Leonard Bernstein: Take Care of This House

Leonard Bernstein: Take Care of This House

I had planned a different Leonard Bernstein tune to finish out my most enjoyable stint as “Song of the Day” blogger, but the events of last week compelled me to swap out my initial choice, so: some other time. Politics and musical theater have always gone hand in...
Cy Coleman: Our Private World

Cy Coleman: Our Private World

My “Song of the Day” blog began this week with an enchanted train; in actuality, a wheezy rickety commuter train on the Long Island Rail Road.  Today, I’ll turn to the “prince of wheels—the luxury liner of locomotive trains”:  the Twentieth Century, Ltd., which zoomed...
Dino Oliveri:  J’Attendrai

Dino Oliveri: J’Attendrai

Given that, this week, I’m writing about songs for NYFOS, I’d be remiss if I didn’t select at least one song in a foreign language. As a show tune fan, I would have had a few options to choose from—“Dites-Moi” from South Pacific, say, or “Abbondanza” from The Most...
Richard Rodgers:  Take the Moment

Richard Rodgers: Take the Moment

Many great songs are American standards; some fly under the radar of popular culture.  And then there are a few great songs that haven’t even been properly introduced to the radar. In 1965, you would be hard-pressed to find two songwriters who better represented the...

Jerome Kern: The enchanted train

I grew up on Long Island, forty-five minutes from Broadway (actually forty-nine) and my father commuted to the city and back on the Long Island Rail Road, five days a week, for 38 years.  One night, he trudged wearily through the front door, tossed his briefcase...