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By Peter Filichia — Broadway overtures certainly let you know early on what The Expected Hit Ballad will be. Usually, after a rousing fanfare that previews The Most Stirring Songs, everything calms down so that we can hear The Most Beautiful Song. It happens in the famed overture to Gypsy. “Small World,” which indeed turned […]

By Peter Filichia – When the members of the Oscar committee first met in 2008 to discuss possible Best Song nominations for the 2007 film year, many felt that “Falling Slowly” from Once should not be nominated. After all, hadn’t it been heard in coffee houses and appeared on two albums long before the film […]

By Peter Filichia — Hundreds of record albums have been dedicated to Broadway musicals. Thousands have been sung by Broadway performers. But until October 1, 1964, there had never been a record album that had celebrated a Broadway producer. On that date, however, RCA Victor released David Merrick Presents Hits from His Broadway Hits. Now […]

By Peter Filichia — This week, when February 29 comes into our lives, we’re most aware that we’re in a Leap Year. So let’s have a Leap Year’s look at cast albums. We must start in 1944, because American original cast albums, for all intents and purposes, didn’t come into existence until 1943. But that […]

By Peter Filichia — These days, we often hear people complain that too many Broadway musicals are made from motion pictures. Actually, the start of that trend can be traced backed to 1953, when musical versions of Nothing Sacred and Carnival in Flanders debuted. The former, renamed Hazel Flagg, was not a hit, but it […]