The context: This song occurs about halfway through act I of a goofy clever farce. A British super-spy is hiding out in a rundown cabaret theater in the middle of nowhere. He laments that his profession makes his life a lonely one. Since this is a musical, he laments in song, and wonders if someone somewhere might one day sing along. Elsewhere in the theater, our underdog hero is wondering the same thing, and inadvertently sings along. Might there be a potential friendship here? (Or even a romance?) And as if that wasn't enough singing along, the audience is invited to join them, turning this song into a proper sing-along.
A little about the creation of the song: I knew I wanted to tease the possible romance between the two characters. I came up with the idea of the dashing spy singing, and the schlubby lighting guy singing along. I wrote the music at that point (but didn't have a title). I realized that the phrase "sing along" fit nicely. Only much later did I realize it could actually be a sing-along with the audience! Fun and sweet! Then, it was just a matter of getting the tone right. When you do something tricky in a song (like spring a sing-along on the audience), it can be hard to be too open-hearted. The audience might think you're being sarcastic. So figuring out how to make it sweet and sincere but not smug or treacly was the hard part, and took a lot of drafts. The key was starting with "spy alone" and "die alone", so it wasn't too, too earnest. Also, I'm quite proud of "a word apart" being a word apart, and "a third apart" being a third apart (musically), and that these two phrases rhyme with each other!
A little about the creation of the song: I knew I wanted to tease the possible romance between the two characters. I came up with the idea of the dashing spy singing, and the schlubby lighting guy singing along. I wrote the music at that point (but didn't have a title). I realized that the phrase "sing along" fit nicely. Only much later did I realize it could actually be a sing-along with the audience! Fun and sweet! Then, it was just a matter of getting the tone right. When you do something tricky in a song (like spring a sing-along on the audience), it can be hard to be too open-hearted. The audience might think you're being sarcastic. So figuring out how to make it sweet and sincere but not smug or treacly was the hard part, and took a lot of drafts. The key was starting with "spy alone" and "die alone", so it wasn't too, too earnest. Also, I'm quite proud of "a word apart" being a word apart, and "a third apart" being a third apart (musically), and that these two phrases rhyme with each other!
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Sing Along
Music & Lyrics by David Rackoff BIXBY AS A SECRET AGENT, ONE KNOWS HE’S PAID TO SPY ALONE. BUT ON A NIGHT LIKE TONIGHT, ONE GROWS AFRAID HE’LL DIE ALONE. COULD THERE BE AN ALLY WHOM I WOULD CARE TO BRING ALONG? AND IF I STARTED TO SING, MIGHTN’T HE DARE TO SING ALONG? TO HELP ME SING MY SONG. IF YOU FEEL THE AIR, YOU FEEL IT QUAKE. YOU FEEL THE TREMORS IN THE GROUND. IF YOU HEAR MY HEART, YOU HEAR IT ACHE. BUT MAYBE IF YOU LIKE THE SOUND, YOU’LL SING ALONG. MAYBE HE’S A KIND SOUL, A GENTLE GENT WHO’D HUM ALONG. COCO MMMM HMM MMM MMM HMMM. BIXBY IN MY ADVENTURE OF LIFE, PERHAPS HE’S MEANT TO COME ALONG. MIGHT HE SING THE SAME TUNE, BUT BE, I GUESS |
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BIXBY
A WORD APART? A WORD APART? DA DOO… OR IS HE CLOSER THAN THAT? |
COCO
A WORD APART. …BA DEE DO. A LITTLE LESS? |
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BIXBY/COCO
A THIRD APART. HELP ME SING MY SONG. IF YOU FEEL THE AIR, YOU FEEL IT QUAKE. YOU FEEL THE TREMORS IN THE GROUND. IF YOU HEAR MY HEART, YOU HEAR IT ACHE. BUT MAYBE IF YOU LIKE THE SOUND, BIXBY YOU'LL SING ALONG. COCO/BIXBY ALL THE SILENT PEOPLE I WANT TO HEAR THE MOST TO SING. BIXBY THEY SIT AND THINK TO THEMSELVES, BIXBY/COCO “DOES HE MEAN WE’RE SUPPOSED TO SING?” BIXBY YES! BIXBY/COCO HELP ME SING MY SONG. COCO IF YOU FEEL THE AIR, EVERYONE IF YOU FEEL THE AIR, COCO YOU FEEL IT QUAKE. EVERYONE YOU FEEL IT QUAKE. COCO YOU FEEL THE TREMORS IN THE GROUND, EVERYONE YOU FEEL THE TREMORS IN THE GROUND. BIXBY/COCO IF YOU HEAR MY HEART, EVERYONE IF YOU HEAR MY HEART, BIXBY/COCO YOU HEAR IT ACHE. EVERYONE YOU HEAR IT ACHE. BIXBY/COCO BUT MAYBE IF YOU LIKE THE SOUND… EVERYONE BUT MAYBE IF YOU LIKE THE SOUND... IF YOU FEEL THE AIR, YOU FEEL IT QUAKE. YOU FEEL THE TREMORS IN THE GROUND. IF YOU HEAR MY HEART, YOU HEAR IT ACHE. BUT MAYBE IF YOU LIKE THE SOUND, BIXBY YOU’LL SING ALONG. COCO YOU’LL SING ALONG. EVERYONE YOU’LL SING ALONG. |
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