Posted: 3/17/16 at 3:00pm
-- I Have Dreamed
-- Hello Dolly (we are talking show songs)
-- Cabaret -- same reason
-- I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
-- Beautiful Girls
Posted: 3/17/16 at 4:38pm
Technically Off-Broadway, but none the less......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrDui7xeGv0
Posted: 3/17/16 at 8:39pm
Defying Gravity (Wicked), Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story (Hamilton), No One Is Alone (Into the Woods), One Day More (Les Miserables), and Breathe (In The Heights) are definitely my top 5.
Posted: 3/17/16 at 9:54pm
CLASSIC (70's and earlier)
1. Time Heals Everything (Mack and Mabel)
2. If I Loved You (Carousel)
3. Try To Remember (Fantasticks)
4. Who Are You Now (Funny Girl)
5. Send in the Clowns (A Little Night Music) < all because of Dame Judy Dench's gorgeous performance
CONTEMPORARY (the 80's and beyond)
1. For Good (Wicked)
2. On My Own (Les Miz)
3. With You (Ghost) < I wasn't able to watch this but I always cry when I listen to Caissie Levy singing her heart out with this song.
4. Telephone Wire (Fun Home)
5. I'll Cover You (Reprise) (Rent)
Posted: 3/18/16 at 12:14am
this answer changes like the weather but "seasons of love" from rent is a highlight.
Posted: 3/18/16 at 12:39am
BroadwayMan5 said: "On the Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady
I've read that this song was just a late throw-in because they wanted a song that Freddy could sing in front of the curtain while the set was being changed.
"Lost in the Stars" is a very beautiful and unique song which gently raises the ultimate question of how and why we are here. It is not well known, and neither is its composer Kurt Weill, primarily because he did not live long enough after emigrating to America to establish a large body of work. To the extent that the song is known, it may be in large part because Ol' Blue Eyes sang it frequently in concert and of course recorded it.
There is a cute story about "Ol' Man River" that may be apocryphal. I first heard this many years ago on a PBS hour devoted to Oscar Hammerstein which was hosted by Sylvia Fine Kay. Show Boat, which premiered in 1927, was an immediate huge hit for which the lines of people waiting to buy tickets wound around the corner. (Internet access was very slow in those days.)
It is said that Mrs. Hammerstein was at a dinner party shortly after the premiere, and overheard a woman next to her refer to that wonderful song "Ol Man River" that Mr. Kern had written. Mrs. Hammerstein turned to the woman and corrected her. "My husband wrote 'Ol' Man River.' Mr. Kern had written "Da--Da--, DaDa."
"
Posted: 3/18/16 at 1:02am
I'm going to have to say "One" and possibly "What I Did For Love". Granted....I am A Chorus Line fan.... however, I really do think most people (young and old) have heard and know the tune for "One". I think it's probably the most iconic Broadway tune ever. I will agree, "Tomorrow" is another song most people are familiar with. I'd love to mentions others, but they are such "young" songs, I don't think they can be classified as the best song ever.
Posted: 3/18/16 at 2:12am
So are we just going to pretend like Phantom of the Opera was never a musicala and Andrew Lloyd Webber never existed?
"Music of the Night"
"All I ask of You"
"Point of No Return"
"Wandering Child"
"Memories" --- CATS
Updated On: 3/18/16 at 02:12 AM
Posted: 3/18/16 at 2:12am
double post
Updated On: 3/18/16 at 02:12 AM
Posted: 3/18/16 at 3:44am
All the Things You Are, If I Loved You and Sunday are all up there. But I'll toss in a smaller song that I think is just perfect - What's the Use of Wond'rin.
Posted: 3/18/16 at 11:42am
Being Alive vs If I loved you vs Sunday vs ol man river vs all the things you are seem to have gotten the most responses so far
all beautiful songs and personal favorites of mine
Listening to them all back to back, I still have to hold the stake in the ground for
Being Alive #1 for perfect scores for lyrics, music, subject matter, dramatic impact, accessability, and integral plot integration/character realization
Number 2 is a bear to score, but If I Loved You gets my vote for subject matter, lyrics and melody integration, dramatic delivery, plot impact. I also need to listen to Bernadette and more contemporary versions because the almost operatic versions from the original are not my fav style
Number 3 would be Sunday, and yes if you go to the sondheim concert version its an unfair advantage to the song and hanky time seeing stephen sondheim react to the magnificent and deserved tribute....listening in context of the musical, its #3 for me
Ive never seen a production of very warm for may so hard to put all the things you are in context (thanks for the great versions posted), and Ol Man River is a wonderful song, but somehow feels a bit dated to me. Love and was surprised by Frank Sinatras version of this, which apparently made Martin Luther King Jr cry when he heard it
Posted: 3/18/16 at 12:29pm
"Invisible" from WOMEN ON THE VERGE..
