You Will Be Found has always sounded aggresively derivative of pop songs from the 2000s.
Waste from Road Show, Johanna II from Sweeney, and Everybody's Got the Right start the EXACT same way.
In fact I remember at the beginning of Road Show my friend in the audience turning to me as soon as the show started and whispered sang "Everybody's got the right to be happy..."
henrikegerman said: ""Come Back to Me" from ON A CLEAR DAY and "Follow Me" from CAMELOT"
Absolutely. And once you notice that, you can't help but associate the two. Which is a shame since Loewe had such a fertile gift for melodies.
[ETA: THIS IS MY DUMBEST POST SO FAR THIS YEAR. ANOTHER POSTER POINTS OUT BELOW (AND DOES SO MUCH MORE KINDLY THAN HE NEEDS TO BE) THAT "FOLLOW ME" WAS COMPOSED BY LOEWE, BUT "COME BACK TO ME" WAS COMPOSED BY BURTON LANE. SHEESH! "ASSISTED LIVING" CAN'T BE FAR IN MY FUTURE.]
Another silly association because I grew up hearing both songs as standards: once I realized that "Bali Hai" begins with the same octave jump and then a dip to the seventh as does "Over the Rainbow", I can never hear one song without thinking of the other. Fortunately, I love them both.
Famously, Jerry Herman openly borrowed his own tune when "There Is No Tune Like a Show Tune" (from an early revue, IIRC) became "Open a New Window" in MAME. (You can hear the two sung as a medley on Paige O'Hara's solo album, LOVING YOU.)
[ETA: HERE, TOO, I REFER TO "NEW WINDOW" WHEN I MEAN "IT'S TODAY" FROM THE SAME SHOW. OY!]
Also, Herman was sued over the similarity of his "Hello, Dolly" number to another composer's "Sunflower"; but though the case was settled before trial, Herman has always claimed he never heard "Sunflower" before "HD" was written and debuted. (For those who assume anyone who settles such a suit must be guilty, henrik will back me up when I say settlements are often reached when the cost of damages is lower than the cost of trial. Often the nominal defendant (in this case, Herman) has no say in the matter, as it is the defendant's insurance company who makes the decision.)
There are some others that are similar enough they become "medleys" in my mind while I shower. I'll add them here if I think of them...
bwaylyric said: "Whenever I listen to "Come to Me, Bend to Me" from Brigadoon, I'm reminded of "Music of the Night" from Phantom."
I would rephrase that to say, "Whenever I hear "Music of the Night" from Phantom, I'm reminded of "Come To Me, Bend To Me" from Brigadoon." But we are on the same page.
GavestonPS said: "henrikegerman said: ""Come Back to Me" from ON A CLEAR DAY and "Follow Me" from CAMELOT"
Absolutely. And once you notice that, you can't help but associate the two. Which is a shame since Loewe had such a fertile gift for melodies...."
Alan Jay Lerner wrote the lyrics to both songs, but Loewe did not compose "Come Back To Me." Burton Laine did. (The melodies are nearly identical, however.)
The Other One said: "GavestonPS said: "henrikegerman said: ""Come Back to Me" from ON A CLEAR DAY and "Follow Me" from CAMELOT"
Absolutely. And once you notice that, you can't help but associate the two. Which is a shame since Loewe had such a fertile gift for melodies...."
Alan Jay Lerner wrote the lyrics to both songs, but Loewe did not compose "Come Back To Me." Burton Laine did. (The melodies are nearly identical, however.)"
Thank you Gaveston and Other One. Was just about to say what Other One said.
And add that it's fascinating to me that these two songs so musically similar, their melodies so clearly upbeat and downbeat twins, have different composers but the same lyricist.
I'm also wondering if Lerner and Lane were even aware of the copying. Whether they were or not, what was a minor number for a very minor character (and reprised as some splendid underscoring) in Camelot became a rousing eleven o'clock number for the male lead in On a Clear Day and then a crossover pop hit.
ABitOnTheSide said: ""Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar is the exact same as "Rosemary" from How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying."
Indeed. Michael Riedel wrote a column around the time of the last major revival in which he quoted Cy Coleman as having said, of critical and other disdain for Webber's work, "There isn't a Broadway composer alive who wouldn't give his right eye to have written the first six notes to 'Jesus Christ, Superstar.'" I sent a letter to Riedel asking if he was aware that Frank Loesser didn't have to lose an eye to write those notes first. Never heard back, of course.
GavestonPS said: "Famously, Jerry Herman openly borrowed his own tune when "There Is No Tune Like a Show Tune" (from an early revue, IIRC) became "Open a New Window" in MAME."
I'm sure that it's just a temporary a brain fart, and that you know the song from MAME is "It's Today".
The Other One said: "I would rephrase that to say, "Whenever I hear "Music of the Night" from Phantom, I'm reminded of "Come To Me, Bend To Me" from Brigadoon." But we are on the same page."
I'd go a step further and say that almost all of ALW's work can be attributed to someone else - including his father, his brother, and more than one of the Classical composers; most predominantly Pucchini.
The Other One said: "GavestonPS said: "henrikegerman said: ""Come Back to Me" from ON A CLEAR DAY and "Follow Me" from CAMELOT"
Absolutely. And once you notice that, you can't help but associate the two. Which is a shame since Loewe had such a fertile gift for melodies...."
Alan Jay Lerner wrote the lyrics to both songs, but Loewe did not compose "Come Back To Me." Burton Laine did. (The melodies are nearly identical, however.)
"
Of course not. I am such an idiot, because I'm really quite a big Burton Lane fan. I apologize for wasting the time it took you to correct me. (Does that sentence sound sarcastic? It isn't meant to be, I swear.)
Off to the corner and the dunce cap for me!
****
ETA What's more, John Adams correctly points out that I referred to the wrong song in MAME. I had cataract surgery the day I made that post and they warned me not to sign any papers or many any other important decisions that day. I really, really, really should have listened!
Thanks to all (including henrikegerman) who had to unpack that mess of a post!
I always thought it interesting that Jerry Herman's BEFORE THE PARADE PASSES BY from Hello Dolly, and Stephen Sondheim's A PARADE IN TOWN, from Anyone Can Whistle, cover the exact same theme!
broadwaybabywannabe2 said: "I always thought it interesting that Jerry Herman's BEFORE THE PARADE PASSES BY from Hello Dolly, and Stephen Sondheim's A PARADE IN TOWN, from Anyone Can Whistle, cover the exact same theme!"
And we know Adams and Schwartz also wrote a "parade" song for DOLLY that wasn't used.
Then there's "Don't Rain on My Parade" from FUNNY GIRL.
All from roughly 1963-4. For awhile I wondered whether David Merrick had four different teams all auditioning to write the Act One finale of DOLLY. But Charles Schwartz only mentions his and Adams involvement (and, of course, Jerry Herman's final version).
Though I enjoy them both, "Lovesick" from WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN and "Haled's Song About Love" from THE BAND'S VISIT have always sounded very similar to me.
One that I just noticed recently, listen from the 30 second mark of "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love" from The Addams Family and tell me that's not "Harry Houdini, Master Escapist" from Ragtime.