Torch Songs for Boys

[gossipguy215]

Torch Songs for Boys#1

Posted: 5/20/13 at 2:41am

Hi, I'm about to audition and I've found that I sing best with torch songs. As it's a pretty big audition, I can't sing my signature song: "Losing My Mind". I need a song, preferably about unrequited love good for a bass/baritone with a good belt. Thanks so much!

[madbrian]

Torch Songs for Boys#2

Posted: 5/20/13 at 6:46am

The Street Where You Live, from My Fair Lady, is an obvious choice, though it's been an audition standard for decades.

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

[After Eight]

Torch Songs for Boys#2

Posted: 5/20/13 at 6:51am

Perhaps "Joey, Joey, Joey" from The Most Happy Fella.

Good luck with your audition.

[AC126748]

Torch Songs for Boys#3

Posted: 5/20/13 at 7:37am

"Lonely Town" from On the Town.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

[henrikegerman]

Torch Songs for Boys#4

Posted: 5/20/13 at 9:50am

Once Upon A Time (Adams/Strouse, "All American"
Hey There (Adler/Ross, "Pajama Game"
It's All Right With Me (Porter, "Can Can"
So In Love (Porter, "Kiss Me Kate"
Fanette (Jacques Brel)
If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas) (Jacques Brel)
Marieke (Jacques Brel)
By Myself (Dietz, Schwartz, "Between the Devil"
A Man Chases A Girl (until she catches him) (Berlin, not sure what it's originally from, I know it from "There's No Business Like Show Business"
Hey, Look No Crying (Styne, Birkenhead)
Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry (Styne, Cahn, "Glad to See You"
I Fall In Love Too Easily (Styne, Cahn, "Anchors Away"
Talking To Yourself (Styne, Comden & Green, "Hallelujah, Baby"
Look At Me, Look At You (Styne, Brown/Loesser, "Sis Hopkins"
Too Late Now (Lane, Lerner, "Royal Wedding"
She Isn't You (Lane, Lerner, "On A Clear Day..."
If I Fell (Lennon, McCartney)
Yesterday (Lennon, McCartney)
I Wonder What Became of Me (Arlen, Mercer)
Lonely House (Weill, Hughes, "Street Scene"
September Song (Weill, Anderson, "Knickerbocker Holiday"
It Never Was You (Weill, Anderson, "Knickerbocker Holiday"
Here I'll Stay (Weill, Lerner, "Love Life"
I Have the Room Above Her (Kern, Hammerstein, "Showboat"
Lonely Town (Bernstein, Comden & Green, "On the Town"
A Quiet Girl (Bernstein, Comden & Green, "Wonderful Town"
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (Sedaka)
Since I Fell For You (Buddy Johnson)
I Never Wanted to Love You (Finn, Falsettos)
What More Can I Say (Finn, Falsettos)
What Would I Do? (Finn, Falsettos)
When I Fall In Love (it will be forever) (Young, Heyman, "One Minute to Zero"
Let's Go Home (Previn, Lerner, "Coco"
Good Thing Going (Sondheim, "Merrily We Roll Along"
I Don't Remember You (Kander & Ebb, "The Happy Time"
I Don't Care Much (Kander & Ebb, "Cabaret"
You Don't Know Me (Eddy Arnold, Cindy Walker, popularized by Ray Charles and sung by Meryl Streep in " Postcards from the Edge"
Why Can't I Walk Away? (Peretti, Creatore & Weiss, "Maggie Flynn"
Teach Me Not To Love You (Stock, Birkenhead, "Triumph of Love"
If Love Were All (Coward, "Bittersweet"
With Every Breath I Take (Coleman, Zippel, "City of Angels"
She's My Love (Merrill, "Carnival"
Her Face (Merrill, "Carnival"
Isn't It A Pity? (Gershwin, Gershwin "Pardon My English"
I Do Not Know A Day I Did Not Love You (Rodgers/Charnin, "Two by Two"
Lush Life (Strayhorn)

Also there are many torch songs introduced by women that have become standards for male singers, e.g. "Someone to Watch Over Me," "I Will Wait For You"














































 

Updated On: 8/19/16 at 09:50 AM

[John Adams]

Torch Songs for Boys#5

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:39am

^^
All really great suggestions. Especially that last note about songs introduced by women.

I'd also add, "The Man (Gal) That Got Away", "Anyone Who Had A Heart"

From musicals:
"A House Is Not A Home" (Promises, Promises)
"Since You Stayed Here" (Brownstone)
"What Is It About Her?" (The Wild Party)
"I've Been Here Before" (Closer Than Ever)

[jnb9872]

Torch Songs for Boys#6

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:42am

Henrik's list is excellent, and if you find his inclusion of some popular non-musical-theatre standards to your liking, some other songs to consider:

Some other early Lennon-McCartney ballads:
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
For No One
Michelle
All I've Got to Do
And I Love Her
Girl

And some other additional songs
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (Mann & Weill, popularized by the Righteous Brothers)
Here Comes the Night (Bert Berns, popularized by Van Morrison and his band Them)
I (Who Have Nothing) (italian song adapted by Lieber & Stoller, featured in "Smokey Joe's Cafe")
Lights of Cincinnati (popularized by Scott Walker)
A Song for You (Leon Russell)

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

[Queen of the Night]

Torch Songs for Boys#7

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:59am

Since you are a singer with a low voice, something like "This nearly was mine" from South Pacific would likely fit you well vocally.

