The best Broadway songs are usually sung by women.... — Page 2

"But none of those songs are iconic/famous in the mainstream"

I'm not sure what that has to do with it, but if you are suggesting that there aren't any, here's a little list:

Well known songs originated on stage by men:

Who Can I Turn To?
What Kind of Fool am I?
Gonna Build A Mountain
Feeling Good
Once in a Lifetime
Look at that Face
The Joker
Try to Remember
I've Gotta Be Me
The Impossible Dream
Consider Yourself (male led group song)
Who Will Buy? (male led group song)
Where is Love?
She Loves Me
Step to the Rear
I've Got Your Number
It Only Takes a Moment
If I Were a Rich Man
Miracle of Miracles
Come Back to Me
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
I Believe in You
Brotherhood of Man
If Ever I Would Leave You
Camelot
Mame
It Only Takes a Moment
Hello Dolly
Where do I Go?
Hair
Make Someone Happy (duet with woman)
Never Will I Marry
She Touched Me
Put On a Happy Face
Kids
A Lot of Livin to Do (duet with a woman)
Comedy Tonight (male led group song)
Once Upon a Time
Wilkommen
I'll Never Fall in Love Again (duet with woman)
Promises, Promises

And that's just the 60s.

Updated On: 5/25/14 at 12:38 AM

Well, trying to come up with just one off the top of my head that fits the "criteria" that's been mentioned above might be "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacfic. In addition to the OCR and sound track albums, it's been recorded by:

Perry Como (1949)
Frank Sinatra (1949), (1963), (1967)
Bing Crosby (1949)
Al Jolson (1949)
Jo Stafford - Autumn in New York (1950)
Eddie Calvert (1951)
Giorgio Tozzi (1958 for the film soundtrack, 1967 for the Lincoln Center revival cast recording with Florence Henderson)
Andy Williams (from the 1958 album, Andy Williams Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein)
Carl Mann (1960)
Jay and the Americans (1965)
Jane Olivor, on her debut album, First Night (1976)
José Carreras (1986) for a studio cast recording of South Pacific with Kiri Te Kanawa, Mandy Patinkin and Sarah Vaughan
Barbra Streisand (from her 1993 album Back to Broadway)
The Temptations (1995, For Lovers Only)
Bryn Terfel – Something Wonderful: Bryn Terfel Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein (1996)
Philip Quast for the 2002 London revival cast recording of South Pacific
Art Garfunkel (from his 2007 album Some Enchanted Evening)
Paulo Szot – South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast) (200
Harry Connick, Jr. (from his 2009 album Your Songs)
Alfie Boe, on his 2010 album, Bring Him Home
Jackie Evancho, on her 2012 album, Songs from the Silver Screen
Il Divo, on their 2013 album, A Musical Affair

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Updated On: 5/25/14 at 09:57 AM

Know this one?
tony bennett

Or this one?


American Hustle soundtrack

Updated On: 5/25/14 at 10:12 AM

One of Sinatra's countless records of Broadway Boy Tunes
come back to me

Big hit song, big emotion, Broadway male lead origination
not just a star but the best one in the sky

^
You must be very, very young.

"It would be nice if, for once, genpop didn't set out to disprove that men were better at women"

So, you think women are better at women?! That's a whole separate off-topic thread.

The problem with the concept of this thread is that we have to accept that something appearing in the "mainstream" is proof that it is better than something that does not get widespread acclaim. Having nothing to do with the sex and/or gender of the person singing, I can't support that premise as true.

"I tossed out the only two male-sung songs from musical theater I knew about before I knew theater. I knew dozens more by women. "

Based on the posts it seems that there are a number of songs that you and some of the other young posters were aware of. A good number of the hits from the Rat Pack members were covers of Broadway songs. I would venture you would find far more people familiar with Sinatra's performance of "Luck Be a Lady Tonight," or any of the numerous other Broadway standards that he covered and made a part of the popular repertoire, over "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." Don Henley covered "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" for the Leap of Faith soundtrack and that received a lot of radio play and reached 13 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts. What major recording/concert artists have covered "Defying Gravity" and made it onto any of Billboard's charts with it?

Maybe this Time was written for the movie of Cabaret.

I would concede that the most famous songs from Broadway of the past 45 years - Memory, Don't Cry for Me Argentina, What I Did for Love, Send in the Clowns, and maybe one or two more, were written for women.

Are there that many show songs from this period that are even that famous? - I agree completely with AEA's point that the crossover of any of these songs pales to the popularity routinely reached by show music in the earlier eras.

But going back further than that, and deeper into the time when theater music was popular music, just as many songs written for men were hits as those written for women.

But that's not the point. I can't agree that the best Broadway songs are usually written for women for the simple reason that there are far too many great songs - in any Broadway era - that were written for men.

Updated On: 5/25/14 at 02:48 PM