To say that I’m excited about the “Mamma Mia” movie is a bit of an understatement. I am counting the days till it comes out! I think I’ve seen the show 3 (4?) times, including once in the great white north of “Oh Canada.” This is a movie I expect to see multiple times before the summer is over, so if it blows I’ll honestly be crushed.

The soundtrack for the movie came out today, the first really good sneak peak to the movie and how it might turn out. Based on the soundtrack I’d say it *should* be a good movie. Some quick thoughts as I’ve just listened to it (I got it off iTunes in the wee morning hours).

First, thank heavens Meryl Streep can sing. No she’s no Broadway diva, but she can carry a tune. Given her part of Donna is the lead, that’s a good thing as Martha might say.

Christine Baranski absolutely rocks on “Does Your Mother Know” and as usual, I expect her to be a scene stealer in this movie.

Amanda Seyfried plays the daughter Sophie. Well she’s really good on “Gimme Gimme Gimme.” On some of her other songs she sounds like . . . I’m going to just say it. She sounds like Alvin’s girlfriend from “Alvin and the Chipmunks” (remember they had a rival band “The Chipettes” or whatever). Way overdone on the vibrato.

My favorite Abba song of all time is S.O.S. Unfortunately in every Broadway performance I’ve seen it always falls flat, usually thanks to the person playing Sam. Peirce Brosnan may be a sexy mofo, but like everyone else he just falls flat when it comes to this song. I’m an S.O.S snob, I just don’t like it as a duet I think. Based on the soundtrack, I wish Collin Firth had played Sam. Pierce obviously has more star power though.

My actual favorite number of the show “Under Attack” was dropped. Also dropped was “I Do I Do I Do,” a very early Abba song, but not one of their bigger hits. “One of Us” and “Chiquitita” are also gone, which are shocking as these were big hits. Obviously they had to trim, not sure how well this will go over. They have added in the lesser known Abba song “When All Is Said And Done.” This is one of the “Abba Break-Up Songs,” written about the two couples real life break-ups. It was their last chart topper in the U.S. Oddly enough the best known break-up song “Knowing Me Knowing You” was also dropped from the movie. What the hell! The only reason I can see they dropped it was because this was the one song Sam (Pierce’s character) did as a solo. The added “When All Is Said And Done” is a duet for Donna and Sam. On this song Pierce does sound okay though. I’m thinking a lot of Sam’s songs were dropped because of singing talent factors (“I Do” was another Sam-strong song.)

Disappointingly “Waterloo” is not on the soundtrack. This was featured as an encore in the show, as it isn’t the easiest thing to fit into the story based on the subject. Who knows what they’ll do for the movie. Perhaps it will roll as the credits do? I don’t know, but it was Abba’s first hit song which launched them to stardom and should really be there. Abba-fanatics will not like this missing.

All in all, a good soundtrack. The missing songs are a disappointment, hopefully the movie won’t be. “Lay All Your Love On Me” should be one hell of a number based on the soundtrack. It was always one of the big numbers in the show too.

A final note, according to Wikipedia, “Chiquitita,” “I Do I Do I Do” and “Waterloo” are in the movie. “Thank You For The Music” will run over the credits and not be in the movie. It was in the show as an actual number. “Name of the Game” supposedly was a last minute cut from the film, though it does appear on the soundtrack and will be a DVD extra.