[Shaughnessy]

Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim - "Somewhere" from "West Side Story"

In the stage musical, the song appears in the second act of the show during the Somewhere Ballet. It is performed by an off-stage soprano singer and is later reprised by the entire company. In the original Broadway production, "Somewhere" was sung by Reri Grist who played the role of Consuelo.

At the end of the show, when Tony is shot, Maria sings the first few lines of the song as he dies in her arms.
In late 1957, this recording was released on the album West Side Story (Original Broadway Cast).

In the 1961 film, the song occurs at a pivotal point, after the rumble in which Tony (Richard Beymer) has stabbed Maria's brother, Bernardo (George Chakiris). Having nowhere else to go, Tony runs to Maria (Natalie Wood) who has just been told of her brother's death and who killed him. When Tony comes to her room through the balcony window, Maria, in shock, pounds against his chest.

Realizing in spite of her anger that she still loves Tony, Maria begs him to hold her. After Maria cries out, "It's not us...it's everything around us." Tony replies, "Then I'll take you away, where nothing can get to us." He then begins singing "Somewhere" to her. His comforting voice draws her in and it becomes a duet of hope that their love will survive "somehow, someday, somewhere."

As in the stage show, Maria sings the first few lines of the song as Tony dies in her arms. In 2004, this version finished at #20 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.


Note: This is a two-part contest

Part One - OST: Jim Bryant and Marni Nixon - Bobby Darin - Jack Jones - Nadine Sierra - Barbra Streisand - Nancy Wilson

Part Two - Idina Menzel and Lea Michele - Renée Fleming - Aretha Franklin - Lena Horne - Johnny Mathis - Dionne Warwick - Andy Williams

OST - Jim Bryant and Marni Nixon dubbing for Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood

Bobby Darin

Jack Jones ​

 

[Shaughnessy]

Nadine Sierra​

Barbra Streisand​

Nancy Wilson​

 

[Tsaraslondon]

Just as a postscript. @Shaughnessy correctly states that, in the original stage show, the song was sung by an off-stage soprano singer. The singer on the Origainal Broadway Cast recording became quite known as an opera singer. That singer was Reri Grist.

 

[Shaughnessy]

Just as a postscript. @Shaughnessy correctly states that, in the original stage show, the song was sung by an off-stage soprano singer. The singer on the Origainal Broadway Cast recording became quite known as an opera singer. That singer was Reri Grist.

Beautiful voice... which should have been brought up front and center rather than off-stage...

 

[jegreenwood]

Beautiful voice... which should have been brought up front and center rather than off-stage...

If Julie Andrews is an imprint for "I Could Have Danced All Night," Reri Grist is an imprint for "Somewhere." My dad bought the OBC album in 1957, and I listened to it many times since then. Never bought the OST, although I've bought the video for VCR.

Nevertheless, Reri was not an option, and of the five I selected - wait for it - Bobby Darin. Shocked me too, but I thought he captured the emotional impact of the song, even if the arrangement did nothing for me. I have the Streisand, but it always struck me as the one big mistake on that album. Looking forward to see what Renee can do with it.

 

[Shaughnessy]

Just as a postscript. @Shaughnessy correctly states that, in the original stage show, the song was sung by an off-stage soprano singer. The singer on the Origainal Broadway Cast recording became quite known as an opera singer. That singer was Reri Grist.

If Julie Andrews is an imprint for "I Could Have Danced All Night," Reri Grist is an imprint for "Somewhere." My dad bought the OBC album in 1957, and I listened to it many times since then. Never bought the OST, although I've bought the video for VCR.

Nevertheless, Reri was not an option, and of the five I selected - wait for it - Bobby Darin. Shocked me too, but I thought he captured the emotional impact of the song, even if the arrangement did nothing for me. I have the Streisand, but it always struck me as the one big mistake on that album. Looking forward to see what Renee can do with it.

