Hamilton's "Satisfied" the best unrequited Broadway love song ever?

On My Own

Satisfied is 10000 times better than On My own. The lyrics are much smarter.

I'm sorry. I like HAMILTON a lot, but there are about four other Rodgers and Hart songs (not to mention Johnny Mercer songs, Sondheim songs, hell, even "The Very Next Man" from FIORELLO!) that I'd place over "Satisfied" in terms of "best unrequited love songs ever."

jv92 said: "I'm sorry. I like HAMILTON a lot, but there are about four other Rodgers and Hart songs (not to mention Johnny Mercer songs, Sondheim songs, hell, even "The Very Next Man" from FIORELLO!) that I'd place over "Satisfied" in terms of "best unrequited love songs ever."

I had forgotten what a fantastic song "The Very Next Man" was until hearing it again at the Encores! discussion on race and gender at the Greene Space a few weeks ago.

Updated On: 12/29/15 at 05:26 PM

I had forgotten what a fantastic song "The Very Next Man" was until hearing it again at the Encores! discussion on race and gender at the Greene Space a few weeks ago.

"Waiting for ships that never come in, a girl is likely to miss the boat" is one of my favorite lyric lines ever.

In any event, it is indeed silly to rank things, but I just had to give Larry Hart, and the other writers I mentioned, some props.

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Aw, I like On My Own. I think there are different facets to unrequited love and simple and overwrought as it is, it captures one of those facets very accurately.

My favorite lyrics from the song: I’m a girl in a world in which
My only job is to marry rich
My father has no sons so I’m the one
Who has to social climb for one
So I’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in
New York City is insidious

Hamilton22 said: "My favorite lyrics from the song: I’m a girl in a world in which
My only job is to marry rich
My father has no sons so I’m the one
Who has to social climb for one
So I’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in
New York City is insidious

Ah, the part where she rhymes "one" with "one." Gotcha.

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I really, really love this song and I think this list from The New Yorker does an excellent job breaking the song down:

The jewel of Miranda’s jewel-heavy score, “Satisfied” may be the single best theatrical song written in the past decade. It’s hard to recall any recent show tune that packs in as much verbal wit, narrative surprise, stylistic alacrity, and revelation of character—and it belongs not to Hamilton, not to Burr, but to Angelica Schuyler, played by the incandescent Renée Elise Goldsberry. The song begins with Angelica’s wedding toast—Hamilton is marrying her sister, Eliza—and rewinds to the moment Alexander met them both, and Angelica made a snap decision that sealed her frustrated fate. Her motor-mouthed deconstruction of her own motives is mind-bending in complexity, and when we finally return to that wedding toast it’s heavy with irony. I’ve seen “Satisfied” three times onstage, listened to it maybe a hundred more, and still haven’t tired of its breathtaking nuance. It’s musical storytelling at its best.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-top-ten-showstoppers-of-2015

Updated On: 12/29/15 at 05:49 PM

"Satisfied" is a fine song. Other good songs about unrequited love: "Perfect Relationship" (BELLS ARE RINGING); "I Wonder How It Is to Dance with a Boy" (HENRY SWEET HENRY), the aforementioned "Very Next Man" and the grandmama of them all, "Losing My Mind." The last is the absolute best in that category IMHO.

There is a lot more going on in Satisfied than On My Own. I'm not saying that necessarily makes it better, but the song is much more layered than On My Own.

On My Own is simply about what it feels to like someone that doesn't like you back. In addition to that, Satisfied explores things like conflicts between loving two people (sister/Alex), what it is like to have a connection with someone that is very rare to find, and family expectations regarding partners.

I guess my point is that, sure feel free to criticise small details regarding rhyming etc. But Satisfied is substantially more complex than On My Own. And that's without even considering the variety/complexity of the actual music.

Updated On: 12/29/15 at 06:07 PM