Album Review

*** 1/2, VARIOUS ARTISTS, “The Envelope Please . . .

Academy Award Winning Songs (1934-1993)”

Rhino And the winner is . . . Rhino, for having managed to put together a five-CD box that includes all 60 Oscar winners for best original song since the category was instituted. There’s probably a horror movie just in the licensing negotiations.

The bad news is that the archival imprint couldn’t obtain all the original or most famous recordings, so some understudies do fill in. You’ll appreciate Madonna’s missing reading of Sondheim’s “Sooner or Later” more after hearing cabaret singer Karen Akers’ unseductive run-through here. Bruce Springsteen’s people put a roadblock across his “Streets of Philadelphia,” so Richie Havens weighs in with a more emotional but less effective version. And a few original-soundtrack stalwarts like Sinatra and Streisand are MIA.

That said, it’s astonishing what Rhino has curated for the compleatist cineaste. The first couple of volumes are the most fun, with standards-to-be--”White Christmas,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “Over the Rainbow”--alongside strong song ‘n’ hoof numbers that missed perennial status.

Over time, the brilliant contributions of Irving Berlin, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn gave way to treacly adult-contemporists like Lionel Richie and Carly Simon, making the last couple of discs a veritable KOST-FM marathon.

Even if you have no plans to ever willingly suffer “Say You, Say Me” again, the set’s booklet is a keeper, nearly worth the price of admission for its annotation, trivia and sharp liner notes.