It's rare today to find "standards" in musicals. Most are either jukebox, or the songs would be out of place to sing randomly/out of context. There are a few songs in Fun Home. Other than that, eh.
What's the most recent song from a Broadway musical that became a "standard?" By "standard," I mean a song that's been recorded by multiple artists and received significant, widespread exposure and popularity.
What's the most recent song from a Broadway musical that became a "standard?"
Honestly, is it possible that it was "What I Did For Love" from A CHORUS LINE? Right before that, "Send in the Clowns" from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC...
There are a lot of fairly recent Broadway songs that, had they premiered 40 or 50 years ago, may have achieved "standard" status...the business just isn't the same.
MichelleCraig said: "What's the most recent song from a Broadway musical that became a "standard?"
Honestly, is it possible that it was "What I Did For Love" from A CHORUS LINE? Right before that, "Send in the Clowns" from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC...
There are a lot of fairly recent Broadway songs that, had they premiered 40 or 50 years ago, may have achieved "standard" status...the business just isn't the same.
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And I am Telling You......
not to mention songs from Beautiful, Moving Out, Nice Work (he writes with tongue in cheek)
newintown said: "What's the most recent song from a Broadway musical that became a "standard?" By "standard," I mean a song that's been recorded by multiple artists and received significant, widespread exposure and popularity.
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"Feeling Good", but of course that debuted on Broadway in 1965! It seems to have become a standard of late.
"What is the most recent Broadway song to become a standard?"
Likely "I Know Him So Well" and "One Night in Bangkok" from CHESS.
As far as songs that seemed destined to be standards from more recent shows than that, I would have guessed that both "When I look At You" from SCARLET PIMPERNEL and "I Am Not That Girl" from WICKED had the stuff. But they never seemed to get there. Which is odd because if these songs had been written for Disney movies instead of shows, wouldn't they likely have caught on?
More to the point, given that big songs from certain types of movies are now frequently written in the current conventional Broadway idiom, and the major success of GLEE, it is odd that more musical theatre songs are not making that leap.
If we're including movie musical songs, "Let It Go" has had more of a crossover impact than any theatrical song in decades.
Beyond that, I'd say "If You Were Gay" and "The Internet is For Porn," which not inspiring radio play and diverse covers, have become something of a standard on the Internet, well known to non-theatre people due to their memetic attachment to any characters in media with connections to gay-straight relations or pornography. I can't even count the number of times people on Reddit have not believed these two songs were from a show.
Probably the last true standard or mainstream showtune I can think of is "The Music of the Night." If anything, "Defying Gravity" and "Popular" have been popular with the tween girl crowd but that's it. Other than that, I would think that FUN HOME, HAMILTON, and ONCE have some potential standards in them.
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
Yeah, I'd certainly think I AM WHAT I AM qualifies as one of the last standards to come out of a Broadway show.
Before that, for better or worse, I'd say the last true standard to come out of a musical is MEMORY, God help us. I don't know if even the likes of ALL I ASK OF YOU could be considered a standard in most contexts. And if Lord Andrew can't flog a number sufficiently till it enters the subconscious of the mass public, what chance does Lin-Manuel Miranda or Bobby Lopez have of doing so?
So recent songs that could become future standards? I don't think there's a one. The world has changed and I don't think it will revert back in my lifetime.
"What's the most recent song from a Broadway musical that became a "standard?" By "standard," I mean a song that's been recorded by multiple artists and received significant, widespread exposure and popularity."
I'd say "This is the Moment" from Jekyll & Hyde... Over 2000 recorded versions of it, from David Hasselhoff to the Moody Blues to Sebastian Bach to Susan Boyle to Michael Ball to Donny Osmond to Jennifer Holliday to John Barrowman. Not to mention Anthony Warlow and Colm Wilkinson on various concept recordings. Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign song, sung at both GWBush inaugurations, Olympics, beauty pageants (lol), Superbowl, etc.
"She Used To Be Mine" from Waitress is getting quite a bit of traction, particularly following the release of Sara Bareilles' studio version on Friday. It certainly has the potential to be a breakout song.
I think its hard to look for any "standards" when there really aren't any being written across other genres at the moment. There are "hits" but not really standards.
No offense, but I don't think any of those would become standards. Fun Home is awesome, but none of those songs would really have much impact taken out of the story.
I'd say "Astonishing" from Little Women is one of the more recent songs I could see being performed at a concert/cabaret.
"Not a Day Goes By," coming from a short-run show, got off to a slow start but was not ignored (Sinatra recorded it, and also "Good Thing Going". Still, it did not qualify as a standard right away.
But I've heard so many new recordings of it in the last five to ten years that it is a certain standard.
One of the top ten all-time standard pop and jazz ballads, recorded by everyone, including Kristin Chenoweth in her latest, is "All the Things You Are". It was written by Kern/Hammerstein for Very Warm For May, another flop show that ran for two months.
Relevance? Stephen Sondheim saw the show during its short run at age nine and has said that it was an inspiration for his interest in the musical theater.