Pitter Patter

This weekend my husband and I were lucky enough to see a Broadway show (Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music) in honor of my husband’s birthday (thanks Sharon and Lenny!). While at the theater my husband and I began discussing some of our favorite Broadway “moments.” One that came immediately to his mind was the song Not Getting Married Today from Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical Company sung by the excellent Madeline Kahn. I had mentioned to him that I had never seen that particular performance and once we got home we had to watch it. What I realized upon seeing it is that it was a “Patter Song”. A patter song is a song that has a moderately fast tempo, tongue twisting rhyming lyrics, and contains alliterative words that are entertaining when sung at a rapid pace. It was a popular style employed within “opera buffa” or comedic operas(for example Largo Al Factotum from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville), and most commonly used by Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan actually have one of the most famous patter songs in their comedic opera The Pirates of Penzance, the song is called I Am the Very Model Major of a Modern Major General. Listening to this song led us to listen to my husband’s favorite patter song The Speed Test from the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. As I watched The Speed Test I realized that I had heard the exact same patter song from The Pirates of Penzance. The Speed Test is literally almost a word for word replica of the song It Really Doesn’t Matter from the film version of Pirates, which in turn was taken from another Gilbert and Sullivan opera Ruddigore (My Eyes are Fully Open). 

Operas and Musicals aside, I began to think about modern day patter songs. The first song that came to mind was Barenaked Ladies’ One Week. In grade school when this song came out the only thing I appreciated was the fact that in no respectable way could I sing the lyrics. Now, I realize that this song pays homage to all previous patter songs that came before it. Another patter song example is The Maladjusted Jester sung by Danny Kaye in the fabulous movie The Court Jester. The television show Scrubs also employed the patter song technique in a musical episode. Dr. Cox sings The Rant Song and applies the same theories as Gilbert and Sullivan, by using similar rhythmic patterns and equally hilarious rhyming lyrics. Two more favorites are Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire and REM’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It.  All these songs provide some sort of comedic or entertaining element by singing the lyrics so rapidly. They also all have convenient and clever rhymes for their songs, and are near impossible to sing for a non-professional, meaning they are all perfect patter songs.

Do you think I missed a crucial patter song? Post your comments below.