last Billboard hit from a Broadway show? — Page 2

Didn't Sheryl Lee Ralph and Ben Harney's "When I First Saw You" make the top 40 of the R&B chart in the 80s?

---

Updated On: 1/19/07 at 05:42 PM

I might have missed this if it was posted earlier but didn't Send in the Clowns hit the Top 40 once or twice?

Liza Minnelli's version of "Losing My Mind" with the Pet Shop Boys hit #11 on the US Dance Charts (and #6 on the UK Pop Charts) in 1989.

---

Thanks guys. I had a hunch there'd been several. So I guess I owe numerous pints for:

Easy As Life - written for Aida, dance hit in 2004
No Matter What - written for Whistle Down the Wind, UK hit in 1998
Losing My Mind - written for Follies, dance hit in 1989
This is the Moment - written for Jekyll & Hyde, Olympics hit
Till I Loved You - written for Goya, never produced onstage

Calvin, here's how the bet started: the other night, my friend predicted that "The Bitch of Living" would become the first hit song to come from a musical since "One Night in Bangkok," and I said there must have been others in the past 20 years. He said no.

We never really defined how big a hit it had to be, nor did we restrict it to the pop chart. But he said remixes, samples, and film soundtracks didn't count. Had to be a hit directly from a cast recording or a cover version of a song written for a musical. So that disqualified Jay-Z, Gwen, Dreamgirls, Rent, and Evita.

Who had a recent hit with Gershwin?

The British charts have had a LOT more hits from stage musicals than the US has, including The Phantom of the Opera title song and All I Ask of You, Love Changes Everything from Aspects of Love, I Know Him So Well from Chess, and Whistle Down the Wind. Most recently, I believe that Electricity from Billy Elliott (sung by Elton John) hit No 4 and I Believe My Heart from The Woman in White (sung by pop singers, not by the original cast) hit No 2. (I believe No Matter What was the last No 1 hit from a stage musical in the UK.)

Also, the French charts have had a lot of hits, too. Belle from Notre Dame de Paris is one of the biggest selling singles of the past 10 years there, and Les Rois du Monde from Romeo et Juliette was also a No 1 hit.

---

And let's not forget "Written In the Stars" By Elton John and LeeAnn Rhimes in the late 1990's from "Aida"

---

I KNOW the Song "Superstat" From JCS Must have Charted, Before/During the Realse of the Concept Album!

Streisand's recording of People went to #5.   That was all the way back in 1964. At that time she was better known as a recording artist than a Broadway star.

---