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.
Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 musical Assassins depicts the inner lives of various real-life figures who tried (and sometimes succeeded) to assassinate the president of the United States, and the repercussions their actions had on themselves and the country and its history. “Unworthy of Your Love” is sung by John Hinckley to his fantasy girlfriend Jodie Foster; he is joined by partway through by Squeaky Fromme, who declares her love Charles Manson.
By Sondheim standards, the tune is a remarkably conventional love ballad. It begins in B, shifts down to A for Squeaky’s verse at 1:42, and returns to B for the final chorus at 2:57.
“Deniece Williams’ ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy,’ … was a last-second addition to the Footloose soundtrack, (Stereogum) … Like Michael Sembello, another relatively anonymous artist who scored a #1 single by soundtracking a dance montage in an early-’80s blockbuster, Williams had gotten her start backing up Stevie Wonder … Williams recorded (the tune) with the producer George Duke, a jazz-fluent polymath who’d made records with Cannonball Adderly and Frank Zappa … (and) gives a whole lot of room to backup singers George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl and peak at #5 with ‘Waiting For A Star To Fall.’
As a singer, Williams is pretty great at conveying the idea of pure, overwhelming happiness. She’s the reason why ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy’ doesn’t carry the immediate threat of doom for this couple. When she sings about this boy, hopeless schlub though he may be, she sounds utterly transported with joy … Putting a gospel singer like Williams on a giddy dance-pop track like this is a smart decision. Whitney Houston, someone who will be in this column a ton of times, first became famous singing songs like that. After ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy,’ Deniece Williams never came anywhere near the top 10 again. Instead, she pulled a reverse Whitney Houston: After spending years as a successful pop singer, she became a full-time gospel singer. She’s won four Grammys, all in gospel categories, and she seems plenty happy in that world.”
After a start in C major for the intro and the verse, the chorus pivots up to D major for the chorus (0:43). From 1:06 to 1:15, some instrumental connective tissue provides some space for the tune to sidestep back down into C. The pattern continues from there. From 3:07 and onward, Williams seems to have fun effervescing at the very high end of her four-octave range through the extended outro.
“‘I Am What I Am’, (Jerry Herman’s) signature anthem from La Cage aux Folles, is a song to be scaled whenever drink has been taken and identity totters: by a spangled diva in the spotlight, a club kid staking a claim, a bridesmaid clinging desperately to dignity,” (The Guardian).
“La Cage is a Feydeau farce with show tunes, pitting a cabaret queen against the moral majority, with a book by Harvey Fierstein (who later lent his gravel-pit register to the song on Broadway). When drag queen Albin is disinvited from his own son’s wedding, he refuses to shuffle out of the picture. One draft speech included the line, ‘I am what I am and there’s nothing I can do.’ Herman’s synapses rippled. ‘Hold everything,’ he exclaimed. ‘I want to take those five words, if you will give them to me … I can write you a first-act closer that will be a killer because I feel that emotion in me.’ The next morning, he gathered everyone in his 61st Street studio and sang through the mounting choruses. ‘The reaction was cataclysmic.’ … Away from the show, ‘I Am’ has been a lip-synch love bomb, of course it has … it provided the (2019) Pride theme for Belfast club Harland and Poof … It naturally slotted into Shirley Bassey’s repertoire – though the diva hardly struggles for self-belief – and attained disco fervour with Gloria Gaynor.”
Released in 1984, Gaynor’s version reached #82 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. After a poised rubato intro, the tune kicks into its groove gear at 0:37. After a long instrumental break, there’s a whole-step key change at 3:26 — and then another unexpected upward half-step skip at 3:48. The groove isn’t quite 100% disco, but its 1984 release date was certainly past the heyday of the disco craze. Nonetheless, this track was a club-driven hit.
“Only Us” is from the Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen, which had its closing performance on Broadway this past weekend. The tune is performed here by Ben Levi Ross (who played Evan, Connor, and Jared on Broadway) and Taylor Trensch (who played Evan) in a new arrangement by music director Alex Lacamoire. Beginning in B, a modulation up to Db leads into the second verse at 2:06. That is followed by an unorthodox pivot up a perfect 5th to Ab for the final chorus at 2:48, where it remains until the end.
“Get Happy” was the first song composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Ted Koehler wrote together, and was made famous by Judy Garland in the 1950 film Summer Stock. In 2019, actress Renee Zellweger starred in the movie Judy, a biopic of Garland’s life, and recorded this arrangement for the soundtrack with singer Sam Smith.
The tune features a succession of three half-step modulations: from the original home key of G up to Ab at 1:08, rising to A at 1:52, and finally landing in Bb at 2:26.
“Tell Her” is from the Broadway musical 13, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The stage version premiered in New York in 2008, and the show was recently adapted into a movie by Netflix and released on the platform last month.
“Tell Her,” performed here by Eli Golden, Gabriella Uhl and the ensemble, comes near the end of the show and features multiple modulations. Beginning in G, the song shifts up a third to Bb for the second verse at 1:04, and then rises again a half step to B for the verse three at 1:52 before returning to G at 3:08.
“Camille” is a little-known musical, with music by Rob Abel and lyrics by Chuck Steffan, that premiered in 2004 at the York Theatre Company’s Summer Developmental Reading Series. We are featuring Sally Mayes, a Broadway actress and noted cabaret singer, singing “Until Now” from the show. Key changes at 0:47 and 1:40.
Olivia Newton-John, a winner of four Grammy awards and an artist who sold upwards of 100 million albums worldwide, passed away today after a multi-year battle with cancer. We’re featuring a tune from one of the many high points of her multi-faceted career.
“Longtime Olivia Newton-John associate John Farrar composed ‘Suddenly’ for the soundtrack to the movie Xanadu in 1980,” (AllMusic). “Recorded in Los Angeles in March 1980, a somewhat slight ballad was transformed into a genuinely heartfelt duet between the Australian and Cliff Richard, with whom she had enjoyed a decade-long association as friend and occasional co-performer (she was a regular guest on his early-’70s TV series). ‘We do have a good relationship and I think it really comes across in the song,’ Richard mused. Indeed, released as Richard’s 79th British single, ‘Suddenly’ reached number 15 in that country, despite the general failure of the accompanying movie. It also became Richard’s fourth U.S. Top 40 hit in a year, when it reached number 20 in October 1980.”
Newton-John was always more than just a pretty face; the same could be said for her UK duet partner! Richard was a massive star in the UK by 1980s, but was beginning to catch on in the US market as well — with plenty of boyish pop cred belying his age (40 vs. Newton-John’s 32). “Suddenly” was a central part of the Xanadu soundtrack, but on the eve of MTV’s appearance in 1981, a promotional video featuring both singers was called for, rather than footage from the fanciful rollerskating-centric movie. If the US Top 40 somehow had a baby with the visual aesthetic of TV soap opera General Hospital, one of the largest media blockbusters of the era, this video would have been the result (move over, Luke ‘n’ Laura … Cliff and Olivia are super cute and have pipes!) The chemistry here might not have been entirely the result of acting: upon her death, Richard said of Newton-John: “‘We hit it off straight away. She was the sort of soulmate that you meet and you know is a friend for life. When I and many of us were in love with Olivia, she was engaged to someone else. I’m afraid I lost the chance,'” (Daily Mail).
After a somewhat aimlessly wandering intro (OMG, we have synths now! Let’s use them a lot!), Richard’s half of the verse begins in Ab major (0:16) but ends in B major; Newton-John’s half begins in Bb major (0:35) but effortlessly glissades into the Eb chorus (0:53). Lots of pivots continue from there.
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