I'm more than willing to change the line-up for Part Two which will appear sometime later than two weeks but no more than a month - (With 12 versions of one tune, there needs to be a significant break lest listener fatigue set in) - and add this as a selection while dropping someone that was added as almost an afterthought because I wanted both parts to evenly balance.

She didn't make the initial cut because of the recording itself (which is label authorized) - The off-stage technique that they used caused the voice to be so distant that I needed to double the volume level on every device that I used to listen to the recording - Every other entry had a fairly consistent volume running from a setting of 12 to 15 with the Grist recording needing to be pushed to the 24 to 28 volume level.

Just let me know and I'll edit this post to reflect the change in Part Two.

 

[jegreenwood]

I'm more than willing to change the line-up for Part Two which will appear sometime later than two weeks but no more than a month - (With 12 versions of one tune, there needs to be a significant break lest listener fatigue set in) - and add this as a selection while dropping someone that was added as almost an afterthought because I wanted both parts to evenly balance.

She didn't make the initial cut because of the recording itself (which is label authorized) - The off-stage technique that they used caused the voice to be so distant that I needed to double the volume level on every device that I used to listen to the recording - Every other entry had a fairly consistent volume running from a setting of 12 to 15 with the Grist recording needing to be pushed to the 24 to 28 volume level.

Just let me know and I'll edit this post to reflect the change in Part Two.

I don't think it's necessary. Her version is not as iconic for me as Andrews doing "I Could Have Danced All Night." It's simply the one I know best. And recall - it comes in the middle of a 7 minute ballet track.

I do want to note that she handles the solo in Bernstein's NY Phil recording of Mahler's 4th. When I first bought that recording, it took me some time to recall where I'd seen that name.

Sondheim was self-critical of his lyric - in particularly the opening line, where he set to the word 'a' to the leap on the second note.

 

[Shaughnessy]

OST - Jim Bryant and Marni Nixon - the balance is off - way off - insurmountably off - Bryant is not anywhere near possessing the kind of pipes that Marni Nixon has. If "half votes" were an option, she would have received one.

Bobby Darin - love his vocals - knows how to swing a tune - effortless delivery - almost too "effortless" - as if he heard the band do the tune twice in rehearsal and then said - "Okay guys, I got this one, let's do it" because he was in a hurry to be somewhere else - I'm not entirely certain that his work ethic matched his talent level - In Darin's defense, he does sound as if he listened to the band do the tune twice unlike say Dean Martin (who I genuinely like immensely) who would listen to the band do half the tune before saying "Okay guys, I got this one, let's do it" because he was in a hurry to be somewhere else.

And so my first vote goes to Jack Jones who held his own against Bobby Darin in the categories - vocal control, good tone, enunciation, voice suitability, and clearly won in both musical phrasing and versatility. He deserves more respect that he gets - as all of these traditional pop singers do who were born too late for the time that they should have been in and instead found themselves being flattened by the tsunami that was rock 'n roll. These performers had talent - genuine talent - They could sing - They had a set of pipes that could hit the back rows and they knew how to work an audience which are skill sets that one rarely encounters in this day and age.

Nadine Sierra - obviously gifted in all of the vocal categories listed above except for the one that is the most important - musical phrasing - She sang the lyrics as if they were a string of notes rather than words in a sentence.

Barbra Streisand - should have walked away with this one leaving everyone else choking on the fumes of her exhaust and would have were it not for being burdened with a Mannheim Steamroller-type arrangement which undercut what would have been a first-rate performance if she had just pulled the dynamics back a little.

Nancy Wilson - received my second vote - She deserves it - She's a class act with a first rate performance on an interesting arrangement - Vocal control, good tone, enunciation, versatility, and most importantly of all, musical phrasing - All of them combined into one neat tidy package.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

I forgive the vicissitudes of the recording and vote for Bryant and Nixon, because they remind me of what the song is about, and it's place in the movie, even if ultimately I prefer Reri Grist singing it in the stage show. I want the song to create an emotional response and none of the others quite do that.

