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.

I've Got This Covered: Finian's Rainbow

While I know it's not the most popular musical of all time, Finian's Rainbow happens to be one of my favorites. I would love to see modern artists performing some of the iconic songs from the film. These are my personal picks for which artists.

1) Prelude (Main Title) - Florence and the Machine
Florence Welch's strong voice would serve as a perfect opener for this somewhat mystical story. The use of silence around the powerful vocals is also something Florence excels at.

2) This Time of the Year - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
The down-home/folky feel of this song can't be handled by many modern artists. But Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros could make it work.

3) How Are Things in Glocca Morra? - Adele
Another strong voice to compete with Petula Clark's, I could hear Adele singing this song outside of this project.

4) Look to the Rainbow - The Bird and the Bee
The seldom-replicated sound of The Bird and the Bee would work amazingly well this tune.

5) If This Isn't Love - Ben Folds and Regina Spektor
If you've not heard "You Don't Know Me" by this duo, you're missing out. In any case, Ben Folds and Regina Spektor could perform a much more keyboard-ey version of this song.

6) Something Sort of Grandish - Of Monsters and Men
It would be very different, but something tells me that this duet would be well-served by Of Monsters and Men.

7) That Great Come-and-Get-It Day - Kishi Bashi
Of all the songs and artists I've picked for this project, this seems to be one of the most glove-like fits. If you aren't familiar with Kishi Bashi, he does stuff like this:

8) Old Devil Moon - Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith is one of those singers with the unique and old-fashioned voice you find very rarely. She has so much power in her vocals, she'd have no trouble with this song.

9) When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich - Pelle Carlberg
This Swedish singer has the style, sense of humor, and voice to carry this song. I could see a possible collaboration with Ida Maria again like on "I Love You, Imbecile."

10) When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love - Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé might not seem like the first choice for a list like this, but I think he'd be the perfect choice for this track.

11) Rain Dance Ballet - Vitamin String Quartet
Not only are Vitamin String Quartet one of the only modern-day quartets that mesh quite often with pop, but I think they could give this piece some real pizzazz.

12) The Begat - Barenaked Ladies

The Barenaked Ladies do some mean acapella, which I think could be applied to this song. See some of their a capella below (starts at 32 seconds):

13) How Are Things in Glocca Morra? (Finale) - The Decemberists
With the cute, yet powerful sound The Decemberists can produce, who better to close this album?

*"Necessity" would be omitted since it doesn't appear in the final film.

That's how I think it should go down. Questions? Better ideas? Drop me a comment. Or if you're a major magazine that has magical powers over artists, feel free to make this happen.

Comparing and Contrasting: "A Lady Loves" vs. "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"

I know that this post is going to be a bit strange amongst all the hipster music, but I am a huge fan of old-school musicals.

Right! So in 1953, there were tons of new musicals released. There were a lot of classic musicals, like Peter Pan and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T and The Band Wagon and Kiss Me, Kate (which, interestingly enough, was originally released in 2-d and 3-d). And another classic that came out in 1953 was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, what is arguably the best and most iconic Marilyn Monroe film. It features the musical number "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," which has been parodied and mocked more than almost any other musical number in history ("We're Off to See the Wizard," "The Sound of Music," and "Singin' in the Rain" are the only things that even come close).

I Love Melvin was also released in 1953, four months prior to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I Love Melvin is an early romantic comedy musical about Judy (Debbie Reynolds) and Melvin (Donald O'Connor). Judy has dreams of becoming a Broadway starlet when she meets Melvin, an aspiring photographer for Look! Magazine. Melvin insists that he can make her a cover girl, which is lucky, because it's the only way Judy's father will let her pick Melvin over Harry (Richard Anderson). The catch is of course, that Melvin can't make Judy a cover girl. I Love Melvin is a very cute and comical film with songwriting by Mack Gordon ("Chattanooga Choo-Choo") and Josef Myrow ("Autumn Nocturne"), known for their collaboration on "You Make Me Feel So Young." Melvin is, for the most part, an ignored film.

So why bring it up? What's the connection? Well, apart from the fact that I absolutely love I Love Melvin, there are some incredible similarities between the musical numbers "A Lady Loves" from Melvin and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I find this intriguing seeing as the more iconic number was actually released after Melvin.

"A Lady Loves" from I Love Melvin Featuring Debbie Reynolds.

"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Featuring Marilyn Monroe.

So let's look at what we've got here: I Love Melvin was released March 20th, 1953 by MGM, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released July 18th, 1953 by 20th Century Fox. The films have different composers, directors, set designers and art directors. The film plots in general have nothing to do with one another. Yet there is an undeniable correlation between the two musical numbers. Both songs center around what "girls/ladies" really like, and portray women as at least a little bit materialistic. The sets are both adorned with swooping fabrics and chandeliers. Monroe and Reynolds both wear pink dresses with a bit of a bustle and no straps, pink gloves, and "diamond" bracelets and chokers (two bracelets each). The dances both rely heavily on arm gestures and male back-up dancers with flares of red in their costumes. "A Lady Loves" closes with the men freezing with their hats around Reynolds' face, while "Diamonds" ends with the men holding swatches of diamonds around Monroe's face.

What can we draw from this? My research indicates that the stage version of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" was not staged or decorated the same as the film version. Did Gentlemen Prefer Blondes decide to copy their musical number from the far less successful I Love Melvin? Or is it just a coincidence? I am reminded of the wonderfully informative video series "Everything is a Remix." If it was a rip-off do we really have I Love Melvin to thank for the incredibly iconic Monroe scene? For every single parody and for Madonna's "Material Girl" video and for that scene in Hey Arnold! when Miriam stars in a beeper commercial?

By the way, no matter how you feel about Madonna, you must admit, they recreated that scene pretty well:

I find it intriguing that two movies released so close together could have a scene so similar. Had Melvin come first, it would make sense that the comedy was mocking another successful scene, but seeing as that's not the case, I find it perplexing. If you know anything about these two scenes, please drop me a line.