Songs about economic concepts ...

[P-E]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 9:51pm

Hi all,

Long time lurker - first time poster. I'm an economics professor and I'm putting together a website of songs that illustrate economic concepts (along with blurbs explaining/teaching the concept).

I'd love your help.

I have about 50 songs now, but I'm sure there are dozens more that would work well but I haven't considered. Some examples of songs that will be included:

Story of my life (Shrek) - a good example of discrimination/property rights
Santa Fe (Rent) - entrepreneurship
Better with a Man (GGLAM) - utility/preferences
Henry Ford (Ragtime) - production
A Summer in Ohio (The Last Five Years) - opportunity cost

I'm hoping to have a website live in a month or so. Please let me know of other songs you think I should include.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

[Cesare2]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 10:03pm

"Economics" from the Lerner/Weill musical "Love Life"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQnshhdCrfA

"When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" from the Harburg/Lane musical "Finian's Rainbow"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyuF6NS99g8

(There are probably a lot of other songs from Harburg.)

[BwayDude2]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 10:12pm

"I Don't Understand the Poor" From Gentlemen's Guide? Hate against the poor? lol

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 10:26pm

Two from "The Pajama Game"

Race against the clock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Xi_IyHYNc

7 1/2 cents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w4mVycaC_o

From Cabaret
Money, Money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWJsemudhFM

From 9 to 5
9 to 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ1tMOQJmr4&list=PL8SjdpmZomAqhT3YT-FpkLQDd036t4uG4

Urinetown:
A Privilege to Pee:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmHekGAO080

Mr. Gladwell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibv2vRNEQWM

Don't be the bunny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgH0fOcp3T8

1776:
Molasses to Rum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9yPdhL6L3o

Guys & Dolls
The Oldest Established Floating Crap Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEwDaOeKiyE

Annie
New Deal For Christmas
We'd Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover

Fiorello
Little Tin Box

Big Fish
Start Over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wFixIG66DE

Mary Poppins:
Tu'pence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk23s4hh8M8

"The Adding Machine" must have one as the show is about a guy getting downsized out of a job. Don't remember a specific song..



Updated On: 2/15/15 at 10:26 PM

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 10:28pm

Seven and A Half Cents - Pajama Game
Cool Considerate Men - 1776 (economic philosophy)
Everybody Out - Made in Dagenham
A Secretary Is Not A Toy - How to Succeed - sexual harassment
The Company Way - How to Succeed - um, company political survival
Bonds - The Rothschilds

I'm not familiar with Enron, The Musical, but there must be something there

Updated On: 2/15/15 at 10:28 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 10:41pm

ABC - About the stock market - How Now, Dow Jones.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/15/15 at 11:19pm

How to Survive The Threepenny Opera
Pirate Jenny The Threepenny Opera
Bilbao Song Happy End
Progress Love Life
How Can You Tell an American? Knickerbocker Holiday
And the Money Kept Rolling In Evita
Good Night and Thank You Evita
Waltz for Eva and Che Evita
Big Fish, Little Fish Purlie
The Rich The Cradle Will Rock
Nickel Under the Foot The Cradle Will Rock
Change A New Brain
Cool Cool Considerate Men 1776
Molasses to Rum 1776
Ten Cents A Dance Simple Simon
At the End of the Day Les Miserables
Lovely Ladies Les Miserables
So What? Cabaret
It's All the Same Man of la Mancha
Buddy Can You Spare a Dime? Americana
When You're Good to Mama Chicago
All I Care About is Love Chicago
The Contract Gigi
Welcome to Kanagawa Pacific Overtures
Please Hello Pacific Overtures
Next Pacific Overtures
Too Bad Silk Stockings
Who Will Buy? Oliver
You've Got to Pick A Pocket or Two Oliver
If I Were a Rich Man Fiddler on the Roof
Matchmaker Fiddler on the Roof
He Tossed a Coin The Rothschilds
Rothschild and Sons The Rothschilds
One Room The Rothschilds
Pleasure and Privilege The Rothschilds
Everything The Rothschilds
Give England Strength The Rothschilds
They Say The Rothschilds
Have You Ever Seen a Prettier Little Congress? The Rothschilds
Bonds The Rothschilds
Stability The Rothschilds
The Babylove Miracle Show/Walk Into Heaven The Grass Harp
Hang a LIttle Moolah on the Washline The Grass Harp
Payday/Mine til Monday A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Miller's Son A Little Night Music
Liaisons A Little Night Music
In Buddy's Eyes Follies
The Story of Lucy and Jessie Follies
Live, Laugh, Love Follies
Uptown Downtown Follies/Marry Me a Little
The Ladies Who Lunch Company
Champagne Tommy
Another Life Dance a Little Closer
My Own Morning Hallelujah, Baby
The Middle Class Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
The Rape Ballet The Fantasticks
Paciencia y Fe In the Heights
America West Side Story
Glitter and Be Gay Candide
Oh Happy We Candide
Money Money Money Candide
Make Our Garden Grow Candide
Sensitivity Once Upon a Mattress
Wouldn't It be Loverly My Fair Lady
With A Little Bit of Luck My Fair Lady
Class Saturday Night
Love's a Bond Saturday Night
What More do I Need? Saturday Night
The Minnesota Strip Runaways
Song of a Child Prostitute Runaways
Thank You Madam She Loves Me
No More Candy She Loves Me
I Put My Hand in There Hello Dolly
Just Leave Everything To Me Hello Dolly (movie)
When the Children Are Asleep (verse) Carousel
How Can Love Survive? The Sound of Music
Look for the Union Label Pins and Needles
and the entire score of Working






































