Great Songs in Weak Scores

[melissa errico fan]

Great Songs in Weak Scores#0

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:27pm

I remember a while back that there was a thread about weak songs in great scores. I don't think that there has ever been one for great songs from weak scores. So, here we go.

I don't really like Bob Merrill's NEW GIRL IN TOWN, but the song "On the Farm" is an amazingly bittersweet, acid-tongued and comic mini-masterpiece.

What songs do you really like that are from shows that just aren't very good?

[MyDreamsRecurring]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#1

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:28pm

I don't really like the score of the Fantastiks
except for the song Try to Remember

"No two shows are alike in the making. Each show is a living piece of your life in a small unreal world with its own character and integrity; its own new set of memorable experiences and incredible happenings. You begin to love and adapt to its strangeness. Dreams harden into substance. Values come into focus. You wish it would never end. The dream world vanishes like mist before a rising sun; part of you vanishes with it. And back you land in the real world with a thud- fogged, uneasy, jittery, difficult to get along with. There is only one cure. A new show. A new, small unreal world; new visions, experiences, incredible happenings. Again you love it, adapt to it, wish it would never end. But end it does. Another part of you vanishes. That's show business."-Anonymous

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#2

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:31pm

"Memory" from Cats

[Mattio98]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#3

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:32pm

I've never been a huge fan of the Fiddler score but I think that "Far From The Home I Love" is great.

[MusicalDirector109]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#4

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:33pm

I love "Sweet Thursday" from "Pipe Dream"

[romanov]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#5

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:38pm

"The Music Went Out Of My Life" Legs Diamond (Probably due to Julie Wilson)

"Twenty Happy Years" Bring Back Birdie

[MyDreamsRecurring]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#6

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:44pm

I agree with the Memory from Cats comment
I also think Rose's Turn in Gypsy as well

"No two shows are alike in the making. Each show is a living piece of your life in a small unreal world with its own character and integrity; its own new set of memorable experiences and incredible happenings. You begin to love and adapt to its strangeness. Dreams harden into substance. Values come into focus. You wish it would never end. The dream world vanishes like mist before a rising sun; part of you vanishes with it. And back you land in the real world with a thud- fogged, uneasy, jittery, difficult to get along with. There is only one cure. A new show. A new, small unreal world; new visions, experiences, incredible happenings. Again you love it, adapt to it, wish it would never end. But end it does. Another part of you vanishes. That's show business."-Anonymous

[melissa errico fan]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#7

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:47pm

Also, not crazy about SPAMALOT, but love "Diva's Lament".

[green_duck]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#8

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:50pm

'Memory' from Cats easily

because when it's theatre, nothing else matters

[Thesbijean]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#9

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:57pm

"I also think Rose's Turn in Gypsy as well"

The GYPSY score is not a weak score at all...come on...

[jonartdesigns]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#10

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:57pm

i'm all alone from spamelot
the impossible dream from man of la mancha

"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel

[CastAlbumFan]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#11

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:58pm

"But Alive" from APPLAUSE
"Artificial Flowers" from TENDERLOIN
"West End Avenue" and "Lion Tamer" from THE MAGIC SHOW
"A Certain Girl" from THE HAPPY TIME
"Step to the Rear" from HOW NOW, DOW JONES
"Be a Santa" from SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING

Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!

[Rathnait62]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#12

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:58pm

"No More" - GOODBYE GIRL

Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson

[melissa errico fan]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#13

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:01pm

The only one song that I really liked from THE GOODBYE GIRL is "How Can I Win?"

[CastAlbumFan]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#14

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:02pm

Let's see, GYPSY has "You've Gotta Get a Gimmick", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "Let Me Entertain You", "You'll Never Get Away from Me", "Rose's Turn", "Little Lamb", "Small World"...yup that sounds like a weak score to me! ::Rolls eyes at the lack of appreciation of classic musicals::

Praying Decca Broadway will put "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" on CD!

Updated On: 5/22/05 at 02:02 PM

[magruder]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#15

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:05pm

"Here I Am" from HENRY, SWEET HENRY.

"Gif me the cobra jool!"

[MyDreamsRecurring]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#16

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:30pm

"Let's see, GYPSY has "You've Gotta Get a Gimmick", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "Let Me Entertain You", "You'll Never Get Away from Me", "Rose's Turn", "Little Lamb", "Small World"...yup that sounds like a weak score to me! ::Rolls eyes at the lack of appreciation of classic musicals:: "

sorry..i just really don't like it..
i like most of sondheim's stuff, company especially, this music is just weak to me..there are better classic musicals..

