# Worst song from a good musical? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501 "2011-03-13T04:25:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/21 "2011-03-14T10:21:39Z")
“More I Cannot Wish You” from Guys & Dolls, which I also believe is scene change song (it comes right before the sewer). It has no redeeming features at all. Bad lyrics. Maudlin tune. Annoying accent work. And it never, ever ends, just keeps going and going and going. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/22 "2011-03-14T10:21:53Z")
Well, some of you have mentioned some of my favorite songs. My own would have to be some of the songs from many of the Gershwin musicals, songs whose only purpose was to add a few minutes to a production that was too short. Probably the worst was in \*Of Thee I Sing, \*in which there’s a song called “Supreme Court Judges.” It begins with 9 men singing: “We’re the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine Supreme Court Judges.” There’s also a song about corn muffins and the women who bake them. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/23 "2011-03-14T11:27:11Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > As a general rule, I hate the sappy love song that gets dropped into the show. Even when the sappy love song, taken on its own, is a perfectly _nice_ song. > > Examples: > > I Don’t Know How to Love Him, from _Jesus Christ Superstar_. Agreed. I absolutely love the original album, but “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” is the one track I always skip. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/24 "2011-03-14T12:03:54Z")
Ironically since it was a huge single in the US, I loathe “One Night in Bangkok” from _Chess_. I know it’s a scene-setter for the second half but it’s so much worse than all the other songs in the show. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/25 "2011-03-14T12:14:36Z")
My absolute favorite musical is **West Side Story** , and I think by far its weakest song is (unsure on actual song name) “Something’s coming, something good”. I definitely agree with “Something good” and “More I can not wish you”. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/26 "2011-03-14T13:21:31Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > They bring the show to a halt and they don’t do anything to advance the characters or the story. For that matter, you could probably swap Goodnight My Someone in the \*Music Man \* with Somewhere from _West Side Story_ and not really hurt either show. I’d argue that “Goodnight my Someone” is critical to advancing the characters. “Goodnight My Someone” is the same tune as “Seventy-Six Trombones”, just slowed down and not in march-time. So it’s established about 1/3d of the way into act 1 that Marion and Harold have a lot more in common than you’d think because they share the same signature tune. And it all comes together later when they switch songs and she sings “Seventy-Six Trombones” while he takes “Goodnight My Someone”. I thought it was really clever. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/27 "2011-03-14T14:11:37Z")
Many good examples here! Both _Mary the Man Today_ and _More I Cannot Wish You_ are awful songs from **Guys and Dolls**. I have to disagree with: > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreacoat’s “One More Angel in Heaven.” The ghastliest thing Lloyd Webber and Rice ever wrote. I think that the whole show is (understandably) one of the weaker and more simplistic of successful musicals, but _One More Angel_ is a decent-enough comic cowpoke song. Not an amazing song, but how a person could think this was a worse song than _Benjamin Calypso_ is beyond me. Now there’s a bad song! ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/28 "2011-03-15T05:13:31Z")
Thanks, guys, lots of great replies. I am a Frank Loesser fan, but “More I Cannot Wish You” is indeed weak, I think. “Marry the Man Today” I like OK. I’ve always taken the lyrics as ironic. Not a masterpiece, however. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501/29 "2011-03-15T06:42:26Z")
As a general rule I don’t like sung dialogue (i.e. singing when dialogue would do just as well), so songs like _Room 317_ in _Miss Saigon_ or _Eponine’s Errand_ sometimes take me out of the musical. _1776_ is one of my favorite musicals but I don’t care for "_Lees of Virginia_ (too silly) or _The Egg_ and would replace both if I produced a revival. _Pippin_ is another favorite but some of the songs are really dated, particularly _Kind of Woman_ and _Love Song_. [QUOTE=Superdude] I’d have to say that my favorite musical is “Cabaret.” … That said, I realize how essential “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is to the plot, but it’s my least favorite of the production. [/QUOTE] For me that’s “Pineapple Love Song” between Herr Schulz and Frau Schneider. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-song-from-a-good-musical/574501.md?page=1)