#26
Posted: 8/27/18 at 3:02am
A movie musical song, but This is Me.
Musical Theatre Songs You Never Want To Hear Again — Page 2
#27
Posted: 8/27/18 at 5:36am
NOWaWarning said: "A movie musical song, but This is Me."
Lol, that's pretty cool.
#28
Posted: 8/27/18 at 7:55am
Over the past five years I’ve heard people sing “Think of Me” from Phantom at karaoke at least once a year. Now I can’t hear it without cringing. No one wants to hear “Think of Me” at karaoke. Read the room, people!
#29
Posted: 8/27/18 at 8:44am
raddersons said: "Over the past five years I’ve heard people sing “Think of Me” from Phantom at karaoke at least once a year. Now I can’t hear it without cringing. No one wants to hear “Think of Me” at karaoke. Read the room, people!"
They’re clearly not thinking of you! Next time just stand up and growl “insolent fool!”
#30
Posted: 8/27/18 at 10:22am
OlBlueEyes said: "Sorry, not understanding you.
And can you find an example of Sinatra introducing "Something" as being written by Lennon and McCartney, as I can produce numerous examples of his attributing the song to George Harrison and introducing it with a praise he gave to few other contemporary songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsTh_kCa7Rs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRT42Sq_ibc
I know. Fact checking is tedious and takes a lot of time. Best to avoid if possible.
OBE, Jonathan Schwartz writes in his liner notes To Sinatra-The Reprise Collection" The Sinatra-ization of Something, You stick around Jack, it might show, has irritated rock & roll purists and his identification of Lennon McCartney as writers went uncorrected for years." That's my source. By contrarian, I meant no disrespect; the thread by definition is totally subjective. You just selected a couple of sacred cows in your personal must to avoid list. Oh, a nd speaking of lists, Sondheim defines a list song as a song that merely catalogues examples of a stated theme.Not surprisingly, he notes that Cole Porter was the best at it in the Golden Era.
"
#31
Posted: 8/27/18 at 10:25am
Company
An especially annoying Sondheim “chant” song.
Bobby, Bobby
Bobby baby, Bobby bubi,
Robbie, Robert darling
OK I admit I had a hard time adjusting to the 70s. I was used to musicals opening with
“Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and
“Colored folk work on de Mississippi,
Colored folk work while de White folk play.”
Both of which were written by Sondheim’s great friend and mentor.
#32
Posted: 8/27/18 at 10:38am
Little Lamb
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#33
Posted: 8/27/18 at 10:51am
OlBlueEyes said: "Company
An especially annoying Sondheim “chant” song.
Bobby, Bobby
Bobbybaby, Bobby bubi,
Robbie, Robert darling
OK I admit I had a hard time adjusting to the 70s. I was used to musicals opening with
“Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and
“Colored folk work on deMississippi,
Colored folk work while de White folk play.”
Both of which were written by Sondheim’s great friend and mentor."
The Hammerstein lyric quote from Showboat, out of context, sounds terrible, but of course Oscar was capturing how black people referred to themselves at the time, and the show dealt more meaningfully than anyone had ever seen in a show before with what it's like to be black in America, "serving" the white folk even when slavery was finally banished, and a whole plotline involving the scandal it was at the time for a white man and half-black woman to have a love relationship...
But to keep in step with this thread, I would add these to my choices of musical theater songs I never want to hear again:
Everything's Coming Up Roses (unless sung in a stellar production of GYPSY)...no more pageants or local talent shows, please...
Anything from Wicked (I loved it; I've just heard it too much)
Seasons of Love (although the kids from Parkland singing on the Tonys stands as a powerful exception to this one being "banned"
:)
New York, New York (yes, it's iconic, but I'll only hear it again without cringing when I'm watching the movie again, and hear Liza singing it in her prime...
#34
Posted: 8/27/18 at 11:16am
“Colored folk work on de Mississippi,
Colored folk work while de White folk play.”
Both of which were written by Sondheim’s great friend and mentor."
