Songs with unique structure

[kdogg36]

Posted: 1/27/26 at 11:24pm

One of my favorite songs from any musical is "Please Let Me Tell You" from The Most Happy Fella. It's built around a very melodramatic orchestral outburst that repeats throughout the song, building and receding and developing in its various repetitions. In between we hear subdued, recitative-like statements of apology from a character who wants to acknowledge her wrongdoing to someone she loves. I can't imagine writing a more perfect song; it conveys the necessarily resigned and gentle tone of her apology as well as the explosive emotions that she's feeling.

What other songs are out there that are so precisely tailored to a particular dramatic moment, especially in terms of form?

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/28/26 at 3:42am

The first song that came to my mind was "Lot's Wife" from Caroline or Change. I had just never heard anything like it and it was both thrilling and devastating. 

[Owen22]

Posted: 1/28/26 at 5:49am

So many Sondheim songs eschew typical structure, or disguise it ("Stay With Me"), but the title song from "Sunday in the Park With George" is pretty unique.