Better is subjective but off the top of my head... Every Day A Little Death from A Little Night Music and Love Look Away from Flower Drum Song are two favorites.
I'm sorry. I like HAMILTON a lot, but there are about four other Rodgers and Hart songs (not to mention Johnny Mercer songs, Sondheim songs, hell, even "The Very Next Man" from FIORELLO!) that I'd place over "Satisfied" in terms of "best unrequited love songs ever."
I prefer the simplicity and earnestness of "Loving You" from Passion (but I like Satisfied, too).
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
jv92 said: "I'm sorry. I like HAMILTON a lot, but there are about four other Rodgers and Hart songs (not to mention Johnny Mercer songs, Sondheim songs, hell, even "The Very Next Man" from FIORELLO!) that I'd place over "Satisfied" in terms of "best unrequited love songs ever."
I had forgotten what a fantastic song "The Very Next Man" was until hearing it again at the Encores! discussion on race and gender at the Greene Space a few weeks ago.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
It is a very satisfying song. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) It is also a very sophisticated and layered piece of writing. I don't really find it important to rank things.
I had forgotten what a fantastic song "The Very Next Man" was until hearing it again at the Encores! discussion on race and gender at the Greene Space a few weeks ago.
"Waiting for ships that never come in, a girl is likely to miss the boat" is one of my favorite lyric lines ever.
In any event, it is indeed silly to rank things, but I just had to give Larry Hart, and the other writers I mentioned, some props.
What's smart about the lyrics to "Satisfied"? Is it the part where she forgets her "dang name"? Or where she says, "I'm 'a give it a chance"? Or when she uses a dream as a simile for "dreamlike candlelight"?
Aw, I like On My Own. I think there are different facets to unrequited love and simple and overwrought as it is, it captures one of those facets very accurately.
I really like the "forgot my dang name" lyric, it's cute and endearing.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
I really, really love this song and I think this list from The New Yorker does an excellent job breaking the song down:
The jewel of Miranda’s jewel-heavy score, “Satisfied” may be the single best theatrical song written in the past decade. It’s hard to recall any recent show tune that packs in as much verbal wit, narrative surprise, stylistic alacrity, and revelation of character—and it belongs not to Hamilton, not to Burr, but to Angelica Schuyler, played by the incandescent Renée Elise Goldsberry. The song begins with Angelica’s wedding toast—Hamilton is marrying her sister, Eliza—and rewinds to the moment Alexander met them both, and Angelica made a snap decision that sealed her frustrated fate. Her motor-mouthed deconstruction of her own motives is mind-bending in complexity, and when we finally return to that wedding toast it’s heavy with irony. I’ve seen “Satisfied” three times onstage, listened to it maybe a hundred more, and still haven’t tired of its breathtaking nuance. It’s musical storytelling at its best.
"Satisfied" is a fine song. Other good songs about unrequited love: "Perfect Relationship" (BELLS ARE RINGING); "I Wonder How It Is to Dance with a Boy" (HENRY SWEET HENRY), the aforementioned "Very Next Man" and the grandmama of them all, "Losing My Mind." The last is the absolute best in that category IMHO.
Ah, the part where she rhymes "one" with "one." Gotcha.
She actually rhymes "I'm" with "Climb." It treats "I'mtheone" and "Climbforone" as if they are each just one word and it makes for more varied and surprising lyrics than using perfect rhymes at the end of each phrase through the entirety of the show. In addition, a show like hamilton, which emulates a lot of today's pop music, is more likely to borrow from the rhyme scheme of today's music than rely on the standard perfect rhyme scheme of musical theatre. The show's whole concept hinges upon telling the story through the lens of modern music and cultural awareness so while it's respectful of and makes many nods to musical theatre of the 20th century, the lyrics best serve the story by resembling modern pop and rap and aren't being tied down by what's considered "proper" by broadway lyric standards.
There is a lot more going on in Satisfied than On My Own. I'm not saying that necessarily makes it better, but the song is much more layered than On My Own.
On My Own is simply about what it feels to like someone that doesn't like you back. In addition to that, Satisfied explores things like conflicts between loving two people (sister/Alex), what it is like to have a connection with someone that is very rare to find, and family expectations regarding partners.
I guess my point is that, sure feel free to criticise small details regarding rhyming etc. But Satisfied is substantially more complex than On My Own. And that's without even considering the variety/complexity of the actual music.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000