"No two shows are alike in the making. Each show is a living piece of your life in a small unreal world with its own character and integrity; its own new set of memorable experiences and incredible happenings. You begin to love and adapt to its strangeness. Dreams harden into substance. Values come into focus. You wish it would never end. The dream world vanishes like mist before a rising sun; part of you vanishes with it. And back you land in the real world with a thud- fogged, uneasy, jittery, difficult to get along with. There is only one cure. A new show. A new, small unreal world; new visions, experiences, incredible happenings. Again you love it, adapt to it, wish it would never end. But end it does. Another part of you vanishes. That's show business."-Anonymous

Updated On: 5/22/05 at 02:30 PM

[Demitri2]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#17

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:30pm

YIKES!..."Roses' Turn" from "Gypsy"!?!? Now if you asked the reverse, "Name an incredible score with a clunker?", I might come up with "Little Lamb" but geez, that score is a Broadway classic. I really liked your choices CASTALBUMFAN. For me I'd add:

MY GENTLE YOUNG JOHNNY from Tenderloin
ONCE IN A LIFETIME from Subways
WALK AWAY from How Now...
then-

RIGHT TIME,RIGHT PLACE from Ambassador
STEADY STEADY from Bravo Giovani
QUIET THING & SING HAPPY from Flora the Red Menace
BLISSFUL XMAS medley from Gone With the Wind
GEE BUT IT'S GOOD TO BE HERE from Happy Hunting
CAN IT BE POSSIBLE from I Had a Ball
TALL HOPE from Wildcat
A LOUSY LIFE from Sherlock Holmes (NOT the revival)
ONE IN A MILLION and I ONLY WANNA LAUGH from JIMMY
I WOULDN'T BET A PENNY from Donnybrook
YOU'RE SO RIGHT FOR ME from Oh Captain!


Updated On: 5/22/05 at 02:30 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#18

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:35pm

Gimmie Gimmie, Forget About the Boy, and Thoroughly Modern Millie from TMM (I LOVE the show but the score is extremley weak)

[MyDreamsRecurring]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#19

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:42pm

"YIKES!..."Roses' Turn" from "Gypsy"!?!?"

think i just explained myself
*goes back to check* yep..just did

"No two shows are alike in the making. Each show is a living piece of your life in a small unreal world with its own character and integrity; its own new set of memorable experiences and incredible happenings. You begin to love and adapt to its strangeness. Dreams harden into substance. Values come into focus. You wish it would never end. The dream world vanishes like mist before a rising sun; part of you vanishes with it. And back you land in the real world with a thud- fogged, uneasy, jittery, difficult to get along with. There is only one cure. A new show. A new, small unreal world; new visions, experiences, incredible happenings. Again you love it, adapt to it, wish it would never end. But end it does. Another part of you vanishes. That's show business."-Anonymous

[romanov]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#20

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:42pm

I have got to rise to the defense of Gypsy. It ranks in the top five greatest scores of all time and is the greatest, and last, of the Golden Age of musicals.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#21

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:46pm

"sorry..i just really don't like it..
i like most of sondheim's stuff, company especially, this music is just weak to me..there are better classic musicals.. "

Sondheim didn't write the music for Gypsy, just the lyrics.

Anyway, I'm having trouble coming up with something, so I'll get back to this.

[Bwaybaby109]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#22

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:48pm

Some may not agree but I personally love the song "Astonishing" from Little Women, even though the score is pretty weak.

"Have a child for warmth and a baker for bread and a prince for... whatever!"

[GirlforTartaglia]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#23

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:50pm

Bwaybaby, I 100% agree with you...I was just about to post that song myself :)

And the other thing about the Phantom Lady was, Bert, she realized, in the city that never sleeps... What did she realize, Kitten? That all the songs she'd listened to, all the love songs, that they were only songs. What's wrong with that? Nothing, if you don't believe in them. But she did, you see. She believed in enchanted evenings, and she believed that a small cloud passed overhead and cried down on a flower bed, and she even believed there was breakfast to be had... Where? On Pluto. The mysterious, icy wastes of Pluto.

[magruder]

re: Great Songs in Weak Scores#24

Posted: 5/22/05 at 2:50pm

Am I the only person who loves the score for How Now, Dow Jones?

"Gif me the cobra jool!"