September Songs

Oh, it’s a long, long time from May to December — but here we are, about to enter September. So I assume that you, like I, will begin the month by listening to “September Song,” the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson classic from Knickerbocker Holiday. But after we play that song on September 1, what do we do for the rest of the month?

May I make a suggestion? Why not, on each day, play a song from a musical that opened on that date in September? I’ve made the following handy-dandy little chart to suggest what might be the most appropriate song from each score to play on each date.

September 2: Rose Marie (1924). This isn’t getting off to too good a start, is it? I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t own a recording of this chestnut. (I have to admit that I have three, one of which is in Russian, though I can’t say I’ve ever played it.) But if you do, maybe it would be a good idea to listen to “Indian Love Call” (“When I’m calling you-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-oooo!”) just to see far how far the musical has progressed over the past 78 years.

September 3: Sweet Adeline (1929). Alas, here’s an Encores! show that didn’t get a cast album. But if you have John McGlinn’s “Broadway Showstoppers,” recorded a decade ago, you already know that “Some Girl Is on Your Mind” is one of the most glorious melodies that the always glorious Jerome Kern ever produced.

September 4: Unsung Cole (1977). No cast album, either, from this revue that played the ol’ Circle Rep at Sheridan Square, so we don’t have Maureen Moore’s wonderful rendition of “Nobody’s Chasing Me” from Out of This World. But we do have Charlotte Greenwood on the original cast album of that show and Andrea Martin on the Encores! disc, and either of those will suffice.

September 5: Good Boy (1928). Here’s the show that made Helen Kane the New Girl in Town, thanks to her boop-boop-ee-doop rendition of “I Wanna Be Loved by You.” See what took the town by storm (and try to figure out how it happened).

September 6: Good News (1927). We have Wayne Bryan, Mark Madama, and Music Theatre of Wichita to thank for the one and only CD of this Roaring Twenties hit. “The Varsity Drag” is not only a great song but also gets a terrific dance arrangement here.

September 7: The Fantasticks (1961). No, you’re saying! As every musical theater enthusiast knows, The Fantasticks opened on May 3, 1960. But here we’re talking about the opening in London, where the show ran considerably fewer performances than it did Off-Broadway: a grand total of 44. Today, try to remember to play “Try to Remember,” especially considering that it contains several references to September.

September 8: Carnival in Flanders (1953). Of course, you could go with any of a number of renditions of “Here’s That Rainy Day” — the most famous song ever to come from a week-long flop — but I suggest you take out your copy of “Unsung Musicals” and play Debbie Gravitte’s “That Man Is Doing His Worst to Make Good,” a hilarious hoot if there ever was one.

September 9: The Roar of the Greasepaint — The Smell of the Crowd (1964). No, it didn’t open on Broadway on that date, but it did in Liverpool, before eventually closing in Manchester without braving the West End. But David Merrick thought the show had potential and brought it over the following year. So get out the excellent cast album and play “Where Would I Be Without You?” in his honor.

September 10: Urinetown (2001). Celebrate the first anniversary of this terrific show with the intoxicating title tune.

September 11: Hold onto Your Hats (1940). I’ll understand if you don’t want to play any music on the first anniversary of one of our nation’s greatest tragedies. But it is ironic that the best song in this show is “Life Was Pie for the Pioneers” — which says how previous generations had it easier than we. Check it out on Ben Bagley’s recording of the score.

September 12: The Chocolate Soldier (1909). Notice how many of these operettas opened early in the season? I don’t know about you, but I’d opt for “Why Is It Love Makes Us Feel Queer?”

September 13: Charlie and Algernon (1980). That’s what it was called on Broadway, though this musical version of Charly was titled Flowers for Algernon when it had played London a bit earlier. And the London cast album is the one you’ll have to play, because there was no Broadway cast album for a show that only managed 17 performances at the old Helen Hayes on 46th Street. Even if there had been a disc of the New York production, I’d still recommend you opt for the London one because that version contains one of Charles Strouse’s most lovely jazz waltzes — “His Name is Charlie Gordon” — which was inexplicably dropped for Broadway.

September 14: Say Hello to Harvey (1981). No cast album for this one, either, as Leslie Bricusse’s musical version of Harvey opened and closed in Toronto. But grab the Sherlock Holmes London cast album from 1989 and play “A Lousy Life,” which Bricusse recycled into this bomb. Not a bad piece of special material.

September 15: Flying Colors (1932). THis is another show from the pre-cast album era. To hear the delicious “Shine on Your Shoes,” you’re going to have to pull out your soundtrack to M-G-M’s The Band Wagon, where this song is happily represented.

