As for the original(!) cast recording of West Side Story...
(And I think I may have told this story before, but...)
I still remember listening to the OCR - the record/LP/vinyl - of West Side Story over at a friend's house in high school. Both of his parents made pretty good money, and they had very nice house, and a very nice HiFi set-up. He put on West Side Story, and I still remember being able to hear - and see! - the Jets running upstage and downstage, left and right during "The Jet Song"... The Sharks on their side of the gym, the Jets on theirs during "Mambo"... And Maria singing up on her balcony, and Tony starting off in the street and the climbing up to join her... And the "Quintet" was practically dizzying!
I thought they had recorded the show in the theatre - complete with blocking. Of course, that was not the case. It really was Magic.