[henrikegerman]

Torch Songs for Boys#8

Posted: 5/20/13 at 12:55pm

^wow, Queen of the Night, how could I have forgotten "This Nearly Was Mine"? It's one of my favorite songs.

Updated On: 5/20/13 at 12:55 PM

[Queen of the Night]

Torch Songs for Boys#9

Posted: 5/20/13 at 1:03pm

Henrik, since I am an opera fan I was thinking of lower voiced legit stuff,and since the original Emile was an opera singer, Ezio Pinza, it just came to mind.... Likewise "some enchanted evening" could work, although I think it gets done a lot more than "This nearly was mine". And the latter song is more emotional and dramatic. And it's one of my favorites too! (We must have good taste in show tunes!).

[JRybka1611]

Torch Songs for Boys#10

Posted: 5/20/13 at 1:38pm

This nearly was mine is amazing!
What about
Song of the Sand
or
I am what i am from La cage?

[AC126748]

Torch Songs for Boys#11

Posted: 5/20/13 at 1:44pm

"I Am What I Am" isn't a torch song, although I suppose it could be performed as one in a certain arrangement.

How about "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"?

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

[SonofRobbieJ]

Torch Songs for Boys#12

Posted: 5/20/13 at 2:06pm

Lonely Room from Oklahoma may be a little too dark to be considered a torch song...but goddamn is it good for a bass/baritone.

[GavestonPS]

Torch Songs for Boys#13

Posted: 5/20/13 at 4:40pm

henrik, I believe the FALSETTOS song is "What Would I Do?" not "Who Would I Do?" (which should actually be "Whom").

Your list is so impressive, I wouldn't mention the typo, except that the Freudian slip gave me my Beavis-and-Butthead laugh of the day!

[henrikegerman]

Torch Songs for Boys#14

Posted: 5/20/13 at 6:42pm

Thanks, Gaveston, it indeed does sound like a Freudian slip (hmmmm..... so many to choose from!) but I think I had in mind "Who Would I be if I had not loved you" (whether that is or is not a correct lyric from that song), wrote it to that form, then looked up the actual name, and tried to put it down but what resulted was a mess of mixed synapses shifting helter skelter.

Updated On: 5/21/13 at 06:42 PM

[GavestonPS]

Torch Songs for Boys#15

Posted: 5/20/13 at 7:19pm

I believe you are correct (second chorus):

What would I do
If I had not loved you?
How would I know what love is?
God only knows, too soon
I'll remember your faults.
Meanwhile, though, it's tears and schmaltz.

(BTW, one of my favorite songs. Kills me every time, for reasons I'm sure you can imagine.)
Updated On: 5/20/13 at 07:19 PM

[LuminousBeing]

Torch Songs for Boys#16

Posted: 5/20/13 at 7:29pm

Not all of these are torch songs, but the tempo and range may be what you're looking for. Sorry if there are repeats.

- Sorry/Grateful - "Company"
- When I first Saw You - "Dreamgirls"
- Unusual Way - "Nine" (Female, but could work well)
- Unworthy of Your Love - "Assassins" (Duet; sing just the male part if you can only sing sixteen bars)
- Still Hurting - "Last Five Years" (Female, but "Jamie" is a gender-neutral name, so your lover could be read as either male or female)
- Petrified - "Taboo" (Not unrequited love, but definitely a fabulous ballad!)
- Why - "tick...tick...BOOM!"

[PTOPhan]

Torch Songs for Boys#17

Posted: 5/21/13 at 8:05pm

If you could go down three or four octaves, "Bring Him Home," though not a song about unrequited love, might be great. I've always felt that "Bring Him Home" would work much better without the falsetto at the end. For that matter, I generally prefer male voices to be deep and I don't understand why operas and musicals are almost without exception written for tenor leads.

Another fantastic love song, if brought down into your range, would be "Music of the Night." That song always gives me goose bumps, especially when sung by a baritone.

You alone can make my song take flight.

[TrippyTrellis]

Torch Songs for Boys#18

Posted: 5/23/13 at 4:03am

My favorite "modern" torch songs are: Lloyd Webber's "Tell Me on a Sunday", Jerry Herman's "Time Heals Everything" and, best of all, Sondheim's "Losing My Mind".

[qazdannywsx]

Torch Songs for Boys#19

Posted: 5/23/13 at 4:31am

I love Not a Day Goes By, the ending can be pretty high, but it's a song that transposes down and still sounds good. Plus it's also quite short, and has the belt at the end...