last Billboard hit from a Broadway show?

Posted: 1/19/07 at 2:12pm

When did a Broadway show last produce a hit song?

Ever since my friend got tickets to Spring Awakening, he's been watching the online video of "The Bitch of Living" at least once a day. Now that it will be performed next month on Letterman and probably also on The View, he's saying it could break a decades-long drought for hit pop songs from Broadway musicals.

Decades? Yeah, he said, the last Billboard hit written for a musical was "One Night in Bangkok" in 1986, and that show didn't actually play on Broadway until two years later. The last hit from a show that was on Broadway at the time is probably "Memory" in 1982.

I countered that Madonna's "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" was a hit ten years ago, but he said that was technically recorded for the movie. And he wouldn't accept Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life" or Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl" or "Wind It Up" either, because they were just sampling the show tunes.

So does anyone know of a bona fide hit song from a Broadway show that charted in the past 20 years? A pint of libations at Playwright Tavern for anyone who helps me win this bar bet!

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 2:21pm

The last thing that comes to mind is "One Night in Bangkok" as well.

Unless, of course, you can finagle something with "Seasons of Love." I don't think it ever appeared on the charts, but it is certainly the most well known showtune of the last 10+ years. Maybe you can dig something up?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 2:37pm

Nothing from Rent ever hit the Top 40.

Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok" hit #3 on the Pop Charts and spent 13 weeks in the Top 40 in 1985.

Barbra Streisand and Don Johnson hit #25 on the Pop Charts in 1988 and spent 5 weeks in the Top 40 with "Till I Loved You" which is from a show called GOYA that I'm unfamiliar with.

Betty Buckley and Streisand's versions of "Memory" never made the Top 40, but Barry Manilow's did in 1983 (peaking at #39).

Updated On: 1/19/07 at 02:37 PM

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 2:38pm

Our Easy Listening station used to play 'This is the moment' and 'Someone like you' from J&H quite frequently. However, I suspect someone at the station liked them and that they weren't officially on the charts since both were from the blackbox version.

It's funny that the last one could be "One Night in Bangkok". The radio station my alarm is set to woke me up yesterday at the very end of the song and I was very sad that it was ending. Just as the last delayed beat played, it started over. I was in heaven. I love me some Chess. And some Head... Murray that is.

[Craig]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 2:41pm

This is the Moment was used for the Olympics - so it got tons of radio play and is well known outside of the musical J&H - but it never dented the top 40

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:00pm

I know nothing from RENT ever reached the charts, but I was merely joking around, saying that perhaps he/she could cleverly finagle something to win the bet. Sheisters win sometimes!

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:06pm

Didn't the title song from Phantom of the Opera do really well, or was that just on the English charts?

[andyf]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:06pm

What about Deborah Cox' remix of "Easy as Life"?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:07pm

SO TRUE!

Maybe on the dance charts!

[Calvin]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:13pm

How exactly was the question worded?

Obviously, the jukebox musicals are out because the songs weren't written for shows and were hits long before they were on Broadway.

However -- what about one of the Gershwin classics, say, "Embraceable You," tha was used in "Crazy For You" and was originally written for the stage and was a part of a fairly recent Broadway hit (more recent than "Chess, at least). I know it's not what he meant, but there's nothing wrong with winning on a technicality.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:21pm

Nothing from Phantom ever charted in the US.

"Easy As Life" hit #24 on the dance charts in 2004 (it didn't make the pop or r&b charts).

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:22pm

So I would say that's our answer, no?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:29pm

I think so, unless the friend doesn't think remixes count.

I'd forgotten about the dance charts and was focusing on the pop and r&b charts. FYI -- a remix of Jennfier Holliday's version of "And I Am Telling You" hit #6 on the dance charts in 2001 (20 years after the original topped the r&b charts).

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:31pm

Were there any Billboard pop hits from shows in between Louis Armstrong's "Hello, Dolly" (which made it to #1) in 1964 and "One Night in Bangkok" (#3) in 1985?

I am pretty sure that "Hello, Dolly" is the last Broadway tune to make it to #1. Incidentally Louis' version broke a streak of three number one hits in a row for The Beatles.

Updated On: 1/19/07 at 03:31 PM

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:39pm

Wait...I forgot about Bacharach's tunes for Promises, Promises...

I know Dionne Warwick had a #6 Billboard hit with "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" -- so I guess that one counts.

An earlier, Bobbie Gentry version of the song hit #1 on the UK charts.

Updated On: 1/19/07 at 03:39 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:41pm

Lots of them.

The Fifth Dimension's "Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" spent 6 weeks at #1 in 1969.

And several other songs from Hair charted including:

-- The Cowsills cover of the title song hit #2 in 1969
-- Oliver's "Good Morning Starshine" hit #3 in 1969
-- Three Dog Night's "Easy To Be Hard" hit #4 in 1969

Murray Head's "Jesus Christ Superstar" hit #14 in 1971.

"Day By Day" from Godspell hit #13 in 1972.

Holliday's original "And I Am Telling You" was #1 on the r&b charts for four weeks and reached #22 on the pop charts in 1982.

Updated On: 1/19/07 at 03:41 PM

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:00pm

Thanks Margo -- I can't believe I forgot about those, especially Hair.

Updated On: 1/19/07 at 04:00 PM

[stagerat]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:06pm

I can't remember the name of the song, but Whistle Down the Wind had a great song that some boy group did. The song was "No Matter What", I think the group was "Boyzone"


Not sure where it charted but it certainly got a lot of radio play around PA.

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:09pm

"No matter what" was a showtune? Wow, I never knew. I was in England when Boyzone were huge there, and that song was number one for aaages. In the UK.

[Magdalene]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:13pm

Jennifer Hudson is #31 and rising with "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" right now on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop song chart. Not strictly a cast recording, though...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:19pm

We were specifically eliminating songs frm soundtracks.

Boyzone's "No Matter What" hit #1 in the UK and #12 US Adult Contemporary Chart in 1998.

[mikem]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:28pm

It depends what you mean by "hit." The movie version of Seasons of Love charted at around #45, but purely on sales rather than airplay (and I guess we're not counting movie versions anyway, but if we did, Jennifer Hudson's AIATYING and Listen, which have both made it to the Hot 100, would qualify). I believe No Matter What hit the lower part of the adult contemporary chart, but if you're talking about a song that would be recognized by most people, I think that Margo is right that it's One Night in Bangkok or the Goya song depending on whether you count it. (Margo, Goya was a concept album released by Sony for a musical based on the painter's life, with Placido Domingo in the title role on the album. Maury Yeston wrote the music and the lyrics. Gloria Estefan and some other people also were on the album. As far as I know, the musical never got produced.)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 4:37pm

Thanks. Now, I remember GOYA. I vaguely recall that concept album with Domingo and Estefan coming out back in the 80s, but I never heard about it being staged anywhere.

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 5:31pm

Margo, I thought I DON'T KNOW HOW TO LOVE HIM from JCS charted back in the day?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 5:39pm

"I Don't Know How To Love Him" charted twice in 1971:

-- Helen Reddy's peaked at #13 on the Pop Charts (her first charted hit)
-- Yvonne Elliman's peaked at #28 on the Pop Charts