadway try-out. It also might have been Sweeney Todd, a 2-record set. But, really, the bulk of my collection has always consisted of records I didn't purchase myself.
As someone who writes songs for musicals the mere idea of a Jukebox musical consisting of songs not written for musicals is an abomination to me. How would our dear elmore feel if musicals suddenly didn't hire orchestrators? The only Jukebox I didn't loathe with a passion that ate away at my very vitals was A Class Act. Those were songs I'd never heard before. Their author, Ed Kleban, had written all the songs for musicals, including one about the BMI workshop. He died, and it's not too much of a stretch to believe that A Class Act is an evolution of that BMI show (one could say the same of Tick Tick Boom).
If Broadway songwriters had a union, they'd probably strike over this.
