Wicked (musical album)

Wicked is a cast recording containing the majority of the songs from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Wicked, with music and lyrics by composer Stephen Schwartz and a book by writer Winnie Holzman. Released on December 16, 2003 by Decca Broadway both in physical and digital releases. The former contains a foreword and a short synopsis, provided by Gregory Maguire, who wrote the 1995 novel on which the musical is based, in addition to lyrics to those songs included.

Composer and lyricist of Wicked, Stephen Schwartz, produced the album aided by Frank Filipetti, Jill Dell'Abate, Jason Spears, Justin Shturtz, Jason Stasium and Ted Jensen. The original cast album of Wicked was recorded on November 10, 2003, with the full cast and orchestra, at then-Right Track Studios and mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City.

The cast recording has received positive reviews and has received substantial commercial success. It received the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005 and although initially peaking at number 125 on the Billboard 200 in 2003, has since reached the new peak of 66 in 2013. The album was certified platinum on November 30, 2006 by the RIAA, but has since been certified double platinum, four years later, on November 8, 2010. It has sold 2,670,000 copies in the U.S. as of January 2017.

German language recording
In 2007, the original Stuttgart cast rerecorded the Wicked album in German, ahead of the opening of the German production in Stuttgart that year. The title of this album was Wicked Das Musical - Die Hexen von Oz. The German lyrics are by Michael Kunze and German dialogue by Ruth Deny, conducted by Sebastian de Domenico. The orchestral music conducted by Stephen Oremus and has identical musician credits—presumably the cast simply sung to the original orchestral recording.

Personnel
Cast
 * Willemijn Verkaik – Elphaba
 * Lucy Scherer – Galinda, later Glinda
 * Mark Seibert – Fiyero
 * Carlo Lauber – Der Zauberer von Oz
 * Angelika Wedekind – Madame Akaber
 * Nicole Radeschnig – Nessarose
 * Stefan Stara – Moq
 * Michael Günther – Dr. Dillamonth

Alternates
 * Sabrina Weckerlin – Elphaba
 * Jana Stelley – Glinda

Ensemble vocals
 * Cosimo de Bartolomeo
 * Paul Boereboom
 * Alan Byland
 * Heather Carino
 * Alessandro Cococcia
 * Ben Cox
 * Matthias Dressel
 * Belinda Jean Edwards
 * Marco Fahrland
 * Rhys George
 * Maria Graciano
 * Sam Hale
 * Kisha Howard
 * Emma Hunter
 * Michael Kargus
 * Jessica Lantto
 * Jimmy Laremore
 * Valerie Link
 * Artur Molin
 * Jens Simon Petersen
 * Stefan Poslovski
 * Rey Rodriguez
 * Barbara Schmid
 * Lanie Sumalinog
 * Maike Switzer
 * Francesca Taverni
 * Roberta Valentini

Fifth anniversary special edition
A fifth anniversary special edition of the original Broadway cast recording was released on October 28, 2008, with a bonus CD including tracks "Dancing Through Life", "Popular", "As Long As You're Mine" and "No Good Deed" from the Japanese and German cast recordings of Wicked, "I'm Not That Girl" by Kerry Ellis, "Making Good" – a song that never made the final show – by Stephanie J. Block, Menzel's dance mix of "Defying Gravity" and "For Good" sung by LeAnn Rimes and Delta Goodrem.

Deluxe edition
The set of two CDs included new deluxe packaging featuring the show's tenth anniversary artwork, and a booklet with new essays by composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, and Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the novel on which the musical is based. The set was released digitally on October 29, 2013 and arrived in stores soon after on November 19th.

OST vinyl
The first ever vinyl of the musical was released on two LP records on September 9, 2016. It was a limited release and contained the 19-song track listing of the original Broadway cast recording.

15th anniversary special edition
The album was re-released on February 8, 2019, with four bonus tracks. These tracks were taken from live performances on the show A Very Wicked Halloween: Celebrating 15 Years On Broadway, which was broadcast by NBC on October 29, 2018.

This edition was released on CD, digitally, and on a Limited Exclusive Split Color Vinyl in green and black.

20th anniversary edition vinyl
A limited-edition vinyl of the original Broadway cast recording will be released for Record Store Day 2024, on April 20th. It will come on two LP records in 20th Anniversary Edition "Wicked Green", uniquely different on each vinyl, and will ship on May 31, 2024 for anyone who preorders.

The vinyl will contain the original 19-song track listing.

Singles
In 2007, Idina Menzel re-recorded "Defying Gravity" as a solo version and released it as a single.

Julia Murney recorded "I'm Not That Girl" for her album, I'm Not Waiting (2006). She recorded this particular song because she deemed it one song of the entire musical "that had nothing to do with flying or wizards".

Kerry Ellis recorded rock versions of the songs "Defying Gravity" and "I'm Not That Girl" for her 2008 album Wicked in Rock, produced by Queen's guitarist, Brian May.

In 2012, Mika recorded a dance-pop version of "Popular Song", featuring Priscilla Renea, for his album The Origin of Love. He then recorded the same mix of the song with Ariana Grande, which was put out as a single and later, in 2013, on Grande's Yours Truly album.