Written by MotD favorite Marc Shaiman with Ramsey McLean for the 1993 Nora Ephron film Sleepless in Seattle, “A Wink and a Smile” was performed by Harry Connick Jr. for the soundtrack.
The song, which was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, plays over a montage as Sam Baldwin (played by Tom Hanks) tries to cheer up his son Jonah (played by Ross Malinger) after his mother dies. It modulates from C up a half step to Db at 2:09
“I’ve Learned To Let Things Go,” with music and lyrics by John Bucchino, was included in It’s Only Life, a concert revue of Bucchino’s music that was performed at Lincoln Center in 2006. It is performed here by cast member Jessica Molaskey, and modulates from A up to C at 2:25.
“Quiet” is from the musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic 1988 book Matilda. Written by Tim Minchin, the song is sung by the title character when in Act 2 as she is feeling overwhelmed by questions about how different she feels from everyone else. The key change comes about 1/3 of the way into the song at 1:20 as the texture thins out and the melody and harmony simplify, and Matilda imagines how much more peaceful it would be if it was quiet.
A movie adaptation of the musical was released by Netflix last week, starring Alesha Weir as Matilda.
Written by Billy Hill and originally recorded by clarinetist Benny Goodman, “The Glory of Love” has been covered by many artists including The Andrews Sisters, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin and Paul McCartney. Peggy Lee included the song on her 1958 album Jump For Joy, and her cover was recently featured on the Netflix series Dead To Me, which concluded its run earlier this year. There’s a quick modulation from C up to Db at 2:09
1944’s Meet Me in St Louis “was the first truly great movie from the Freed unit, the MGM department specializing in musicals and headed since 1940 by Arthur Freed, who wrote some of the best songs of the 1920s and 30s and produced several of the finest films of the 20th century,” (Guardian).
Freed … told studio boss Louis B Mayer: ‘I want to make this into the most delightful piece of Americana ever.’ He achieved his aim with a movie that defines perfection, as it captures the spirit of hope and anxiety that informed the last years of the second world war, when it was made … Judy Garland has never been more spirited or more poignant (‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is up there with ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘The Man That Got Away’).” Much of the plot turns on whether the lead character’s family will move to New York City. “When fellow MGM executives demanded to know the source of the film’s dramatic conflict, Freed replied: ‘Where is the villain? Well, the villain is New York!'”
The chorus initially states the melody in the opening in A major, followed by a delayed intro from Garland at 1:24 and a first verse at 1:55. At 2:59, there’s a shift to C# before 3:14 reverts to A major.
“A group of refined waitresses for a chain of railroad-station restaurants in New Mexico are sent out to tame the wild and woolly West in the 19th century, but encounter some resistance in the form of a saloon owner, a corrupt judge and a local madam,” (TV Guide). “Featuring the Oscar-winning song ‘On the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe.'”
“The Harvey Girls was MGM’s big-budget Technicolor musical follow-up to Meet Me In St. Louis (in between the two Judy filmed her first dramatic role in The Clock as well as her one-scene guest appearance in Ziegfeld Follies),” (TheJudyRoom). “It was based on the 1942 Samuel Hopkins Adams novel of the same name, which was inspired by the real-life ‘Harvey Girls,’ the waitresses who were employed by the Harvey chain of restaurants (still in existence today) placed along the route of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe. The Harvey Girls became one of Judy’s (and MGM’s) biggest musical hits of the 1940s, winning the Oscar for Best Song (‘On The Atchison, Topeka, and The Santa Fe’) and earning a spot on Variety’s list of ‘all-time box office hits.’
“It’s a Great Big World,” a fast but gentle waltz, serves as a feature for several of the musical’s lead characters. It shifts up a half-step at 2:53. Many thanks to our regular contributor Jamie A. for this submission!
“They say repetition is key to retention,” said Jon Burlingame, writing for Variety. “And in Disney/Pixar’s animated feature “Coco,” the song “Remember Me” is the tie that binds multiple generations in the shared love of music. It is central to the story about a young boy named Miguel who is pulled by the song from the land of the living to the land of the dead, gradually discovering the origins of the composition and awakening his own inner showmanship. Also part of the plotline are recollections of the distant past – hence, the song’s title — and of beloved long gone family members.”
The song won the Academy Award for Best Song in 2018, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Grammy as well. This cover, by the a cappella group Voctave, features the instrumental group Mariachi Cobre, which regularly performs at Disney and also tours. Two modulations sprinkled in at 0:41 and 1:12.
The Last Ship opened on Broadway in October 2014 and played for 3 months. The score, written by Sting, was nominated for a Tony Award. Sting also briefly stepped into the lead role in New York for the final few weeks of the run.
The story, while original, is inspired by memories from Sting’s childhood in Wallsend, England. “I did everything in my power to escape Wallsend… I became successful, but I owe a debt to that community,” Sting said in an interview on public radio. “This play is me trying to honour that community, trying to pay back what they gave me — a sense of self but also the engine that allowed me to escape. That’s the strange paradox. I love where I come from, I’m glad I escaped, at the same time I need to tell that story as a sort of ‘soul debt’.”
Writing the show also helped Sting emerge from a long period of writer’s block. ““I was writing songs for other characters than me, other sensibilities than mine, a different viewpoint,” he told the New York Times. “And so all of that pent-up stuff, all of those crafts I’d developed as a songwriter, I was suddenly free to explore without much thinking, actually. It just kind of came out as a kind of Tourette’s, a kind of projectile vomiting. It just came out, very quickly.”
“What Say You Meg?” is performed here by Sting. Modulation from E up to F# at 2:49.
Based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 book of the same name, The Secret Garden premiered on Broadway in 1991. The Tony-nominated score, written by Marsha Norman (lyrics) and Lucy Simon (music), is one of the most lush and operatic ever written for the musical theater stage. Simon passed away last week at the age of 82.
“Wick,” which comes in Act II, is sung by Martha and her brother Dickon and reflects his delight at teaching her about nature. The song begins in Bb and emerges into C at 1:36. It then modulates up briefly to E for Martha’s verse at 2:00 before returning to C at 2:19. It then shifts to E at 3:31, where it remains till the end.
Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney animated feature adapted for the Broadway stage, where it premiered in April 1994. The score, by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, was recognized with an Academy Award for Best Original Score, and the title song, featured here, won Best Original Song.
Angela Lansbury voiced Mrs. Potts for the film, and her universally acclaimed performance of the tune has since been enshrined in the minds of thousands of children who have watched the film. In 2004, the American Film Institute ranked “Beauty and the Beast” at number 62 on their list of the greatest songs in American Film History. Lansbury died today at the age of 96 after a remarkable eight decade career in film, television, and theater.
The key change comes at 1:21.
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