AIPTO: A Collector’s Sondheim (Sondheim et al.)

Who? Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows who Stephen Sondheim is. I guess I assume, because I discovered him back in middle school, (and I’m always the last to know about everything musical) that everyone knows the words to every song in Sunday in the Park with George. But I forget, too, one key fact: Broadway is for nerds. Fitting, then, that most of the soundtracks I have on my computer have been copied from CD’s I checked out at the public library when I was in the eighth grade. Yeah. I know. But that places it for you, at least—it was the precursor to Barenaked Ladies for me. Their music was so much cooler because the lyrics were just as edgy as Sondheim, but backed by rock. Also notable is that Sondheim is, with few exceptions, where my Broadway obsession begins and ends. There aren’t many other composers that capture Sondheim’s combination of pithy cynicism and expert composition. And internal rhyme. I’m kind of a sucker for that. Listen to this song, and you’ll get the gist of what makes Sondheim...Sondheim.
Why it’s awesome: So this isn’t the perfect compilation: some of the tracks were re-recorded for the collection and all it really does is make me wish they hadn’t. But in three discs, ACS hits the high points from what is a very hefty, high-quality body of work, including some of his less common tracks like “The Boy From…” which is a parody of “The Girl from Ipanema” written under the pen name Esteban Ria Nido. Sorry, I’ll stop.
In One Word: Magic
Song Rec: One from each disc: I Remember from Evening Primrose, The Glamorous Life from A Little Night Music, and A Little Priest from Sweeney Todd (to get you ready for the movie). I Remember might be familiar to some of you.
Link: Amazon.com