I think you misunderstood the point I was making. The orchestra backing the singers during the movie sounds different from the commercially released film soundtrack album, at least to my ears. The orchestra on the soundtrack LP sounds like 100 pieces large, and while looking at the actual film, it sounds like about 10 pieces. "Put "Em Back" to me was especially shocking to compare.
DRMattH, I probably did! It's been my experience that usually a "soundtrack" recording is the actual track of the film, and that it's usually a new orchestration for the film version. I never owned the LI'L ABNER soundtrack so I've never compared the sound of the videocassette with the LP.
Last week, when I watched the Julie Andrews CINDERELLA on DVD, because the LP recording was done a week earlier, the mixes are different, and often the vocal assignments were changed. I remember thinking as I watched the DVD, I didn't know that part of the Gavotte had dialogue over it.
In Kurt Ganzl's book of musical theatre on record, he comments that the OKLAHOMA! film orchestrations are by Russell Bennett but they don't sound like the originals. Ive seen the scores; it's a whole new megillah.