Sharin' my Earworm

All right, here's the thing. There's this song from a show (I say "song from a show" rather than "showtune," since the latter tends to conjure up images of chorus girls tap dancing) which I rather like. Although it has annoyed me somewhat that I'd never heard anyone just attack that thing and sing it as well as I think it ought to be sung.

So, nearly two years ago, I saw a benefit concert with songs by the composer in question (Stephen Schwartz) and, bless his heart, Broadway actor Chad Kimball (whose biggest credit to that point had been playing the cow in the revival of Into the Woods -- a role previously played by an inanimate object) came out and sang the hell out of the song. I almost didn't recognize it at first, because they'd kicked the tempo up a bit, but once I realized that's what he was singing, I was just so darned pleased that someone finally got it right.

Now, the downside (and upside) to live theatre is that it's, y'know, live. As a result, even the cast recording of a production does not always sound as good as an awesome performance you might have hit one day when the cast was really on. And this is particularly true when the only recording you've got is someone else singing the damn song from a different production, where the tempo was too slow. But I listened to that anyway, because it was all I had.

Until about a month ago, when the director of the benefit concert in question actually posted video (nice, good, high quality, not-illegally-made video) of each number on youtube. This particular song has been viewed 87 times by now, and I suspect I'm responsible for a good quarter of that -- as I truly dig this rendition and, well, I don't think there's a way to put it on my .mp3 player.

So, check it out.