“Tonight at Eight” as heard on Chanson
music Jerry Bock lyric Sheldon Harnick
performance Anthony Perkins
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Let’s call this a belated birthday present for Jo
Significant changes were made to She Loves Me for the original London production in 1964, most notably replacing Ilona’s “I Resolve” with this song, “Heads I Win,” for Rita Moreno. (Other changes include changing “Three Letters” into the company number “Letters,” candy became chocolates, optometrist became optician, etc.)
Moreno sang “I Resolve” in the 1977 Town Hall concert of She Loves Me starring Madeline Kahn and Barry Bostwick.
oh man, I would be PISSED if I went to see a production of She Loves Me and THIS replaced “I Resolve”. It’s just…not as good. Sometimes revision is a terrible, terrible thing.
“Letters” from the original London cast recording of She Loves Me.
I wonder why on earth they thought they needed to make this a production number with a lot of ensemble singing. I mean, the ensemble IS around all night pretending to be shoppers here and there.
“When Did I Fall in Love”/”Dear Friend” as heard on Adler, Bock, Coleman
music Jerry Bock lyrics Sheldon Harnick
performance Dale Kristien
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This inspired pairing is from a 2000 concert in LA supporting AIDS charities. I love the way the verse of one song gives way to the chorus for the other. I hadn’t realized both songs exist in such a similar musical mode—or that their lyrics complimented each other so well.
I am not familiar with Dale Kristien—her most notable credit seems to be several years as Christine in the Vegas Phantom—but she does a lovely job here.
“Christmas Eve” cut from She Loves Me (from the album A Broadway Christmas)
music Jerry Bock lyric Sheldon Harnick
performance Yvette Lawrence
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Here is a lovely cut song from She Loves Me that did not (as far as I recall) come up during Saturday’s screening of the delightful BBC film version at the Paley Center. Check out Itsdlevy’s post on “My North American Drugstore”, a cut song that DID come up.) According to Philip Lambert’s To Broadway, To Life! the song, sung by Maraczek and Co “near the end of Act 2” was cut in Philadelphia when the creators realized they just had too much music for the audience to intake. (Harnick discussed this problem at the Paley center, slyly saying that Andrew Lloyd Weber can get away with writing an evening of wall-to-wall music “because he only uses a few themes and repeats them throughout the evening” whereas She Loves Me was asking audiences to continuously learn new themes throughout the evening and would eventually get tired and give up.)
At the Paley Center on Saturday, Sheldon Harnick mentioned that one of the elements of She Loves Me that makes it special is how character-driven each of the songs is. He noted that the original kiss-off number for Jack Cassidy was a tour de force that drew a big hand, but it felt too much like a cabaret number and not enough like the character. So Sheldon and Jerry Bock approached Cassidy and asked him to learn a new number, even though “My Drug Store” was getting laughs and applause. He agreed, figuring he could always go back if the replacement didn’t work. Bock & Harnick wrote “Grand Knowing You,” and it tightened up the scene, and the rest is history.
Still, I was curious to hear the original song, and thanks to the wonderful people of the internet, now we can. Here’s the composers’ demo of the song — I believe that’s Jerry Bock singing.
this is an incredible find! I like how Harnick incorporates the phrase “the shop around the corner” into the lyric.
This is a cut song that was recorded in the demo of She Loves Me, sung and played by Bock and Harnick in 1963. There are so many gems in this demo, from cut songs to “A Trip to the Library.” It’s pretty surreal to listen to the authors sing songs from their own scores.
The flip side of Julie Andrews singing “Dear Friend” was Julie Andrews singing the title song from She Loves Me.
(Do you all know why it was called the flip side, dear readers? Because they were records. And you needed to flip them over to hear the song on the other side. Sometimes I feel like the goddamned man in the chair.)
This is just delightful. Julie gives it a truly jaunty performance, and I love hearing the gender pronouns reversed. And I don’t know if it’s the pronouns, Andrews’ performance, or the fact that it’s spring, but I never quite picked up on the lyric ”My teeth hurt, from the urge to touch him” until just now. I think I like that image as much as Sondheim likes “when the world was an onion” from Bloomer Girls’ “The Eagle and Me”!
Since all my younger Tumblr friends are discovering Tumblr this week, it’s time to introduce them to Julie Andrews’s recording of “Dear Friend” and the sad tale of the proposed film version starring Julie that wasn’t to be.
Of all the various things about the various versions of She Loves Me, Sally Mayes as Ilona is my favorite.
Jessie Mueller & Heidi Kettenring sing “If I Knew His Name”, from She Loves Me.
a promo vid for a 2010 production at Writers’ Theater in Chicago, and as good a rendition of this song as one is wont to hear. Nooooowww I see what the hubub about Jessie Mueller is. And j’approve.
