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From the musical stylings of the composer who brought us Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde, New York City now has a theme song. The city's tourism arm, NYC & Company, commissioned Frank Wildhorn to write a song about how wonderful New York City is, and now we have "New York: For the Time of Your Life." The NY Post says the song is a "splashy, big-band-style number belted out in a brassy, Sinatra-esque voice," and the song is supposed to be sung at a presentation to European tour operators and to promote various parts of New York City that are lesser promoted, like Shea Stadium and the Bronx Zoo.
Former Mayor Ed Koch named the Kander-and-Ebb standard, New York, New York (written for the Martin Scorsese film, New York, New York), the city's theme song in 1985. [And color Gothamist jaded, but we know "The Time of My Life" and it's the anthem to Dirty Dancing!] Gothamist loves the Kander and Ebb version and also the Comden and Green song, New York, New York from On the Town.
The Post's music critic, Issac Guzman, is horrified by the song, calling it "schlocky, "derivative, cliched and hokey beyond belief, it's an embarrassment," "gimmicky, brain-numbing," and reminds people the Wildhorn was called "the Kmart Andrew Lloyd Webber." Oh, and that "even Tony Bennett could rescue this from the slag heap of mediocrity." Damn! After the jump are the lyrics... brace yourself and let us know what you think. We haven't heard it with the music, but we're not sure if we even want to.
Musical salute
It's a great front row seat for the world at your feet
It's the Yankees and Knicks, the Rockettes doin' kicks.
You can sail Sheepshead Bay, see a show on Broadway.
It's Fifth Avenue, plenty to see and do. ...
Bridge:
New York, New York ...
Winter, spring, summer, fall
Baby we've got it all!
Chorus:
New York, anytime of year
New York, it's all happening here
New York, for the time of your life!
You can shop 'til you drop, live your life to the top.
Double header at Shea, somethin' new every day.
It's the lights in Times Square, the moments you share.
Summer breaks. Paint the town - paint it up, paint it down.
Bridge
Chorus
Take the ferry to Staten from lower Manhattan. It's a bagel and schmear, it's a whole other gear.
It's a hot dog from Coney, a waiter named Tony. Yellow cabs, limousines. It's the subway to Queens. It's so nice, see it twice, paradise by the slice,
Brooklyn Heights, The Bronx Zoo, somethin' old, somethin' new
I love New York, baby ... come paint the town (spoken).
Chorus
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That song must have been penned while someone was watching that episode of the Simpsons where Tony Bennett sings about Capitol City.
Rhapsody in Blue. Proof that a song that IS New York can just be music.
How many disasters does one composer have to be associated with before people stop giving him money to write? Wildhorn's Broadway shows have all gotten pathetic reviews and flopped hard--naturally, he's the first one the city calls to make it look good. Incredible.
Due to the complete lack of coverage about NYC in music, movies, and writing, this song has filled a deep and pressing need. Isn't there already kind of a song sung in a "brassy, Sinatra-esque voice" about New York, NY? Keith is right, it sounds like a Simpson’s joke. I wish I could be there when it is sung at the presentation of European tour operators. They will have that same heading shaking weariness that glazed student's faces when watching an anti-smoking song at a school assembly. Well, if they added a throbbing techno beat to the song, maybe the Euros would love it.
agreed. why does new york need a new song when everyone knows about gershwin's "rhapsody in blue" and kander-and-ebb's "new york, new york"?
Oh. My. God. My stomach hurts just reading the lyrics...
The lyrics are oddly reminiscent of the Foxwoods song ("get yourself a front-row seat"), but I'd bet the music isn't nearly as catchy.
Man, those lyrics are are just Shit-tastic! I'd much rather see Billy Joel's New York State of Mind used as the city's theme song.
oh, I've never laughed that hard while reading the gothamist. It started when I read the line about sailing sheapeshead bay and reached it's height when I got to a "bagel and a schmeer" and a "waiter named tony."
No one ever pays attention to the very underrated Rodgers and Hart (Columbia alums, too) tune "Manhattan" -- that sounds like the song that this guy was trying to rip off. You know, it has lines like "It's very fancy / on old Delancey street, you know", "We'll go to Coney / and eat baloney on a roll", and "And tell me what street / compares with Mott Street in July"? It's my favourite New York song out of the lot of them. (Though Billy Joel runs it a close second.)