re: Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
re: Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
#1Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
Posted: 11/7/06 at 12:10am
On various occassions, I've heard people refer to a list of "The Top 100 Songs Sondheim Wishes He'd Written". I know "Silverware" from the musical We Take The Town is on there, as is "Better" by Edward Kleban.
Does anyone know when and why Sondheim compiled such a list and where I can find it? I think it's SO interesting...
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#1re: Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
Posted: 11/7/06 at 12:50am
This is from a New York Times interview with Frank Rich published in 2000. It's 50 songs, and it's not so much "Top Songs I Wish I'd Written." I think he's said that at some other time, he might have picked some different songs, that these were the ones that occurred to him at that time.
And I think the parenthetical "(At Least in Part)" is also worthy of note. I think that though he likes all these songs, with many of them what he particularly likes is a particular line or joke or something like that. No question, though, that some of these songs ("My Man's Gone Now" especially) are among his absolute favorites.
Songs I Wish I'd Written (At Least in Part) By Stephen Sondheim
Sondheim compiled this list, organized by composer, of art songs, Hollywood standards and show tunes for a Library of Congress concert in his honor on May 22. Among the particularly Sondheimesque choices are those from "Kelly," "We Take the Town" and "The Yearling," all big-time theatrical fiascoes.
Ager, Milton "Hard Hearted Hannah, the Vamp of Savannah" (1924), lyrics by Jack Yellen, Bob Bigelow, Charles Bates.
Arlen, Harold "Blues in the Night," from "Blues in the Night" (film, 1941), lyrics by Johnny Mercer; "Buds Won't Bud," from "Hooray for What!" (1937), lyrics by E.Y. Harburg; "The Eagle and Me," from "Bloomer Girl" (1944), lyrics by E.Y. Harburg; "I Had Myself a True Love," from "St. Louis Woman" (1946), lyrics by Johnny Mercer; "I Wonder What Became of Me," from "St. Louis Woman" (1946), lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
Berlin, Irving "Let's Face the Music and Dance," from "Follow the Fleet" (film, 1936); "I Got Lost in His Arms," from "Annie Get Your Gun" (1946); "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," from "Annie Get Your Gun" (1946).
Bernstein, Leonard "Glitter and Be Gay," from "Candide" (1956), lyrics by Richard Wilbur.
Bock, Jerry "Ice Cream," from "She Loves Me" (1963), lyrics by Sheldon Harnick; "Tell Me I Look Nice," cut from "She Loves Me" (1963), lyrics by Sheldon Harnick; "When Did I Fall in Love," from "Fiorello!" (1959), lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
Burke, Johnny "Sad Was the Day," from "Donnybrook!" (1961).
Charlap, Moose "I'll Never Go There Anymore," from "Kelly" (1965), lyrics by Eddie Lawrence.
Coleman, Cy "The Best Is Yet to Come" (1959), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh; "The Other Side of the Tracks," from "Little Me" (1962) lyrics by Carolyn Leigh; "Real Live Girl," from "Little Me" (1962), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh; "The Rules of the Road" (1961), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh; "When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)" (1964), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.
Copland, Aaron (adapted by) "Golden Willow Tree," from "Old American Songs, Second Set" (1954).
Gallet, Luciano (arranged by) "Bambalala (Song of the Northern Interior) (Pernambuco)."
Gershwin, George "My Man's Gone Now," from "Porgy and Bess" (1935), lyrics by DuBose Heyward.
Guettel, Adam "The Riddle Song," from "Floyd Collins" (1994).
Henderson, Ray "Birth of the Blues," from "George White's Scandals 1926," lyrics by B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown.
Jones, Peter "Bluellow," from "Peyton Place" (1994).
Jurmann, Walter and Kaper, Bronislau "San Francisco," from "San Francisco" (film, 1936), lyrics by Gus Kahn.
Kander, John "Home," from "70, Girls, 70" (1971), lyrics by Fred Ebb.
Karr, Harold "Silverware," from "We Take the Town" (1962), lyrics by Matt Dubey.
Kern, Jerome "I Am So Eager," from "Music in the Air" (1932), lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; "The Song Is You," from "Music in the Air" (1932), lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Kleban, Edward "Better" (1973).
Leonard, Michael "I'm All Smiles," from "The Yearling" (1965), lyrics by Herbert Martin.
Loesser, Frank "Make a Miracle," from "Where's Charley?" (194
.
Martin, Hugh "Ev'ry Time," from "Best Foot Forward" (1941), with Ralph Blane; "Gotta Dance," from "Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'!" (194; "I Wanna Be Good 'n' Bad," from "Make a Wish!" (1951); "The Trolley Song," from "Meet Me in St. Louis" (film, 1944), with Ralph Blane.
Merrill, Bob "On the Farm," from "New Girl in Town" (1957).
Montsalvatge, Xavier "Cancion de Cuna Para Dormir a un Negrito (Cradle Song for a Little Black Boy)," from "Cinco Canciones Negras" (195, lyrics by Ildefonso Pereda Valdes.
Muir, Lewis F. "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (1912), lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert.
Porter, Cole "Every Time We Say Goodbye," from "Seven Lively Arts" (1944); "Let's Be Buddies," from "Panama Hattie" (1940); "Let's Not Talk About Love," from "Let's Face It" (1941).
Rodgers, Richard "What's the Use of Wond'rin'," from "Carousel" (1945), lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; "Why Can't I," from "Spring Is Here" (1929), lyrics by Lorenz Hart.
Roy, William "Charm," from "Maggie" (1953); "What Every Woman Knows," from "Maggie" (1953).
Schwartz, Arthur "By Myself," from "Between the Devil" (1937), lyrics by Howard Dietz; "He Had Refinement," from "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1951), lyrics by Dorothy Fields; "There's No Holding Me," from "Park Avenue" (1946), lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
Shire, David "Travel," originally written for "Cyrano," known from "Starting Here, Starting Now" (1977), lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr.
Strouse, Charles "You've Got Possibilities," from "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman" (1966), lyrics by Lee Adams.
Styne, Jule "When the Weather's Better," from "Hallelujah, Baby!" (1967), lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Yeston, Maury "New Words," from "History Loves Company" (1989).
Updated On: 11/7/06 at 12:50 AM
neddyfrank2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#2re: Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
Posted: 11/7/06 at 12:54amNo Jerry Herman...interesting
#3re: Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
Posted: 11/7/06 at 1:09amHe once said, "Quite often one is acutely aware of the lyric writer, as in the case of people like Ira Gershwin and Lorenz Hart, where the accents and stresses are off almost constantly, and where the effortfulness and the twisting of syntax points up the problem . . . .People like Fred Ebb, Sheldon Harnick, and Jerry Herman make the lyric sound natural; the rise and fall, the stress, the inflection sound much more like speech and much less forced, and there's much less inverted grammar and syntax, and that's because our generation was affected by Hammerstein, whose primary concern . . . was that lyrics should sound natural and not written."
#4re: Sondheim's Top 100 Songs He Wishes He'd Written?
Posted: 11/7/06 at 2:08am
THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!!! 
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
