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#1

Really Fast Songs

Name either of these:

1) The songs that start out slow at first, and then as the song progresses ever-so-increasingly builds up to a frenetically FRANTIC speed.
2) Songs that are SO fast you wouldn't even believe it.
3) Any patter song that can be repeated twice as fast.
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
#2

re: Really Fast Songs

Well, the obvious one is MODERN MAJOR GENERAL.

But I suppose G&S has a ton anyway.
#3

re: Really Fast Songs

"Song of Love" (aka "I'm in Love with a Girl Named Fred") from Once Upon a Matress. The tempo builds and builds as the verses pile up.
On the road of life, do not pause for suicidal chipmunks who freeze in your headlights, seeking death by your tires...
#4

re: Really Fast Songs

The Museum Song from BARNUM

maybe Our Favorite Son from THE WILL RODGERS FOLLIES?
#5

re: Really Fast Songs

"Both Sides of the Coin" from The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
"Nothing's lost forever. In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead."
#6

re: Really Fast Songs

Pixies' "Crackity Jones"
Deerhoofs' "Chatterboxes"
tomandandy's remix of "Holiday Road" from National Lampoon's Vacation
#7

re: Really Fast Songs

"I've Been Everywhere"
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#8

re: Really Fast Songs

Has anyone ever heard "Modern Major General" being sung at LUDICROUS SPEED?
"What's the matter, Major-General Stanley, CHICKEN?!"

I heard it once, and I'm like WHOA.
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
#9

re: Really Fast Songs

Wait I got another one...
Does anyone remember "BEEP BEEP" by the Playmates?
A really old song from the '50s...
The tempo speeds up with every verse. As soon as the race heats up to 120, the song gets absolutely RIDICULOUSLY fast as we finally get to the punchline!
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid
#10

re: Really Fast Songs

Well...would "Therapy" from Tick, Tick...Boom fall into any catagory?
Shari Lewis: Did you ever wish upon a star? Lamb Chop: I once asked Mr. Rogers for his autograph.
#11

re: Really Fast Songs

"Getting Married Today" from Company
Poster Emeritus
#13

re: Really Fast Songs

"We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel

"It's the End of the World as we Know It" by R.E.M.

There are lots of Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs other than "Modern Major General". There is a patter song in the '80's version of Pirates of Penzance called "My Eyes are Fully Open" that I think was originally from Ruddigore. It contains the priceless phrase "this incredibly rapid unintelligable patter isn't generally heard and if it is it doesn't matter!" This tune is also the basis of "Speed Test" in Thoroughly Modern Millie.


"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering." --Harold Hill from The Music Man

Updated On: 4/8/06 at 10:31 PM

#14

re: Really Fast Songs

"Your Fault" from Into the Woods.
#16

re: Really Fast Songs

Well, "The Rumble" from West Side Story could really fit into either of the first 2. It's never actually slow, but between "keep out of this" and Riff's death, it starts from a little fast to extremely extremely fast and then just stays at the same fast pace, like it was in the beginning.

"Luck Be A Lady" from an instrumentalist's perspective is extremely fast.

Eh, but I really think the best example of this is Forbidden Broadway's "Into The Words" re: Really Fast Songs
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#18

re: Really Fast Songs

There's the aptly titled "Fast" from Zanna, Don't!
#19

re: Really Fast Songs

"I Don't Want To Know" builds to speed, and "One Week" BNL, is just NUTS!
"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." -- Author Unknown
#20

re: Really Fast Songs

"9 mm And A Three Piece Suit" - Catch 22

I think that under the right circumstances, this song could give someone a heart attack.
"A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing." - Thomas Jefferson
#21

re: Really Fast Songs

A Section of "Color and Light".
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
#22

re: Really Fast Songs

The first one I thought of was The Museum Song from Barnum.

What about All For The Best from Godspell?
Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.
#23

re: Really Fast Songs

The finale from HAIRSPRAY is damn fast on OCR.
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>> “I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>> -whatever2
#24

re: Really Fast Songs

That "funk soul brother" song...name and artist not coming to me.

And the "chicken cherry cola" song from Savage Garden.
"It's not always about you!!!" (But if you think I'm referring to you anyway, then I probably am.)

"Good luck returning my ass!" - Wilhemina Slater

"This is my breakfast, lunch and f***ing dinner right here. I'm not even f***in' joking." - Colin Farrell
#25

re: Really Fast Songs

The name of the songs you're looking for are "Rockafella Skank" by Fatboy Slim, and "I Want You" by Savage Garden.

"Anytime I need to see your face
I just close my eyes
And I am taken to a place where your crystal mind and
Magenta feelings take up shelter in the base of my spine
Sweet like a chic-a-cherry cola

I don't need to try to explain;
I just hold on tight
And If it happens again, I might move so slightly
To the arms and the lips and the face of the human cannonball
That I need to, I want to"
"How could she just suddenly, completely disappear into thin water?" - The Little Mermaid

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