September 16: No, No, Nanette (1925). How well I remember Walter Kerr waxing rhapsodic over Helen Gallagher’s singing of “Too Many Rings Around Rosie” in the revolutionary 1971 revival. Hear why on the cast album.

September 17: Boy Meets Boy (1975). One of the first gay musicals remains one of the best. You can try the title song (“Boy meets boy; boy loses boy; but boy gets boy in the end!”), though I prefer the pseudo-operetta pastiche “It’s a Boy’s Life,” obviously inspired by “Stout-Hearted Men.”

September 18: Song and Dance (1985). In the years when this date falls on a Sunday, there’s no question that you should play “Tell Me on a Sunday.” But this year, September 18 falls on a Wednesday, so you can choose “Unexpected Song” — unless that’s too expected a choice.

September 19: The New Moon (1935). Speaking of “Stout-Hearted Men,” here’s the show from which it sprung. But I’m going to opt for a song called “Funny Little Sailor Men.”

September 20: Miss Saigon (1989). Celebrate the London opening by playing “The Heat Is On in Saigon,” even though neither the show nor its heat are on in London or on Broadway any more. (A production at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey begins performances on Wednesday.)

September 21: Oh, Kay! (1925) in London. Do, do, do play “Do, Do, Do” from the 1994 Nonesuch recording, which is the most definitive rendition of the score.

September 22: On this date in 1964, two fine musicals opened in major venues. The more famous, of course, was Fiddler on the Roof at the Imperial on Broadway, and you could play any wonderful Bock-Harnick song from that. But, over in London at the Adelphi, there was Maggie May, Lionel (Oliver!) Bart’s new musical with a decidedly Brechtian feel. Bayview Records has just re-released the London cast album, so you can hear a pre-Dame Edna Barry Humphries sing “The Ballad of the Liver Bird.” But I’m going to play Rachel Roberts’s singing “It’s Yourself,” a quite beautiful ballad.

September 23: A Mother’s Kisses (1968). At least, that’s when it opened in New Haven. But it closed in Baltimore and canceled its planned opening at the 46th Street Theatre, causing ABC-Paramount Records to not wax the score of this Richard Adler show in which Bea Arthur starred as a castrating mom. Not much has been recorded from the score, but track down Eydie Gorme’s “When You Gonna Learn to Put Your Money on This Baby?” and you’ll have a decent enough time.

September 24: Salvation (1969). Do you have an old 45 hanging around your house of Ronnie Dyson’s “If You Let Me Make Love to You, Then Why Can’t I Touch You?” It’s not too often that an Off-Broadway show which winds up lasting less than a year (239 performances, in this case) can land a cover recording, but this one did. Of course, if you choose the rendition on the original cast album, that’d be all right, too — though you might opt instead for “There Ain’t No Flies on Jesus.”

September 25: Evita (1979). So which recording will you choose? You probably have the 1978 original London cast, the 1979 original Broadway cast, the 1980 Spanish cast, the Mexican, Vienna, Korean, and South African casts (all 1981), the Tokyo and New Zealand casts (both 1982), the 1983 Brazilian cast, the 1986 Hungarian cast, the 1990 Israeli cast, the 1995 Dutch cast, the Icelandic and Osaka casts (both 1997), the 1998 Czech cast, and the Danish and Swedish casts (both 2001). Well, you have them if the money keeps rollin’ in for you. And, if it does, that’s the song you must play. (Dontcha just love it when, towards the end of the number, the music stops cold for a few beats before it continues?)

September 26: West Side Story (1957). Whenever this date falls on a Sunday, you should play “The Jet Song,” if indeed the New York Jets are playing football. But this year, it’s on a Thursday. You could commemorate the end of our long hot summer by playing “Cool.” But what’s more heavenly and exciting than the “Quintet”? I say, play it five times in a row.

September 27: Hair (1968). Because this is actually the anniversary of the opening in London, grab your West End cast album (recently released on CD by Decca Broadway) and listen to any of the six songs that don’t appear on the well known original Broadway Cast album. The best, though, is “Dead End.”

September 28: Once on This Island (1994). That’s when it opened in London. And the West End cast album is worth a listen, Ahrens-Flaherty expert Ronni Krasnow tells me, because it contains a good deal of dialogue and a fascinating new take on “The Human Heart.” But I suggest you start at “We Dance,” the opening number, and see if you can bring yourself to take this disc off before all of its fabulous numbers are heard.

September 29: Irma La Douce (1960). Who’d think that a song called “From a Prison Cell” could be beautiful? But indeed it is, as you’ll find when you play that selection from this disc today.

September 30: Les Misérables (1985). That’s when it all began at the Barbican. So now, at the end of the month, play “At the End of the Day.”

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@aol.com]