“On the
Street Where You Live”
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
John Michael King, 1956 (including full original musical recording)
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Vic Damone, 1956
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Eddie Fischer, 1956
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Jeremy Brett (sung by Bill Shirley), 1964
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Nat King Cole
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Dean Martin
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Andy Williams, 1964
Composers:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
Performer:
Harry Connick, Jr., 1992
Frederick
Loewe’s and Alan Jay Lerner’s great 1956 musical, My Fair Lady, has often been described as “the perfect musical.” While
it is a truly memorable work, I don’t think I would go so far to describe it is
“perfect,” or maybe it’s just that I like my musicals with a little roughness
around the edges; after all to create a musical is to almost defy all odds,
combining the musical skills of opera with theater, an very odd mixing that
perhaps only the odd British pair of Gilbert and Sullivan truly achieved, and
even they often failed. But there are so many wonderful songs in My Fair Lady—"Wouldn't It Be
Loverly?"; "With a Little Bit of Luck"; "The Rain in
Spain"; "I Could Have Danced All Night"; "Get Me to the
Church on Time”; and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" among them
that it becomes difficult to choose simply two musical numbers to represent it.
If there was ever an example of the
inside/outside dichotomy (this year’s overriding concern) is certainly is this
song, for Eliza, as a poor flower-seller, has most of her life on the street,
while silly Freddy has lived in the post Belgrave area of London, into which
Eliza has suddenly ensconced herself given Henry Higgins’ absurd game-playing
attempts to transform her into a princess. If Higgins, moreover, is a self-dedicated
bachelor (which in those days was code for being gay), poor Freddy really does
seem to be a would-be romantically inclined “lover,” although his effeteness is
also a theme of the work. But he, who has been protected in the inside, is
now a dedicated to the street, at least the street where Eliza lives, and will
not even enter the house, preferring the simply walk down the street where he
has countless times before. In short their roles have been completely reversed.
I have
often walked
Down this street before,
But the
pavement always
Stayed
beneath my feet before.
All at
once am I
Several
stories high,
Knowing
I'm on the street where you live.
Are
there lilac trees
In the
heart of town?
Can you
hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does
enchantment pour
Out of
every door?
No, it's
just on the street where you live.
And oh,
the towering feeling
Just to
know somehow you are near
The
overpowering feeling
That any
second you may suddenly appear.
Even
Eliza eventually, despite the brutal sexism of Henry, rejects Freddy’s high
romanticism, in her cry of “Words, words, words,” and her demand that instead
of talking that he should “show her,” in other words, grab her and kiss. Freddy
is all words, but the words (and music) of the Lerner and Loewe song are so soaring
that we forgive the nincompoop and would simply love him to reprise the song.
Almost every male singer in the musical
world did sing this song, including Vic Damone, Eddie Fischer, Nat King Cole,
Dean Martin, Andy Williams, and Harry Connick, Jr., and they all sang it well.
But I still prefer John Michael King’s original version, where he sings with
such absolute belief in that magical street that you’re almost convinced.
Los Angeles, February 26,
2018
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