The Hammerstein lyric quote from Showboat, out of context, sounds terrible, but of course Oscar was capturing how black people referred to themselves at the time, and the show dealt more meaningfully than anyone had ever seen in a show before with what it's like to be black in America, "serving" the white folk even when slavery was finally banished, and a whole plotline involving the scandal it was at the time for a white man and half-black woman to have a love relationship...
Was I wrong to assume that all here would know the context? That it is the beginning of the "Cotton Blossom" production number that opens the show and is sung by the "colored folk" themselves?
There is a history behind those opening lines. I don't recall all of it, but in the original 1927 production the "n" word was used instead of "colored folk." A few other descriptions were tried. In the end, when Sinatra recorded the song he used the least offensive possible: "Here we all work on the Mississippi."
#35
Posted: 8/27/18 at 12:12pm
OlBlueEyes said: "Was I wrong to assume that all here would know the context?"
Perhaps, as there are many young theater lovers frequenting these posts, and without some background information, I was concerned for Hammerstein's reputation! Out of context, it could just sound like a very dark ages kind of view of the races...but I love learning more about the history of these great shows, like Show Boat.
I appreciate your additional historical background notes - and yes, I've noticed that Sinatra made it "Here we all work" which certainly works well when the song is being sung in a stand-alone setting. I think Ol' Man River is one of the absolute greatest songs in the history of musical theater, and I will ALWAYS want to hear THAT one again! :)
#36
Posted: 8/27/18 at 12:20pm
About the opening number in Company... the Bobby baby, Bobby bubbe chant, accompanied by that metallic sounding electric keyboard, are deliberately annoying! Bobby's married friends are voices playing and replaying in his head. It's repeated throughout the show, until the finale, when he can longer take it, and screams "Stop- what do ya get?" Then, of course, he sings "Being Alive." Sondheim isn't afraid of using repetition in music to comment to the action.
#37
Posted: 8/27/18 at 1:35pm
Evita is one of the few Webber scores I enjoy but I've never warmed to "Don't Cry for me Argentina." In context the song is a lie to manipulate the masses. I've only seen one Eva convey that. The second she left the balcony for the "just listen to that" section she was a stone cold monster again. The song does nothing for me when sung sincerely.
threepanelmusicals.blogspot.com
#38
Posted: 8/27/18 at 1:39pm
I always skip through "Air" from Hair. Not sure why, just hate it.
#39
Posted: 8/27/18 at 2:17pm
Oh... I remember now. There's a song in "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" where Kristin Chenoweth talks about a "new philosophy". It's highly irritating, at least to me.
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
#40
Posted: 8/27/18 at 3:56pm
TNick, the first time I heard Sinatra sing Ol' Man River, in the MGM Biopic that followed the early demise of Jerome Kern in 1945, I was appalled. This skinny white boy singing this great anthem that had been written for black Renaissance man Paul Robeson.
Sinatra kept singing it and I guess he kept improving. At a early 60s benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, seated up front, was said by both of Sinatra's daughters that Sinatra's performance of the song moved King to tears.
The change in lyrics that I could not remember was to replace "ni***rs" with "Darkies."
Here is part of Robeson's performance in the 1936 film.
https://youtu.be/yyJtGNk9iEU?t=129
Updated On: 8/27/18 at 03:56 PM
#41
Posted: 8/27/18 at 4:26pm
Green Waver
You provide me with only hearsay evidence when you cite Jonathan Schwartz. However I know of him and that he is a big Sinatra booster and a likely reliable source. I apologize for accusing you of having nothing to back up your claim.
Enough of this, except that I found another live performance of the song by Sinatra in which he really gives the song the highest praise.
"This song by George Harrison is one of the best love songs written in the last 50 to 100 years, even though it does not contain the word 'love' even once."
As for me, I'm pretty indifferent to Sinatra's cover of the song.
#42
Posted: 8/27/18 at 7:05pm
Every single song in Pretty Woman. Ugggghhhh. Awful.
#43
Posted: 8/27/18 at 7:15pm
I would pay money to never have to hear I’d Rather Be Me ever again, especially when sung, or more accurately screamed, by Barrett Wilbert Weed
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