The 1943 cast album of "A Connecticut Yankee" was copied by Decca on lacquered glass discs. While certainly a fragile and tenuous way to preserve recordings, this was nevertheless a common practice during the Second World War, due to the unavailability of aluminum. Sometime in the 1960s, Decca wisely transferred the recording onto a 1/4 inch magnetic tape, but in the process regrettably destroyed the original glass records. With no demand for its use, the tape sat on a warehouse shelf gathering dust. When the Decca Record Company dissolved in 1973 (purchased by MCA Communications Group), many archived recordings were transferred to storage facilities across the country. It was at this time that the only known existing tape of "A Connecticut Yankee" was lost.
   Because the original masters were unavailable, the subsequent releases of this cast album on LP and CD could only be made from scratchy 40 and 50-year-old 78s. But as fate would have it, the lost tape happily turned up last spring. It had been languishing in the basement of a residence on Long Island for the past 27 years. Back home at Decca Broadway, "A Connecticut Yankee" recently received a thorough restoration, using the latest 24- bit digital technology.
   We are pleased to finally offer the cleanest, brightest and finest sounding original version of Rodgers & Hart's classic score in 57 years.