“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.
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.
Agreed. I absolutely love the original album, but “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” is the one track I always skip.
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.
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”.
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.
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:
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!
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.
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.
For me that’s “Pineapple Love Song” between Herr Schulz and Frau Schneider.