Except Barbra Streisand. Yes I know the arrangement is totally over the top, but she and her arrangers make the song into something universal, of which I'm sure Bernstein and Sondheim would have approved. Somehow Streisand makes it into a passionate avowal of her own beliefs, and I like that. I hadn't seen the clip in a long time, but she practically had me in tears again.

Nadine Sierra was just dull and I didn't really like the jazzed up arrangements the others did. Maybe I just don't think of this song as a jazz standard.

 

[Shaughnessy]

An interesting take on a tune which has over 400 different recorded versions -

"Bobby Sanabria and his Multiverse Big Band performed the song with a Latin jazz arrangement using the Venezuelan joropo rhythm, recorded live in 2017, and released the following year on the Grammy-nominated album West Side Story Reimagined which won the Jazz Journalists Award for best album of 2018.

Link to label authorized complete recording of "West Side Story Reimagined" -

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k2DcX1VcnVVr31hIri5rlSczkbPZPllVY

 

[Belowpar]

Confession time. When I was but a young fule I was prejudiced against Bernstein, as not really being a writer for musicals, there was something too classical about him. In large part this was influenced by the Jazz musician Benny Green who had a weekly radio show mostly drawn from the Great American Songbook and he could never resist a dig at Bernstein. Thankfully maturity has brought a new late love... Candide, Trouble in Tahiti, Wonderful Town etc. Thanks Leonard.

But this time I found it relatively easy to judge. The first two left me cold.
Darin - awful arrangement
Jones - again the big final note, arrgh. it's a song about hope, not certainty.

Sierra, decent and the arrangement works - Bernstein was always a bit Operatic!
Streisand. Sorry but this I hated. The arrangement stank and she put in extra syllables in the middle of vowels. That's a big NoHOoo NoHOoo from me.
Wilson, individual, stylish and tasteful.

BUT an easy winner for me. Not surprisingly a song that frequently refers to "US", works as a duet. My only slight criticism is that Nixon's vocal skills are rather refined for the character (similarly Sondheim himself later regretted some of the sophisticated show off lyrics he wrote for the girls.) But it's low key and it's very beautiful.

 

[Bulldog]

Streisands's the one - gorgeous voice and interpretation. Yes, it's all a bit of a spectacle, and the introduction really stinks, but it all turns to gold once Barbara starts singing.

Marlie Nixon? I don't like her voice. Bobby Darin? I don't care for the arrangement. Nadine Sierra? This is a song, not an opera aria.

 

[Seattleoperafan]

I don't see the part 2 of this but i vote Streisand and Dionne Warwick, who tears it up-

 

[Shaughnessy]

I don't see the part 2 of this but i vote Streisand and Dionne Warwick, who tears it up-

Part Two hasn't appeared yet - It's coming up - You'll like the Warwick version I chose - Big brassy voice and arrangement.

 

[SanAntone]

I voted for the OST and "Other" since my favorite performance of this song is by Aretha Franklin on Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky) (Atlantic, 1973) with the arrangement by Quincy Jones, and Aretha playing piano and a nice solo.

 

[Shaughnessy]

Deleted duplicate post... Website crash...

 

[Rogerx]

I voted O.S.T hard to beat.

 

[SanAntone]

She's going to be in Part Two - The file was misplaced in the folder just underneath the one it should have been - and I didn't realize she was missing from the second line-up until I saw your posting. I changed the line-up on the first post to reflect her addition

I hope you choose her first recording of the song fro Hey Now Hey and not use her contribution to The Songs of West Side Story from 1996, the worst thing that ever happened to this show, except for what David Foster did to this song.

 

[Shaughnessy]

Again... website crash followed by duplicate post...

 

[SanAntone]

In the process of looking up stuff related to this thread, I discovered a recording of "Somewhere" unknown to me, and by one of my favorite artists.

Tom Waits

While I have been a fan of Tom Waits, I don't know all of his records, and this one, Blue Valentine, slipped by me. It's a bit quirky, true to his style, but nicely done.