Song of the Week #196
by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
In the third of our summer audio specials, we present another Song of the Week double-bill. The composer and lyricist Richard Adler celebrates his 90th birthday this week and to mark the occasion Mark picked a song apiece from two of the biggest Broadway hits of the 1950s, The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. In the course of the show, we'll hear two exclusive rare live performances: from the Steyn archives, Mark prompts Richard Adler himself to recreate "Hey, There", the big ballad from Adler & Ross' first Broadway score - and then Mark joins Liza Minnelli, the star of Cabaret; Gwen Verdon, the star of Chicago and Sweet Charity; the great Russia ballerina Natalia Makarova; and a host of Broadway's greatest talent, from Kander & Ebb, writers of "New York, New York", to Comden & Green, writers of Singin' In The Rain, from Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist of Fiddler On The Roof, to Hal Prince, the director of Phantom Of The Opera, in a rousing performance of Adler & Ross' great showstopper, "You gotta have Heart".
We'll also hear more music from Richard Adler's long life, performed by Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Elton John, Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Sammy Davis Jr, and Allan Sherman - plus three words from Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. To listen to this special audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, click here.
