{"id":4178,"date":"2012-12-17T02:52:21","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T10:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2015-11-30T03:47:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T11:47:28","slug":"was-sondheims-marry-me-a-little-first-recorded-only-as-a-christmas-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/12\/17\/was-sondheims-marry-me-a-little-first-recorded-only-as-a-christmas-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Sondheim&#8217;s &#8220;Marry Me a Little&#8221; First Recorded Only as a Christmas Present?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/music-legends-revealed-history\/\">here<\/a> to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">MUSIC URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Stephen Sondheim&#8217;s &#8220;Marry Me A Little&#8221; was first recorded by Harry Nilsson&#8230;as a Christmas present!<\/p>\n<p>For years, fans of Harry Nilsson were wondering what exactly the deal was with Harry&#8217;s version of &#8220;Marry Me A Little&#8221; from late 1969.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/harry-nilsson-at-1969-grammy-awards.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B0000631E5&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The song is a great little song that was not used for Stephen Sondheim&#8217;s award-winning musical (SIX Tonys, including Best Musical and FIVE Drama Desk awards, including Best Music and Lyrics), Company, in 1970. <\/p>\n<p>Company is about a single man in his mid-30s dealing with the single life when all his friends are either married or on their way.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/deanjones.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B00000DHSN&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The song, Marry Me A Little features this man (Bobby) wondering about marriage (as you can tell by the title, he is conflicted about it)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a verse&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Marry me a little,<br \/>\nLove me just enough.<br \/>\nCry, but not too often,<br \/>\nPlay, but not too rough.<br \/>\nKeep a tender distance<br \/>\nso we&#8217;ll both be free.<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s the way it ought to be.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m ready! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(HINT: He&#8217;s not really ready).<\/p>\n<p>In any event, Sondheim cut the song from the show, but it was well-liked enough to be the highlight (and title track) of an Off-Broadway Musical from the early 1980s consisting only of songs Sondheim cut from his musicals&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/album-marry-me-a-little-1981-original-off-broadway-cast.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B000002WB7&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the 2006 revival of Company (which, again, won a bunch of Tony Awards, including Best Revival and Best Actor for the fellow who played Bobby, the great Raul Esparza) worked the song into the musical&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/company2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B0014IC31G&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But in 1969, the song was still unpublished, unreleased and unrecorded &#8211; until Nilsson&#8217;s version of the song popped up on the ol&#8217; black market. The copies of the song were not the strongest quality in the world, and Nilsson oddly enough had added a lyric, mentioning a woman &#8220;Judy&#8221; at the end of the tune (also mentioning Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year).<\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the deal?<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nYears later, the full story came out (by the time it did, Nilsson was actually already dead, as I covered in the <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/07\/24\/music-urban-legends-revealed-was-harry-nilssons-coffin-lost-during-an-earthquake\/\">very first Music Urban Legends Revealed<\/a>) in Meryle Secrest&#8217;s brilliant biography of Stephen Sondheim, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0385334125?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=legenrevea-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0385334125\">Stephen Sondheim: A life<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=legenrevea-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=0385334125\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" \/>. The story is an interesting one&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There was Hal Prince&#8217;s wife, Judy, whom Sondheim has known since she was an adolescent, whose gift of the riposte is well known, and whom he considers a brilliant, if unpublished, writer, like Mary Ann Madden. Peter Stone, a friend of them both, called her &#8220;very complicated, terribly intelligent and very wry. Steve and Judy were very symbiotic for a long time; he almost could not function without her.&#8221; In fact he completed a song for her called &#8220;Marry Me a Little,&#8221; which he had written for Company. Sondheim said, &#8220;What happened was, I was playing it and I told Hal that I had started this song but thought I should not finish it&#8221; for reasons of the plot. &#8220;He said, &#8216;I agree with you, it&#8217;s too knowing,&#8217; but she was listening outside the door. She came in later and said, &#8216;I don&#8217;t care whether it fits or not, I just think it&#8217;s fabulous.'&#8221; So when he was trying to decide on a Christmas gift for her, he thought of the song, finished it, had Harry Nilsson record it, and presented it to her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s good to know that there are benefits to being married to Hal Prince!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/tn-500_princewm809155254.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The legend is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is &#x62;&#x63;&#x72;&#x6f;&#x6e;&#105;&#110;&#64;lege&#x6e;&#x64;&#x73;&#x72;&#x65;&#x76;&#101;&#97;led.&#x63;&#x6f;&#x6d;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Stephen Sondheim&#8217;s &#8220;Marry Me A Little&#8221; was first recorded by Harry Nilsson&#8230;as a Christmas present! For years, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[9],"tags":[1714,57,1716,1318,1718,1039,1719,1717,1715,726],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-15o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3708,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/07\/24\/music-urban-legends-revealed-was-harry-nilssons-coffin-lost-during-an-earthquake\/","url_meta":{"origin":4178,"position":0},"title":"Was Harry Nilsson&#8217;s Coffin Lost During an Earthquake?","date":"July 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Harry Nilsson's coffin was lost during an earthquake Harry Nilsson (he usually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"nilsson","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/nilsson.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5533,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/12\/17\/was-there-nearly-a-jim-henson-version-of-into-the-woods\/","url_meta":{"origin":4178,"position":1},"title":"Was There Nearly a Muppet Version of Into the Woods?","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about musicals and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the musical urban legends featured so far. MUSICAL URBAN LEGEND: Into the Woods was almost made into a film by Jim Henson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Grab Bag Legends&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/music-legends-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":4178,"position":2},"title":"Music Urban Legends History","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of Music Urban Legends Revealed. To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link! 1. - Harry Nillson\u2019s coffin was lost during an earthquake 2. A Frank Zappa album was given a Parental Advisory\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Archives&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4104,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/11\/21\/how-did-a-disc-jockeys-joke-inadvertently-lead-to-an-alvin-and-the-chipmunks-comeback\/","url_meta":{"origin":4178,"position":3},"title":"How Did a Disc Jockey&#8217;s Joke Inadvertently Lead to an Alvin and the Chipmunks Comeback?","date":"November 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Alvin and the Chipmunks made a comeback in 1980 based on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"chipmunk_punk_cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/chipmunk_punk_cover-259x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7460,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2015\/12\/04\/did-phil-spector-did-a-non-christmas-version-of-christmas-baby-please-come-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":4178,"position":4},"title":"Did Phil Spector Do a Non-Christmas Version of &#8220;Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)&#8221;?","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Phil Spector recorded a non-Christmas version of \"Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home).\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"christmasgiftphilspector","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/christmasgiftphilspector-375x377.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4174,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/12\/18\/was-jon-bon-jovis-first-professional-recording-a-star-wars-christmas-song\/","url_meta":{"origin":4178,"position":5},"title":"Was Jon Bon Jovi&#8217;s First Professional Recording a Star Wars Christmas Song?","date":"December 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Jon Bon Jovi's first professional song recording was for a Star Wars\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7438,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}