Updated On: 3/4/15 at 11:19 PM

[P-E]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 3:01pm

Wow - thanks everybody!

If anybody has others, please post.

I'll let you know when the site is up. (I'm hoping by early April.)

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 5:30pm

Swing Your Projects (Subways Are for Sleeping)
Penny in My Pocket (cut from Hello, Dolly!)
Gonna Be Rich (Shoestring '57)
A Small Cartel (Tovarich)
Le Grisbi Is LeRoot of Le Evil in Man (Irma La Douce)
How the Money Changes Hands (Tenderloin)

Updated On: 2/17/15 at 05:30 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 5:34pm

Cabaret

Money
The Money Song

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 5:38pm

Economics is a major theme of CAROLINE OR CHANGE and it courses throughout the score, particularly in...

Noah Has A Problem
Caroline Takes My Money Home
Quarter in the Bleach Cup
Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw
Little Reward
A Twenty Dollar Bill and Why
The Twenty Dollar Bill
Caroline and Noah Fight

...though the score is so fluid, only a couple of those really stand alone as “songs about economics,” particularly Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw and A Twenty Dollar Bill and Why, but these all explicitly deal with money and illustrate the show’s preoccupation with Marxism and capitalism.

Updated On: 2/16/15 at 05:38 PM

[jnb9872]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 8:37pm

"Bargaining" from DO I HEAR A WALTZ? is a pretty hilarious summary of bartering.

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 9:35pm

96,000 from In The Heights about the value of money
All About the Green - Wedding Singer - how not to invest

[little_sally]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 9:41pm

More from Ghost

[Queen of the Night]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 9:48pm

"Progress is the root of all evil" from L'il Abner

[jnb9872]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 10:39pm

"It Couldn't Please Me More" from CABARET - relative value of a commodity (a pineapple!)
"Think of the Time I Save" from THE PAJAMA GAME - efficiency

[jnb9872]

Posted: 2/16/15 at 10:39pm

Odd, duplicate. Apologies.

Updated On: 2/16/15 at 10:39 PM

[Jallenc32]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 12:10pm

"America's Son" from The Fix has the following lyric:

Now on to taxes, yes taxes.
Every time you hear that word you think, you say the following things:
Prudent tax cuts
Modest reductions
Pork barrel
State waste
Unnecessary programs
Must unite to buck the trend
Government spending has to end.

[BroadwayGuy12]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 12:39pm

"Rich People" from LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 12:54pm

"Artificial Flowers" from Tenderloin, discussing child labor.

[Mike Costa]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 1:46pm

Sitting Pretty
from original Bway Cabaret

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 2:15pm

A bit of "Notes" from Phantom discusses the business of running an opera house.

[MegInManhattan]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 2:45pm

"Great Big Stuff" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (?)

Might be more about stuff than money, but the undertone is now his life will change now that he has access to money.

[NoName3]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 3:30pm

"Money, Money, Money (Venice Gambling Scene)" and "What's the Use" from Candide (not surprisingly for Candide, these exist in multiple versions).

The song listed above as "Tu'ppence" from Mary Poppins is actually titled "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank."

Updated On: 2/17/15 at 03:30 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 3:31pm

Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher from Billy Elliot, and A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd spring to mind.