# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/21 "2025-01-20T05:05:36Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > Technically the Beatles version was NOT a cover. What makes it “technically” not a cover? I thought a cover was any song not composed by the performer, and made famous by someone else. ---
**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, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/22 "2025-01-20T05:29:03Z")
OK. I accept your correction. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/23 "2025-01-20T05:33:25Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > 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? By that logic, I think we can include “Pinball Wizard”, which made #4 in the UK on its initial release in 1969, which 24 years later was incorporated into the Broadway adaptation of _Tommy_. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/24 "2025-01-20T12:34:02Z")
“Put On a Happy Face” from _Bye Bye Birdie_ was a pretty big jazz hit for Oscar Peterson in 1961. It probably didn’t chart on the Billboard Top 100, but I’m not sure that’s the standard we’re going for here. I think Julie Andrews’ “My Favorite Things” from _My Fair Lady_ got some serious airplay. Ditto “You’re the Top” from _Anything Goes_. “Night and Day,” also by Cole Porter? ---
**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 20, 2025, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/25 "2025-01-20T13:02:57Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > > [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > > > Technically the Beatles version was NOT a cover. > > What makes it “technically” not a cover? I thought a cover was any song not composed by the performer, and made famous by someone else. Doesn’t need to be made famous by someone else does it? Just anyone but the original artist performing the song is called a ‘cover’. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/26 "2025-01-20T13:22:29Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > “My Favorite Things” from _My Fair Lady_ _The Sound of Music_ ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/27 "2025-01-20T13:35:50Z")
…whereas “On the Street Where You Live” was a hit from My Fair Lady. (No.4 on Billboard and no.1 in the UK for Vic Damone) ---
**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 20, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/28 "2025-01-20T14:14:50Z")
Shirley Bassey’s recording of “Big Spender” from _Sweet Charity_ was a Top 40 hit in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/29 "2025-01-20T14:36:17Z")
How far back do you want to go? After all the musicals from the 20s onward produced a large body of standards from Cole Porter, Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart… etc etc. Maybe not so many of those became actual stand-alone radio ‘hits’, but they are certainly played on radio to this day, though not performed by the original theater artists of course… ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/30 "2025-01-20T15:06:56Z")
“Ease On Down The Road,” from **The Wiz**. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/31 "2025-01-20T15:18:19Z")
“The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” from **Man of La Mancha** ---
**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 20, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/32 "2025-01-20T15:30:45Z")
“Who Can I Turn To?” from _The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd_ has reached the charts in several versions, most famously the 1964 recording by Tony Bennett. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/33 "2025-01-20T15:32:19Z")
“If Ever I Would Leave You” from **Camelot**. (It’s only a model.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136/34 "2025-01-21T18:04:52Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > How far back do you want to go? > > After all the musicals from the 20s onward produced a large body of standards from Cole Porter, Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart… etc etc. > > Maybe not so many of those became actual stand-alone radio ‘hits’, but they are certainly played on radio to this day, though not performed by the original theater artists of course… This. My answer to this question is Cohan’s _Give My Regards to Broadway_ which may never have been a ‘radio hit’, but is definitely a well-known song. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-from-broadway-musicals-that-became-radio-hits/1013136.md?page=1)