I've heard of people singing 'torch songs' but I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea what a torch song is. Could someone fill me in? Thanks!
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
a song sung at a club or cabaret, usually on top of a piano.
Stand-by Joined: 5/30/04
Usually female...wailing out an emotional song about how some man left her, or she wants her man, or where did her man go, won't he please come back (she's "holding a torch" for someone, see?). A lament for a lost love.
Updated On: 12/31/05 at 06:59 PM
Liza singing "It's the strangest thing" from "The Act"
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
"What Did I Have That I Don't Have?" from ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER. Barbara Harris' version on the Original Broadway Cast Recording is terrific!
Where a song is sung, on top of a piano or at a cabaret, has nothing to do with whether it's a torch song or not.
It's a song (usually female) singing for unrequited love, a lost love, someone who is not there...this goes back to when men would go off to war and women would light a candle in the window for them (Candle in the Window?, anyone?)
That is a torch song.
The Man that Got Away is a good example. Judy sings about how her man left her and she mises him, etc.
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