55 Songs
A list of 55 songs compiled by Stephen Sondheim.
He called it, “Songs I Wish I’d Written (At Least in Part)”
At least in part has many meanings: foremost among them is that this is not intended to be a complete list. Rather, these are the songs that “first occurred” to Sondheim as being not only songs he wishes he’d written, but also songs that (again, for the most part) he thought in danger of being forgotten or dismissed. He also included songs by composers that he felt people, wrongly, supposed that he did not like or respect. From the 55 songs which he requested to be printed in this program (again, he wishes to emphasize, only a partial list), he selected the ones to be performed at a concert on May 22, 2000 at the Library of Congress.
This list is taken from Mark Eden Horowitz’s Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions.
I wanted to consume and breathe in every single song myself so I decided to compile all the songs in this post.
Music by Milton Ager; Lyrics by Jack Yellen, Bob Bigelow, and Charles Bates
”Hard Hearted Hannah, the Vamp of Savannah” (1924)
Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
”Blues in the Night” from the film Blues in the Night (1941)
Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
”I Had Myself a True Love” from St. Louis Woman (1946)
Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
”I Wonder What Became of Me” from St. Louis Woman (1946)
Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
”Buds Won’t Bud” from Hooray for What (1937)
Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
”The Eagle and Me” from Bloomer Girl (1944)
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
”I Got Lost in His Arms” from Annie Get Your Gun (1946)
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
”Let’s Face the Music and Dance” from the film Follow the Fleet (1936)
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
”You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” from Annie Get Your Gun (1946)
Music by Leonard Bernstein; Lyrics by Richard Wilbur
”Glitter and Be Gay” from Candide (1956)
Music by Jerry Bock; Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
”Ice Cream” from She Loves Me (1963)
Music by Jerry Bock; Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
”Tell Me I Look Nice” cut from She Loves Me (1963)
Music by Jerry Bock; Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
”When Did I Fall in Love"?” from Fiorello! (1959)
Music and Lyrics by Johnny Burke
”Sad Was the Day” from Donnybrook! (1961)
Music by Moose Charlap; Lyrics by Eddie Lawrence
”I’ll Never Go There Anymore” from Kelly (1965)
Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
”The Best is Yet to Come” (1959)
Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
”The Other Side of the Tracks” from Little Me (1962)
Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
”The Rules of the Road” (1961)
Music adapted by Aaron Copland
”Golden Willow Tree” from Old American Songs II (1954)
Music by George Gershwin; Lyrics by DuBose Heyward
”My Man’s Gone Now” from Porgy and Bess (1935)
Music by Ray Henderson; Lyrics by B.G. De Sylva and Lew Brown
”Birth of the Blues” from George White’s Scandals of 1926
Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
”Real Life Girl” from Little Me (1962)
Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
”When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do)” (1964)
Music arranged by Luciano Gallet
”Bambalelê” (Brazilian Song of the Northern Interior)
Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel
”Riddle Song” from Floyd Collins (1994)
Music by Walter Jurmann and Bronislau Kaper; Lyrics by Gus Kahn
”San Francisco” from the film San Francisco (1936)
Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb
”Home” from 70, Girls, 70 (1971)
Music by Harold Karr; Lyrics by Matt Dubey
”Silverware” from We Take the Town (1962)
Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
”I Am So Eager” from Music in the Air (1932)
Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
”The Song is You” from Music in the Air (1932)
Music and Lyrics by Edward Kleban
”Better” (1973)
Music by Michael Leonard; Lyrics by Herbert Martin
”I’m All Smiles” from The Yearling (1965)
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
”Make a Miracle” from Where’s Charley (1948)
Music and Lyrics Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane
”Ev’ry Time” from Best Foot Forward (1941)
Music and Lyrics by Hugh Martin
”Gotta Dance” from Look, Ma, I’m Dancin’! (1948)
Music and Lyrics by Hugh Martin
”I Wanna Be Good ‘n’ Bad” from Make a Wish! (1951)
Music and Lyrics by Hugh Martin with Ralph Blane
”The Trolley Song” from the film Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Music and Lyrics by Bob Merrill
”On the Farm” from New Girl in Town (1957)
Music by Xavier Montsalvatge; Text by Ildefonso Pereda Valdés
”Canción de Cuna Para Dormir a un Negrito” from Cinco Canciónes Negras (1958)
Music by Lewis F. Muir; Lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert
”Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912)
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
”Every Time We Say Goodbye” from Seven Lively Arts (1944)
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
”Let’s Be Buddies” from Panama Hattie (1940)
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
”Let’s Not Talk about Love” from Let’s Face It (1941)
Music by Richard Rogers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
”What’s the Use of Wond’rin’?” from Carousel (1945)
Music by Richard Rogers; Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
”Why Can’t I?” from Spring Is Here (1929)
Music and Lyrics by William Roy
”Charm” from Maggie (1953)
Music and Lyrics by William Roy
”What Every Woman Knows” from Maggie (1953)
Music by Arthur Schwartz; Lyrics by Howard Dietz
”By Myself” from Between the Devil (1937)
Music by Arthur Schwartz; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
”He Had Refinement” from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951)
Music by Arthur Schwartz; Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
”There’s No Holding Me” from Park Avenue (1946)
Music by David Shire; Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.
”Travel” from Starting Here, Starting Now (1977); originally written for the unproduced musical The River (1960)
Music by Charles Strouse; Lyrics by Lee Adams
”You’ve Got Possibilities” from It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman (1966)
Music by Jule Styne; Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
”When the Weather’s Better” from Hallelujah, Baby! (1967)
Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston
”New Words” from History Loves Company (1989)
I cannot find a recording of “Bluellow” from Peyton Place (1994) with music and lyrics by Peter E. Jones
Therefore this page only has 54 out of the 55 songs.