Recent Musical Theater Songs that Could Become Standards- Page 2

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 12:59am

"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.

Updated On: 9/30/15 at 12:59 AM

[gleek4114]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 1:37am

I'd say Gimme, Gimme could be a big one (it's way overdone at auditions).

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 5:15am

Of recent shows, Falling Slowly is creeping in there.

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 9:26am

candidates for future standard:

Falling Slowly

Let it Go

Defying gravity, especially the acoustic version

 

Most recent bway song that is now a standard(i think a standard needs about 30 years to

marinate to standard status):

 

I Dreamed a Dream-think Susan Boyle and 60 million youtube views cinched that one....

 

 

[dissimilate]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 10:00am

Agree with "Falling Slowly" – I’ve heard it covered everywhere. Jazz bar bands, studio recordings, weddings, etc. Same for “And I am telling you…” 

 

I think the problem with trying to decide if songs become standards/hits is 1. they have to have meaning outside the show, 2. they have to stick to popular music structure, i.e. some sort of clear chorus-verse distinction. Because then you can have easy excerpts of it, which means earworms are easier to come by.

 

So if we use that criteria, I might even put in a word for “Dear Theodosia”, which strongly reminds me of “Hey There Delilah” for some reason...

 

Now, if we’re talking about standards as in musical theater standards, or audition standards, then that’s something very different. We’d have the above-mentioned “Gimme Gimme”, SR!’s “Right Hand Man” (which imo isn’t easy to sing!), “Astonishing” (which Sutton Foster said was the hardest song she’d ever done), “Telephone Wire”, and more. For kids’ audition songs, “Ring of Keys”, perhaps Matilda’s “Quiet”?

Updated On: 9/30/15 at 10:00 AM

[Fantod]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 10:35am

Falling Slowly was from the movie, not the musical.

[ggersten]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 11:17am

Fantod said: "Falling Slowly was from the movie, not the musical.  

And also won the Oscar for Best Song.  

"

 

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 11:41am

Obviously Falling Slowly and Let it Go were launched in film musicals first

the poster did not specify stage or screen musicals, only "recent musicals"

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 9/30/15 at 11:47am

^ Unless you count the thread title. 

[romain2]

Posted: 10/1/15 at 12:15pm

I Miss the Mountains from Next to Normal deserves to become a standard.  Great song.

 

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 1:41am

someoneinatree2

you got me there.....

I guess I also believe the creative line between movie musicals and live musical theatre productions is so blurred it doesn't really matter 
( or at least thats my story and im sticking to it)

:)

.

 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/2/15 at 2:32am

they have to stick to popular music structure, i.e. some sort of clear chorus-verse distinction. Because then you can have easy excerpts of it, which means earworms are easier to come by.

 

"Soliloquy" from Carousel is certainly an unusually structured song that many male vocalists like to sing or record.

"Bali Ha'i" has an amazing structure. Of course, while everyone knows the song, not many record it.

I could come up with a lot of exceptions, but that would not mean that your rule is not generally correct.

Updated On: 11/11/15 at 02:32 AM

[woeisme3]

Posted: 11/10/15 at 11:05pm

Seasons of Love is probably the last song I can think of that you can sing in front of the person who cares the least about theatre and have them recognize it quickly.

[KCW]

Posted: 11/11/15 at 7:22am

I am suprised nobody mentioned I belive from BOM. That seems like it is already starting to be one.

[funhamilton_rent]

Posted: 11/11/15 at 4:51pm

A lot of these songs are just random ones from the middle of shows that aren't even popular within this community. Here are mine:

My Shot - Hamilton

Ring of Keys - Fun Home

Falling Slowly - Once

Santa Fe - Newsies

Naughty - Matilda

I Believe - The Book of Mormon

Superboy & The Invisible Girl - Next to Normal

 

 

[ajh]

Posted: 11/11/15 at 10:00pm

Safer from FIRST DATE

and

She Used To Be Mine from upcoming WAITRESS

 

I love a feel bad ballad

[BobBenson]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 4:49am

"Another Life" from THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/15/15 at 5:11am

Someone in a Tree2 said: "

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.

 

 

"I do think it depends on the definition of standard here.  SPeaking of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Boyzone's pop version of No Matter What from Whistle Down the Wind in the very late 90s was absolutely unavoidable in like every Western country except the USA (and I think it had a tiny bit of adult contemporary chart action there,) and would still be recognizable to a lot of people due to that.  A massive worldwide hit--but the original poster asked about songs that multiple people have covered, etc--and that isn't the case there.  ALW also had a lot of radio impact with other pop covers like the pop version of Love CHanges Everything and, surprisingly, I Believe My Heart from Woman in White but those would be exclusively UK things. 

Chess' I Know Him So Well has been mentioned and is another song that didn't make much of an impact in the US--certainly less than One Night in Bangkok, but elsewhere, especially the UK and Australia it positively has become a standard and has been covered countless times.

If we mean standards by jazz artists and the like that's a very different matter--and some Sondheim songs aside from Send in the Clowns (like Not a Day Goes By) would probably count there. 

I'm late to this thread, and I *love* Fun Home but have no idea why several people listed it here.  I see songs like Ring of Keys and Telephone Wire, etc, becoming standards only in the context of Broadway style cabarets (where I suspect they absolutely will.)