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| 2013 Musical Diversity |
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Act One We open Showcase 2013 by going back to the very roots of rock and roll with Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven. Written in 1956, with notable cover versions by Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles and Electric Light Orchestra whose arrangement you will hear tonight. The second song, also a Chuck Berry classic, Rock and Roll Music originates from 1957, with this arrangement from the 1976 version by The Beach Boys. We continue with a first for Showcase - a Led Zeppelin song! Rock and Roll is taken from the 1971 album 'Led Zeppelin IV'; it was never released as a single - Zeppelin 'didn't do' singles. We then head back to 1963 wiht I Saw Her Standing There from The Beatles' debut album 'Please Please Me'. We move forward some thirty years to Meat Loaf's Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through, taken from the multi-platinum album 'Bat Out Of Hell II - Back To Hell', written, of course, by the great Jim Steinman.
The next section features memorable duets, starting with the song that gives the section its title, It Takes Two. Originally recorded in 1965 by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston, and covered in 1990 by Rod Stewart and Tina Turner. The second song, Sisters are Doing it for Themselves was a 1985 duet recorded by Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin. We then pay tribute to one of the most enduring partnerships in music, the Everly Brothers. Let It Be Me was originally written as 'Je t'appartiens' in 1955 and was given English lyrics by Mann Curtis in 1957. Let Me Be Your Star was written by Hairspray writers Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman and featured in the first episode of the US TV series 'Smash'. It features two characters in New Yor's Times Square heading for their first big audition. Sarah McLachlan's Angel was inspired by the death of a fellow musician due to a heroin overdose, and was memorably performed by McLachlan and Josh Groban at Live 8 in 2005. When You're Gone was recorded as a duet between writer Bryan Adams and ex-Spice Girl Melanie C in 1998 and was a massive hit around the world. For live performances, Adams has been known to pick a female member of the audience to duet with him! The section concludes with the legendary Barcelona, written in 1987 by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran. Mercury, a long-term admirer of Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballe, was stunned when the divea suggested they work together. The song was composed to celebrate the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, although, sadly, Mercury died the year before the event.
Next we feature a variety of film and stage hits, starting with I Still Believe from the 1989 Boublil and Schonberg classic 'Miss Saigon'. Skyfall was the title song of the 2012 James Bond movie, which reached number two, equalling Duran Duran's 'A View To A Kill' as the highest charting Bond theme. The song went on to win the Academy Award for best song, a Golden Globe and a Brit Award as best single of 2012. Also an Academy Award winner is Moon River, written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer for the 1961 movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.21 Guns is a song by American rock band Green Day, which is included in the band's 2010 Broadway musical 'American Idiot'. We conclude with two songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber adn Tim Rice's groundbreaking 'Jesus Christ, Superstar'. I Don't Know How To Love Him and Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say). One of the most powerful pieces in the entire show, it brings our first half to a suitable climax.
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Act Two
Our second half opens with a tribute to one of rock and roll's true originals, Rod Stewart. A skilled footballer, his early ambition was to sign as a professional but following an unsuccessful trial he moved to his second love, music, and has subsequently sold over 100 million records. In the UK, he has had six consecutive number one albums and 62 hit singles, including six number ones. We begin with one of those number one hits, Do Ya Think I'm sexy? Interestingly, all royalties from the song are donated to UNICEF. We continue with a medley of some of Stewart's biggest hits: Maggie May, Hot Legs, You Wear it Well and the '70s rock classic ,strong>Stay With Me by Rod's famous rock band, The Faces. I Don't Want To Talk About It' was written by Danny Whitten for his band Crazy Horse in 1971 but it was Stewart's 1975 cover that hit number one. The section closes with the legendary
Our next section features music written by Murray Gold for the BBC TV show 'Dr Who'. Since the 2005 revival, Gold has composed the incidental music for every episode. We commence with the famous Dr Who Theme, originally composed by Ron Grainer - who also wrote the themes for 'Steptoe and Son' and 'The Prisoner'. The second piece is Doomsday, which accompanied the heartbreaking scenes when David Tennant's tenth Doctor and Billie Piper's Rose Tyler were finally separated. We continue with The Dark and Endless Dalek Night and close the section with something completely different - My Angel Put The Devil In Me, composed fro the 2007 episode 'Daleks in Manhattan', which was set in the world of Broadway theatre in the 1930s, leading to Gold composing this excellent Broadway pastiche.
In 2007, Scottish writer and creator of 'River City', Stephen Greenhorn, was commissioned to adapt the songs of The Proclaimers into a musical. The subsequent award-winning production, 'Sunshine on Leith', has toured the UK to huge acclaim. Tonight we perform a medley from the show, beginning with Life With You, followed by an excerpt from the show's title track, which leads us to I'm On My Way, featuring a travelogue through the bustling streets of Leith. We close with the anthemic I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).
Our finale opens with Coldplay's heartfelt Fix You. The song was written for Gwyneth Paltrow after the death of her father. Next is Lou Reed's Perfect Day, recorded for the 1972 album 'Transformer'; the song was used by the BBC for a film featuring a line-up of international stars, from Elton John and David Bowie to Boyzone and Lesley Garrett. The song raised over two million pounds for Children In Need. We continue with Seasons of Love from Jonathan Larson's musical 'Rent'. The song tells us how many minutes there are in a year of life, concluding that we should 'measure in love'. We close the show with He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, written in 1969 by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell, and a huge hit for The Hollies, with the original featuring Elton John on piano. Most recently, the song was performed by the Hillsborough Collective to raise awareness of the ongoing fight for justice for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster. The record, featuring, amongst others, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney and two of the original Hollies, was the UK Christmas number one last year.
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