Close runners up: "Someone to Watch Over Me" from OH, KAY! and the previously mentioned "All the Things You Are" and "I Have Dreamed."
Posted: 3/18/16 at 12:46pm
The ones that came to my mind are:
Quiet from Matilda
Satisfied from Hamilton
Beautiful from Heathers
Posted: 3/19/16 at 3:00am
I agree with Being Alive and Sunday being right up there. I chill every time I hear Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch or One Day More.
But, my pick for the best song ever is As Long As He Needs Me from Oliver.
Posted: 3/19/16 at 9:31am
I'll Cover You (Reprise)
Sunday
Notes (from Phantom)
Posted: 3/19/16 at 11:13am
Internet is for Porn. (Just kidding)
Wait for it. Hamilton
Stars. Les Mis
Memories. Cats
Music of the Night. Phantom
A Change in Me. Beauty and the Beast.
Updated On: 3/19/16 at 11:13 AM
Posted: 3/19/16 at 3:41pm
Listening to other songs posted and loving them and still coming back to Being Alive
Company is one of the musicals that changed musical theatre forever, and ushered in Sondheim's reign
and greatest burst of creative influence, and Being Alive was the crowning achievement of this pivotal moment in musical theatre...
on a side note, surprised no one has nominated
Bring Him Home Les Miz
Dont Rain On My Parade-funny girl
Maybe This Time-Cabaret(maybe because it wasn't in the original)
which are all giant, standout songs and all time broadway showstoppers
I personally love all three of these, and probably listen to them more than Being Alive, yet none of the three songs feel "Big Enough" or pivotal enough for the title "best broadway song ever"
Posted: 3/19/16 at 3:54pm
I don't know, to me, "Being Alive" is the epitome of the corny, ostentatious show tune that people who hate musicals point to as the reason they hate musicals. But to each his own.
Posted: 3/19/16 at 4:09pm
hi Hork
thanks for nominating endgame...not a song id given much attention to and i really like it a lot...
Have you seen Company and Being Alive performed by a broadway cast?
For me at least, much of sondheims best never truly connected until i saw it performed in context of the entire show....
Posted: 3/19/16 at 4:12pm
As Ethel herself used to say, "What more is there to say?"
Posted: 3/19/16 at 4:22pm
broadwaysfguy said: "hi Hork
thanks for nominating endgame...not a song id given much attention to and i really like it a lot...
Have you seen Company and Being Alive performed by a broadway cast?
For me at least, much of sondheims best never truly connected until i saw it performed in context of the entire show....
No, I haven't, so I withhold final judgment until I do. I could very well love it live and in context, which happens to me a lot. I didn't like "Ring of Keys" when I saw it on the Tonys, but it ended up being my favorite song when I saw the show. I didn't like the cast recording of Rent at all, but it became one of my favorite shows when I saw it live. So who knows?
Updated On: 3/19/16 at 04:22 PM
Posted: 3/19/16 at 4:59pm
Pal Joey is right, that song immediately became the anthem of Broadway when it was written and we have not heard better or had a star equal to the original. Well done.
Thanks, Pal Joey.
Posted: 3/19/16 at 6:07pm
hork-yes i think trying to appreciate the fun home cast recording without having seen the show would be challenging to say the least
Pal joey-cool version of no business like... i wish she had done the entire song more acoustically
No business like show business truly is an anthem and love letter to broadway no question. It just doesnt pass the "Best Broadway Song Ever" test for me....
Posted: 3/19/16 at 8:44pm
Mike Costa said: "Pal Joey is right, that song immediately became the anthem of Broadway when it was written and we have not heard better or had a star equal to the original. Well done.
Had to love this woman when she did the cameo in Airplane!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmZdqsCW8vM
Also surprised to see her as a thin and pretty young woman in the film of Anything Goes.
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