Sara Zahn: Witchcraft - The Songs of Carolyn Leigh

The Songs of Carolyn Leigh (Harbinger HCD 1702)
"Witch Craft" might well have been just another one of those pleasant-but-expendable cabaret acts captured on disc. Sara Zahn very cleverly built the act around the lyrics of Carolyn Leigh, which makes this song collection unlike other song collections.

The highly accomplished but underappreciated Leigh (1926-1983) is best known as Cy Coleman's collaborator on his early shows and a handful of pop hits. But Coleman is represented on only half the songs; the others, intriguingly, come from the likes of Jule Styne, Marvin Hamlisch, Morton Gould, and even Harold Arlen. Thus, "Witch Craft" is of more than passing interest to musical theatre fans. Who, you might well ask, was Carolyn Leigh? Her 1953 juke box hit "Young at Heart" (music by Johnny Richards) -- which begins with that glorious phrase "Fairy tales can come true, it could happen to you" -- so impressed Mary Martin that she hired Leigh to write the lyrics for the 1954 Peter Pan. Director/choreographer Jerome Robbins eventually called in Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne to fix the score, but half of the original songs (by Leigh and composer Mark Charlap) were good enough to retain. Peter Pan was to be Leigh's only successful show -- it's on Broadway once again, at the moment -- and Leigh's work is remembered every time some little kid somewhere sings "Tender Shepherd," "I've Gotta Crow," "I'm Flying," or "I Won't Grow Up" (none of which are on this recording).

Track List 

1    The Best Is Yet to Come
2    Medley: You Fascinate Me So / Witchcraft
3    When Jeremiah Can Be with Me
4    Remembrance
5    Bouncing Back for More
6    Ellenville
7    Medley: On the Other Side of the Tracks / Six O'Clock News
8    Nightlife in Santa Rosa
9    Smart People Stay Single
10    What Is Love Sequence: What Is Love? / How Little We Know / The Rules of the Road / On Second Thought
11    Sooner or Later
12    Medley: Come Summer / Killing Time
13    I Wanna Be Yours
14    Bad for Each Other
15    Take It from the Top
16    Young at Heart