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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 12:42 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: My White Knight/Being In Love - TheOtherOne 12:01 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I don't know if it's an official explanation, but I have read that "My White Knight" was considered too operatic for a filmgoers to accept in a movie musical. So Willson composed "Being in Love" to replace it. I've also read that while "My White Knight" worked beautifully for Barbara Cook, "Being in Love" was a better fit for Shirley Jones. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: Delvino 06:59 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - BroadwayTonyJ 12:42 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| “Being in Love” has an almost pop sensibility - I’ve said before that it sounds more like Here’s Love! than romantic longing in 1912 Iowa. Not a compliment. Over time, it’s grown on me, because it seems so tied to the Shirley Jones Marian, maybe a more glamorous - or at least contemporary - take on the role than Cook’s or Luker’s. Is “Being in Love” ever covered? | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 02:36 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - Delvino 06:59 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I doubt it's ever been covered. The only song from the show that ever branched out of it as far as I know is "Til There Was You," though of course "76 Trombones" is known everywhere. It's a very show specific score. "Being In Love" seems a fitting song for the sadder-but-wiser girl Shirley's Marian is. I don't think it's out of place in the film; I love Pert Kelton harmonizing on "in the gloaming." Priceless. |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 07:30 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - Delvino 06:59 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Shirley Jones was an incredibly sexy Marian. She knew how to put across repressed sexuality in spades. I love her interaction with Charlie Cowell in the film. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Last Edit: TheOtherOne 02:57 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 02:43 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - BroadwayTonyJ 07:30 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| She's great with Charlie Cowell! Of course, Barbara Cook showed a pretty saucy side to herself on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode she did around this time. I'm sure she had fun in that scene as well. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 03:20 pm EST 02/17/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - TheOtherOne 02:43 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
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| I would have loved to see Cook in the cafe scene in She Loves Me where she really lets Georg have it. That must have been a great scene. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: Charlie_Baker 01:20 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - BroadwayTonyJ 12:42 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I've heard or read the same thing. I would think Shirley Jones could have sung it. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: richmurphy 03:25 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - Charlie_Baker 01:20 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| TCM just showed the film version, and accordingly to the background note on their website: "According to show-biz legend, however, "My White Knight" had actually been written by [Willson's mentor, songwriter Frank] Loesser (it's very similar to a number cut from his opera The Most Happy Fella), who refused to sell the rights to Warner Bros." |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Last Edit: BroadwayTonyJ 06:08 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 06:07 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - richmurphy 03:25 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| That rumor was refuted by Barbara Cook. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 03:46 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 03:44 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - richmurphy 03:25 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Both songs do have the same bridge part though: "All I want is a plain man..." etc., so I'm not quite sure about that. Plus Willson had written a whole bunch of songs that he had discarded along the way towards polishing the original stage version of "The Music Man"; he probably had enough trunk songs of his own to choose from. | |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 04:32 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - PlayWiz 03:44 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| The rumor about Loesser has been around for a long time. I don't think I've ever heard anyone really prove it, or not. To me, the harmonic language in the song does feel more like Loesser than it does the rest of the Music Man score, but that's still not proof. It could also be that Loesser contributed to the song but didn't write the whole thing. Meanwhile, Shirley Jones could certainly have sung the song as presented in the Broadway score. It should also be noted, btw, that the high note that the end (an Ab) is actually marked optional in the score, though I think most of us would be very thrown not to hear it. :-) |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 05:36 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - Chromolume 04:32 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I think Dominic McHugh squashes this through his painstaking reconstruction of the evolution of THE MUSIC MAN’s drafts. “My White Knight” first appears (with its basic melody) in a draft from likely April-May* 1956 in a duet version (Harold enters after one refrain, singing “The Sadder But Wiser Girl” in counterpoint). In the next versions, from June 1956 to the completed script of April 5, it’s clear Willson tried developing it into an extended soliloquy for Marian. The duet notion was discarded, this was Marian’s moment to shine. McHugh provides drafts (including a typed sheet of early lyrics with red ink annotations and melodic sketches of the early duet versions and later drafts). It seems Willson started with a ballad, expanded that to include a near-operatic section, and ultimately, in tryouts, cut it down to just the ballad. Willson relates this himself in BUT HE DOESN’T KNOW THE TERRITORY: how the number had to be “simplified,” and he cut two pages, but Barbara Cook had captured the audience from the start, so the loss of what he called “his favorite song” didn’t matter. It was what was best for the show. Part of that discarded section was reused in “Being in Love.” The song is Willson’s, unless Frank Loesser was hovering over him, dictating those changes in pencil and red ink, and typing different drafts of lyrics. Laura |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 07:20 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 07:20 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - showtunetrivia 05:36 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I think part of the confusion may also be that the show's music was published in tandem with Loesser's own "Frank Music Corp." That counterpoint duet with "Sadder But Wiser Girl" was also recorded on a studio album of the score. |
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