Tuesday, April 15, 2014

I've Got This Covered: fun.: Some Nights"

It's been a while since the last I've Got This Covered, so if you've forgotten what it is, this is where I take an album and imagine what artists could cover it. In this edition, I've taken fun.'s album Some Nights and imagined which musicals the tracks could have been removed from.

1) Some Nights (Intro) - Sweeney Todd
I hate to start by going out onto a little bit of a limb, but I feel like this could be a dark song for just after "Epiphany," perhaps after Todd has claimed his first couple of victims and starts to feel just the smallest bit of remorse.

2) Some Nights - The Lion King
When this song first came out, I saw a couple people describe it as having a Lion King feel, but even in terms of concept, The Lion King fits. "Some Nights" reminds me of Hamlet, and The Lion King is technically a Hamlet adaptation. This one would be sung by Simba somewhere between the middle and the end of the musical.

3) We Are Young - Oliver!
I see this number as one with several narratives. Both Oliver! and this song have to do with the meshing of youth and naivety with adult concepts and dangers, so in Oliver!, this track would have been sung in part by Nancy and Bill Sykes and in part by the orphan children.

4) Carry On - West Side Story
"Carry On" could have been an alternate song for "There's a Place." It's perfect for the story, especially with the allusions to "knives in a fistfight."

5) It Gets Better - Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening isn't a musical I have a great deal of familiarity with, but from everything I know, a song about losing your virginity could find no better home.

6) Why Am I the One - The Music Man
Although it's not a perfect match, this song seemed to me to coincide beautifully with the scene in The Music Man in which Harold Hill bemoans "for the first time in my life, I got my foot stuck in the door."

7) All Alone - Easter Parade
Considering this song almost sums up the first fifteen minutes of Easter Parade, where else could it go? In the film, Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) buys an Easter rabbit for Nadine Hale (Ann Miller) just before she breaks up with him. Hence, this scene would involve Hewes singing about the rabbit (who is now a wind-up doll, but close enough).

8) All Alright - Scrooge
This song would be performed either during Scrooge's visit to Christmas past (as he watches himself let the love of his life go) or Christmas present (as he realizes he's pushed away anyone who would care about him).

9) One Foot - Rent
Rent is another musical I'm not intimately familiar with, but the attitude of this song seems to fit it pretty well. Perhaps an alternate for "La Vie Boheme"?

10) Stars - The Girl Can't Help It
A great forgotten musical that I've paired with my least favorite song on Some Nights. "Stars" would be sung by Tom Miller about Julie London instead of the fantasy sequence with London singing "Cry Me a River."

11) Out on the Town - My Fair Lady
"Out on the Town" has always reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life, but since it isn't a musical, "Out on the Town" would function as a reprise of "On the Street Where You Live."


That's how I think it should go down. Questions? Better ideas? Drop me a comment. Or if you have lots of pull in the musical theater community, feel free to make this happen.

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