Each day this week I’ll feature a song from one of my five favorite Broadway musicals. Today’s is my favorite song from West Side Story, “Somewhere” (music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim).
The first version is from the 1961 movie, with Natalie Wood as Maria (the song is actually sung by Marni Nixon), and Richard Beymer as Tony (song sung by Jimmy Bryant).
But I think the absolute best version is the one by Barbra Streisand, here doing it live:
I must admit, I never did care much for Streisand. And I think I’d probably go for “Maria” rather than “Somewhere” for a favorite from that show…though there’s a lot to be said for “Tonight”…and “One Hand, One Heart”….
Cheers,
b&
There is an outstanding performance by Stan Kenton and his big band (complete with mellophoniums). They did an entire album of arrangements of West Side Story selections. Very 1950s and smokin’-catch the arrangement of “America.”
This is kind of fun. I haven’t seen many musicals so I’ve nothing to contribute but I am enjoying watching a selection of what you think are the best. Thanks for sharing some of your interests with us.
This is one of my favorite songs of all times. Whenever I hear it, I stop in my tracks. And NO ONE does it better than Barbara!
When I saw her in concert (another one of her last concerts, for all times…), she was joined by Il Divo (the four tenors). They appeared onstage mid-way through the song, so it was a surprise to us in the audience. Wow. The song was transported to a different galaxy (so to speak).
I actually liked the version by PJ Proby, during the 60s, if memory serves.
That said, WSS was (still is) a great musical. I took my wife to see a local version here in Melbourne, Australia, around a decade and a half ago. It was her first experience of live musical theater and, fortunately, we had great seats. During a particularly poignant part of the show, I surprised myself by how moved I was, reflected in the moisture pooling in my eyes. Sneaking a look at my wife, I saw that she was just as moved as I was.
Since then the show has reappeared every so often, and is always well patronized. This classic will never get stale.
I also like Jets, America and Officer Krupke in WSS.
Barbra’s version is nice, but what on earth made us wear shoulder pads in the 80s? I cut most of them out, but then I actually have shoulders, so didn’t need them anyway.
My favorite is Rock Island, the opening to The Music Man (the movie) at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ9U4Cbb4wg
It’s suggestive of the postings at WEIT.
So obviously Barbra Streisand is a spectacular singer, but how could anyone possibly like the performance Jerry posted here? This is supposed to be (1) a tender, wistful song (2) for a couple, and here we have Streisand on her own belting it out at maximum volume with a rock-band accompaniment.
I’m sure the failure here is mine. What am I missing? How does her performance make any sense? (As anything other than an opportunity to admire Streisand’s vocal abilities, which are not in question.)
I found this YouTube video of Maynard Ferguson playing Somewhere, circa 1969 when he made a comeback to the music scene and Keith Mansfield wrote some big band charts that worked with Maynard’s unique combination of physical power and lyricism. I’ll try the YouTube embed code with the fewest options checked and hope it shows up alright:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxmIGz5wdrA?rel=0&w=425&h=349%5D
Evidently not! The link should work:
By the way, the YouTube video of Maynard shows some cool physics. Maynard starts at 0:36 on a low A (for Bb trumpet), where he tilts his face down and tilts his trumpet up to extreme angles. I can’t remember seeing a classical trumpet player use such an extreme pivot. Physically what’s happening is that Maynard played custom mouthpieces with very small cups that helped his high notes and endurance, but it took him a while to learn to play low notes with a full sound. The secret is if you touch the tip of your tongue to your bottom lip, you can probably feel the flesh of your lip feels stiffer to the outside of your mouth and softer to the inside of your mouth. Maynard’s extreme low note pivot brought the vibration in his bottom lip farther into the softer flesh farther inside his mouth, then he got his fat sound below low C.
The scientifically curious might like these videos.