Looking for "Story Songs"
Looking for "Story Songs"
#1Looking for "Story Songs"
Posted: 1/30/11 at 6:53pmI need some help finding "story songs" for men...but just "story songs" in general will help. They best example of one is "Meadowlark" from 'The Baker's Wife'.
Orangesaretuesdays
Stand-by Joined: 10/8/10
#2Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/30/11 at 6:55pmTonight at Eight from She Loves me is my key "Story" audition song
grandpianoalex
Stand-by Joined: 2/15/10
#3Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/30/11 at 7:14pm
Life Story from Closer Than Ever
Fifteen Pounds (Away From My Love)--As sung by Stephanie J. Block
#4Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/30/11 at 7:15pmAnd They're Off from A New Brain
....but the world goes 'round
#5Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/30/11 at 7:22pm
Story of Schmuel from Last 5 Years
Nothing from A Chorus Line?
"Are you sorry for civilization? I am sorry for it too." ~Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck
#6Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/30/11 at 11:32pmA few words have to be changed, but "My Heart Was Set On You" by Jeff Blumenkrantz is great, and Sutton Foster sings it really well on her album.
philly03
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/07
#7Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/30/11 at 11:38pm
"As Good As You" - Jane Eyre
"Tell My Father" - The Civil War
Check out the "Civil War"... Lots of story songs, some are responses to each other (Ie: a Soldier to his wife and back & forth)
peerrjb
Featured Actor Joined: 7/7/09
#8Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 12:54am
A lot of the material depends on the range/style of the voice involved, certainly. And the reasons you'd be singing it.
"Finishing the Hat" ("Sunday in the Park...") is a "story-esque" piece because of the situation.
"El Dorado" from the ORIGINAL "Candide" score -- though it's beautiful, the story doesn't really payoff.
"The Butterfly" from "Zorba" (you'd have to use the woman's part imbedded into the man's narrative) is interesting and emotionally resonant.
"Pass That Football" from "Wonderful Town" (Funny if dated stuff.)
"Meeskite" from the original "Cabaret" (for an older actor. It was cut in the revivial.)
"Frank Mills" from "Hair" can be sung by a guy, if you wanna go there.
"Molasses to Rum" from "1776" is mostly commentary, but plays as a story of an ethic.
"Surrey With the Fringe on Top" (from - duh- "Oklahoma")is clearly a story about a "date" in the old west.
"Kansas City" from the same show.
"This Nearly Was Mine" from "South Pacific" is a story of how he lost his one love.
"Bargaining" from the original "Do I Hear a Waltz?" is a GREAT set-piece, if you can pull it off. It's really fun to sing, but wonderfully tricky in the man/woman voices required.
"Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" is a story of the dream-redemption involved.
"Once Upon a Time" (from "All American") is a romantic story of long-lost love, for an older actor.
Hope this helps somehow, someday, somewhere.
#9Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 2:39am
'I'll Be Here' from Ordinary Days
'Sweet Dreams' and 'Playbill' from It's Only Life
'Sun and the Moon' from Songs for a New World
'Origin of Love' from Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#10Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 12:41pm
"I'm the Best" from A Day in Hollywood... (written for woman but could be sung by a man)
From "Is There Life After High School"
Diary of a Homecoming Queen - woman
Nothing Really Happened - partial story song for woman (could be reworked for a man)
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#11Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 1:04pm
The Storm- Marie Christine
Talent- Road Show
She Looked at Me- See What I Wanna See
Wreck of a Mec- Irma La Douce
"There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when we depart this world of ours: children and art."
-Sunday In The Park With George
#12Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 1:21pmHow about Kander & Ebb's "Ring Them Bells"?
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#13Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 2:14pm
My favorite one is "A Trip to the Library" from She Loves Me by Bock and Harnick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlNbikzmOCU
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#14Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 3:21pmSally Simpson from Tommy
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
#15Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 3:26pmAnother one from She Loves Me; I think "I Don't Know His Name" could qualify as a story song.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#16Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 1/31/11 at 3:46pm
Diary of a Homecoming Queen is one of the BEST story songs. I love love love that song.
Pity the Child from "Chess"
Marilyn Monroe from "Blood Brothers"
Cell Block Tango from "Chicago"
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
garyandvicki
Swing Joined: 7/3/04
#17Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 2/1/11 at 12:33pmNeil Bartram's "The Story of My Life" has several good story song possibilities for men , including "People Carry On," "I Like It Here," and the funny and touching "Mrs. Remington," which recalls a favorite teacher with an unfortunate facial hair problem.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#18Looking for 'Story Songs'
Posted: 2/1/11 at 1:00pm
"Diary of a Homecoming Queen is one of the BEST story songs. I love love love that song."
Isn't it a really great song? He really captured the character's progression from high school into adulthood: the excitement to the lonliness, the movement from self to responsibility, and of course the yearning for and the mentally slipping back to a happier time. So much is in that song, the woman going from being someone special to being an average, nobody special, like all the others.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
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