Broadway's Melissa Errico Releases New Recording of 'Walking Happy'

Ghostlight Records will expand their special single from stage and screen star Melissa Errico with the third song, "Walking Happy." The digital exclusive is available today, June 23, 2015, on iTunes here.

This will be added to two other tracks -- "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?" (Burton Lane/Yip Harburg) and "Maybe Someone Dreamed Us" (Michel Legrand/Alan & Marilyn Bergman) -- which were originally recorded for her critically-acclaimed album Lullabies & Wildflowers -- currently available on Ghostlight -- and produced and arranged by 2015 Tony Award-nominee Rob Mathes (Sting, Tony Bennett).

In an eclectic disc that featured the music of Judy Collins, Tom Petty, George Gershwin, folk and Celtic lullabies in addition to Melissa's self-penned songs, these didn't make it to the final release four years ago. The first 50 people to download the single will receive a free signed poster for Lullabies & Wildflowers. To order the tracks, visit the label's site here.

Proceeds from the single will benefit The Bowery Babes, Errico's charity, a New York 501c-3 founded in 2005, offering free support and resources to Manhattan mothers and families.

"Walking Happy" -- a theater song turned into a jazz standard by Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, Rosemary Clooney and other artists -- originated as the title song of the 1966 Broadway musical by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. Errico's release is a new mix of this tune from her original Lullabies & Wildflowers album which was previously engineered with an old-fashioned radio effect.

Melissa says "Now, listeners can hear this delightful uptempo song with a pure and crisp vocal and musical mix." Her recording session of the song itself was filmed (and can be viewed on YouTube here), capturing the unique nature of the session with musicians playing and Melissa singing live in one room with no editing.

While working on concert stages and in exciting recurring television roles ("The Knick" on Cinemax; the upcoming "Billions" on Showtime), Melissa has focused the last few years on raising her young family in Manhattan. She recently starred in the world premiere of the musical Bull Durham at The Alliance Theater, and has begun to develop a new musical with David Shire and Adam Gopnik called Table. (Her recording of Shire-Gopnik's new music was featured this April on Jonathan Schwartz's NPR/WNYC program.) This year, Melissa recorded for her first film soundtrack: "Hurry Home" by Michel Legrand/Alan & Marilyn Bergman for the film Max Rose starring Jerry Lewis.

Errico will appear as principal soloist with The San Diego Symphony for two performances August 7 and 8, 2015 celebrating the music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. She will debut a new one-woman show at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater -- co-written with Adam Gopnik from The New Yorker -- on November 18 and 19, 2015 at 7:00 PM.

"How Are Things In Glocca Morra?" features Andy Ezrin (Chris Botti band) on piano. The song is one of the greatest standards from musical theater origin, from Finian's Rainbow by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg, which was recorded for the film adaptation by Petula Clark. Errico starred in a hit New York Off-Broadway revival, winning such praise for her portrayal of Sharon. "With such songs as 'Glocca Morra,' you see how valuable an asset Melissa Errico is to New York musical theater: hers is the voice of enchantment" (Ben Brantley, The New York Times).

"Maybe Someone Dreamed Us" has music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman. Melissa is the first and only vocalist in history to record this song, and is one of the Legrand songs she most considers "a trademark of mine, if I may be so bold. It just carries me away and I adore it, and always sing it in concert whenever I can." Melissa's first recording of this song was on her latest solo disc Legrand Affair (available from Ghostlight Records) produced by industry legend Phil Ramone and recorded by the vastly dramatic 100-piece Brussels Philharmonic, conducted and arranged by Legrand himself. Melissa's recording was given the honor of being included in the recently-released 15-disc box set collection Michel Legrand Anthology, alongside Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield, Tony Bennett and more. Her version from Lullabies & Wildflowers, now being released, is notable for its intimacy. Errico says, "The message of the song is huge - that we are all connected - all life forms, all things that grow and change. We are all links in one chain. All part of one universal dream." She adds "you could see it as political - as I do... or Buddhist, or just as a beautiful utopian poem."

Sh-K-Boom with its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in Original Broadway Cast Recordings - building a library of over 150 records in the last 15 years, featuring some of the most successful Broadway musicals and solo albums by Broadway's brightest stars. Founded by Grammy Award winner Kurt Deutsch and three-time Tony Award nominee Sherie Rene Scott, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight has won three Grammy Awards (for The Book of Mormon, In the Heights and Beautiful - The Carole King Musical) and is a frequent nominee, most recently for the OBCR of the 2014 "Best Musical" Tony Award winner A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Other notable recent releases include the 2014 "Best Score" Tony Award winner The Bridges of Madison County, Disney's Newsies, Pippin and Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, adding to a catalogue that includes the OBCRs of Next to Normal, Hair, Legally Blonde, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Everyday Rapture, Passing Strange, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Drowsy Chaperone and many more Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. The label has also released solo albums from some of Broadway's biggest names: Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott, Adam Pascal, Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Alice Ripley, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and Ben Vereen. The label also continues to support the new generation of musical theatre composers with their extensive relationships with Michael John LaChiusa (Giant, Queen of the Mist, See What I Wanna See, Little Fish) and Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Love's Labour's Lost, The Fortress of Solitude), as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt, Pasek & Paul, Joe Iconis, Ryan Scott Oliver, Shaina Taub, Dave Malloy, Kerrigan & Lowdermilk and Adam Gwon. The label recently created a new joint publishing venture with Razor & Tie to represent songwriters that fuse theatrical and pop music. Sh-K-Boom Entertainment is a producer of the acclaimed film version of The Last Five Years, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. www.sh-k-boom.com