# Songs from Broadway musicals that became radio hits **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** theater-stage-dance\ **Created:** [January 19, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136 "2025-01-19T17:06:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/1 "2025-01-19T17:06:19Z")
What are some songs that originated in Broadway musicals and became hits on the radio? Define “hits” as you will - Top 40, Top 100, etc. I can think of a few. From _Grease_, we have both the [Title Theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA-xjRsY71w&pp=ygUfZ3JlYXNlIHRoZW1lIHNvbmcgZnJhbmtpZSB2YWxsaQ%3D%3D), and [You’re The One That I Want](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRFjzQICJU&pp=ygUheW91J3JlIHRoZSBvbmUgdGhhdCBpIHdhbnQgZ3JlYXNl), both of which continue to get airplay today. From _Evita_ (the 1996 theatrical version) we have Madonna’s [Don’t Cry For Me Argentina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_1Z8iUDho), which I’m pretty sure was a Top 10, if not Top 40, hit c. 1996. And from _Chess_, we have possibly the most niche and esoteric song to ever be a radio hit, [One Night In Bangkok](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE) As an Honorable Mention, I’ll throw out It’s a Hard Knock Life, from _Annie_ (the 1982 film), which gets sampled pretty heavily in [Jay-Z’s song of the same name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW34u1KxGC4). What are some others? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/2 "2025-01-19T17:09:59Z")
“[Day by Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWAqW5D5kZo),” from _Godspell_, reached #13 on the U.S. Billboard chart in 1972. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/3 "2025-01-19T17:12:31Z")
_You’ve Got Possibilities_ from _It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman_, charted at #36, as recorded by Peggy Lee. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/4 "2025-01-19T17:13:00Z")
The number one song from my birth year. Age of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine in from Hair by The Fifth Dimension. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/5 "2025-01-19T17:14:34Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > And from _Chess_, we have possibly the most niche and esoteric song to ever be a radio hit, [One Night In Bangkok](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE) #1 in UK was _I Know Him So Well_ (from Chess). _People_ by Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/6 "2025-01-19T17:15:16Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > From _Grease_, we have both the [Title Theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA-xjRsY71w&pp=ygUfZ3JlYXNlIHRoZW1lIHNvbmcgZnJhbmtpZSB2YWxsaQ%3D%3D), and [You’re The One That I Want](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRFjzQICJU&pp=ygUheW91J3JlIHRoZSBvbmUgdGhhdCBpIHdhbnQgZ3JlYXNl), both of which continue to get airplay today. A nitpick here: those two songs, as well as the other hit, “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” were specifically written for the film version, and weren’t in the Broadway production. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/7 "2025-01-19T17:15:35Z")
Jesus Christ Superstar ~ _I Don’t Know How to Love Him_ Hair - _Hair, Aquarius, Easy to Be Hard, Good Morning Starshine_ ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/8 "2025-01-19T17:16:18Z")
Memory from Cats. People from Funny Girl ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/9 "2025-01-19T17:18:41Z")
Not exactly the way described in the OP - [Puttin’ on the Ritz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttin%27_On_the_Ritz_(film)) first appeared in a film of the same name in 1930, which was a story about a Broadway musical. Later it became a hit in 1982 in a rendition by [Taco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_(musician)), then in 2007 was featured in the Broadway version of [Young Frankenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Frankenstein_(musical)). ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/10 "2025-01-19T17:23:10Z")
“Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/11 "2025-01-19T17:23:24Z")
Going back a ways (and to one of my favorite musicals), “Till There Was You,” from _The Music Man_ (1957), reached #30 on the Billboard chart and #14 on the Cashbox chart. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/12 "2025-01-19T17:24:55Z")
“Hello, Dolly”, the title song from the musical, was a #1 Billboard hit for Louis Armstrong in 1964. > **[Chart Rewind: In 1964, Louis Armstrong Halted Beatlemania Atop the Hot 100](https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/louis-armstrong-hello-dolly-chart-rewind-1964-1235677512/)** > > “Hello, Dolly!” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated May 9, 1964. Said Armstrong, “It’s awful nice to be there among all them Beatles.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/13 "2025-01-19T17:27:16Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Going back a ways (and to one of my favorite musicals), “Till There Was You,” from _The Music Man_ (1957), reached #30 on the Billboard chart and #14 on the Cashbox chart. And later was covered by the Beatles, though it never was a single and thus no hit. As a kid, I had it on a compilation named “And Now: The Beatles”, and I thought it was the lamest song they ever had done, grown-up/parents music to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/14 "2025-01-19T18:24:23Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > And from _Chess_, we have possibly the most niche and esoteric song to ever be a radio hit, [One Night In Bangkok](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE) If we want to be really pedantic — and I’m sure nobody here wants that, right? — we should distinguish between a recording of a song from a cast album, where the actors in a stage production record their songs in a studio to be released in connection with (or shortly after) the opening of the live performance run, and the unusual thing that “One Night in Bangkok” is. See, as they were conceptualizing the show, they knew it was going to be expensive to produce on stage. So they recruited some performers and made a _concept album_ out of the songs they had at the time, in order to drum up interest and publicity, and attract investment. The song that became the radio hit is from this concept album. So the pedantic distinction is this: “One Night in Bangkok” is, indeed, a song from the musical _Chess._ But at the time it exploded in popularity, it was not yet, technically, a musical, because it hadn’t been mounted yet. Indeed, it wasn’t even done. After the success of the album (and the song), they did further work, writing the book and some new music, and changing a few of the songs, _and then_ they finally produced the show in London, with some (but not all) of the same performers they used on the concept album. (And the additional changes they made between London and the New York premiere are a whole nother post by themselves.) So, yes, “One Night in Bangkok” is a song from the musical _Chess,_ and it was a radio hit. But… _when_ it was a radio hit, is it better described as a song from a musical, or a song from a _proposed_ musical, still in progress? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/15 "2025-01-19T18:33:58Z")
Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was a chart hit more than once ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/16 "2025-01-19T18:40:01Z")
Roger Williams’ instrumental version of “Sunrise, Sunset” from _Fiddler on the Roof_ charted at #84. Sammy Davis, Jr.’s recording of “What Kind of Fool Am I?” from _Stop the World - I Want to Get Off_ made it to #17. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/17 "2025-01-19T18:44:40Z")
Looks like _I’ll Never Fall In Love Again_ made it to Broadway thanks to “Promises, Promises” in ‘68, before Dionne Warwick’s ‘69 recording then hit #6 on the charts. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/18 "2025-01-19T18:48:45Z")
“Try to Remember” is from _The Fantasticks_ (1960) and was originally sung by Jerry Orbach (yes, the same guy from _Law & Order_). The song has charted in the U.S. several times, with covers by Ed Ames, Roger Williams, The Brothers Four, and Gladys Knight & the Pips (as a medley with _The Way We Were_). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/19 "2025-01-19T18:59:18Z")
At least two numbers from _Hamilton_ made it into the Rolling Stone Top 100: “Alexander Hamilton” and “You’ll Be Back.” “Somewhere” from _West Side Story_ has charted in various countries via covers by Barbara Streisand, Phil Collins, Pet Shop Boys, and others. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/20 "2025-01-20T04:08:13Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > > Going back a ways (and to one of my favorite musicals), “Till There Was You,” from _The Music Man_ (1957), reached #30 on the Billboard chart and #14 on the Cashbox chart. > > And later was covered by the Beatles, though it never was a single and thus no hit. Technically the Beatles version was NOT a cover. McCartney learned it from a Peggy Lee album. It wasn’t until many years later that he figured out it was originally from _The Music Man_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136.md?page=2)