Songs you can never hear anyone else sing.. except the original performer! — Page 2

I actually have very few, but one that I just thought of was Betty Buckley and He Plays the Violin. I haven't heard that many other versions, but I doubt anyone would top hers in my mind.

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Alice Faye singing You'll Never Know.

Robert Preston singing Harold Hill's songs, especially Trouble.

Robert Morse singing Finch's songs.

Lenya singing many of Weill's theater songs, especially Alabama Song and Pirate Jenny.

Updated On: 7/24/13 at 02:12 PM

Tommy Korberg's Anthem

I would say "End Game". No one sing that one better than Tommy so far.

I agree with LuPone's "Meadowlark" and Evita. It is near impossible to beat her high belting.

Any of Vera Charles stuff from Mame.


Bea Arthur was an original.

Angela Lansbury "The Worst Pies in London" from Sweeney Todd

Dorothy Loudon singing Easy Street. There are very few actresses that have ever wrung so much joy out of a song as she did.

And I also want to say that if you don't own her Broadway Baby cd, you are missing one of the best singer-actresses ever recorded.
Link

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"Back to Before" - Marin Mazzie
"You Have To Be There" - Alice Ripley (during her wonder years, the raw emotion in her voice is unmatched by any of her predecessors/successors.)
"Cabaret" - Liza Minnelli


(This one is not musical theatre related but I CANNOT listen to anyone but Joni Mitchell sing A Case Of You, no matter how much I like them. The romantic naturalism Joni embraces vocally is transcendent and every other version pales in comparison.)

Completely agree regarding Eva Cassidy.

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There are definitely "signature songs" that, for me, define the song and the singer.

Like Garland and Over the Rainbow.

That doesn't mean I "can't ever hear anyone else sing" that song. It does mean that no matter who sings it, I will think of that "signature" performance, and it will never be erased from my mind and heart.

I do love Eva Cassidy's rendition of Over the Rainbow. Also Ella Fitzgerald's. To date, those are the only two I can listen to all the way through without longing for Judy to step in and finish the song. Nobody else comes close to doing that. And I've heard hundreds of people try to sing that song.

Other classic signature recordings:
Ethel Merman - Everything's Coming Up Roses
Ella Fitzgerald - A Tisket, A Tasket
Frank Sinatra - New York, New York (sorry, Liza)
Barbra Streisand - Don't Rain On My Parade, The Way We Were
Dione Warwick - Promises, Promises, Alfie
Marlene Dietrich - Falling In Love Again
Stritch - The Ladies Who Lunch
Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

A list of recent "signature songs" for me, that I have trouble hearing anybody else sing (but I'm still open to it):

Patti LuPone and Don't Cry For Me, Argentina
Jennifer Holliday and And I'm Telling You ...
Betty Buckley and Memory

(even though Elaine Paige recorded Memory and Argentina before them, I don't consider her renditions to be "signature")

And I think Shani Wallis's version of As Long As He Needs Me is a thousand times better than Georgia Brown's recording. I always have. And while I wouldn't call it a "signature" performance of that song, I compare everyone else to her, and they always (including Garland) finish behind Wallis.

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Just a side note:

All of the verses to the Arlen/Harburg "Oz" songs were written after the songs had been recorded for the movie. They were added for the sheet music publications and the "pop" recordings of the songs.

They weren't "cut" from the film, though, since they were never intended to be in it.

That said, the intro/verse to Over the Rainbow is as wonderful as the rest of the song.

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There have been few versions of the song, Betty Buckley, Kristin Chenoweth, Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick have all recorded it but in my opinion no one has come close to matching the sheer vulnerability and angst Jill O'Hara displays when singing "Knowing When To Leave".

Updated On: 7/25/13 at 09:05 AM

Shani Wallis went to the Julie Andrews school of singing where every. word. must. be. enunciated. And that throws her phrasing off. Shani was way too delicate for the role of Nancy. The only way she would have survived in Dickens London was if she were living in an upper class house.

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