POP MUSIC: ROCK, COUNTRY, R&B;, RAP, LATIN, JAZZ : *1/2, VARIOUS ARTISTS, “The Songs of West Side Story”, RCA Victor

Call this a well-intentioned musical disaster.

There’s nothing wrong with the idea of a contemporary rendering of “West Side Story” by such artists as Natalie Cole, All-4-One, Phil Collins, Tevin Campbell, Selena, Trisha Yearwood and others--and a portion of the proceeds goes to charity. But too often what happens here is distortion and outright revision of the Bernstein/Sondheim score.

A few examples: “I Feel Pretty,” assigned in a surfeit of cuteness to Little Richard, falls flat when he ignores the song’s essential opening melody. . . . Kenny Loggins and Wynonna, singing “Tonight” in the same octave, lose the soaring vocal contrast that makes the song so effective as a love duet. . . . Aretha Franklin’s overheated “Somewhere” sacrifices the song’s meaning and melody on the altar of extravagant vocalisms.

The quality of most of the performances suggests that shaping the production to fit the performers’ narrowly focused abilities was the only way to create a salable product. Unfortunately, that solution doesn’t address the sad fact that this lineup of contemporary pop artists appears to lack the interpretive skills to deal creatively with the lyrically multileveled and musically complex material from one of the musical theater’s greatest scores.