West Side Story (soundtrack)

## *West Side Story*

***West Side Story*** is the soundtrack album to the 1961 film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, featuring music composed by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim. Released in October 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's stereo albums charts, giving it the longest run at No. 1 of any album in history, although some lists instead credit Michael Jackson's Thriller, because this run for *West Side Story* was on a chart for stereo albums only at a time when many albums were recorded in mono. It also spent 6 weeks at the top of the Billboard chart for mono albums. In 1962, it won a Grammy Award for "Best Soundtrack Album – Original Cast". In the United States, it was one of the best-selling albums of the 1960s, certifying three times platinum by the RIAA on November 21, 1986.

## Background

The soundtrack album was produced by Saul Chaplin, who also served as associate producer of the film. Chaplin decided to use the film's original orchestral tracks, rather than re-recording them in a studio, to preserve the live sound of the film. He also made some changes to the order and arrangement of the songs, such as moving "I Feel Pretty" to before the rumble, cutting "Cool" from the first act to the second, and adding a reprise of "Somewhere" at the end. Chaplin also had to deal with the issue of dubbing the singing voices of some of the actors, such as Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno, who were not trained singers. He hired Marni Nixon, Jim Bryant, and Betty Wand to provide the vocals for Maria, Tony, and Anita respectively, and blended their voices with the actors in varying degrees. Nixon later wrote in her autobiography that she was initially told to sing only the high notes for Wood, but ended up dubbing most of her singing, as Wood's voice was too thin and inconsistent. Bryant, on the other hand, was a last-minute replacement for Beymer, who had recorded his vocals but was deemed unsatisfactory by Chaplin. Moreno and Wand shared the singing of Anita, with Wand taking over for the more challenging parts, such as "A Boy Like That".

## Track listing

The soundtrack album contains 15 tracks, with a total running time of 75:42. The track listing is as follows:

1. "Prologue" – 6:42
2. "Jet Song" – 2:06
3. "Something's Coming" – 2:32
4. "Dance at the Gym" – 9:28
5. "Maria" – 2:36
6. "Tonight" – 3:52
7. "America" – 4:59
8. "Cool" – 4:22
9. "One Hand, One Heart" – 3:02
10. "Tonight (Quintet & Chorus)" – 3:44
11. "The Rumble" – 2:42
12. "I Feel Pretty" – 2:48
13. "Somewhere" – 2:05
14. "Gee, Officer Krupke" – 4:14
15. "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love" – 4:34
16. "Somewhere (Finale)" – 2:03
17. "End Credits" – 5:13

## Reception

The soundtrack album received critical acclaim and commercial success, becoming one of the most popular albums of all time. It was praised for its faithful rendition of Bernstein's score, as well as the quality of the singing and the orchestration. AllMusic gave the album a rating of five stars out of five, calling it "a stunning achievement in every respect". The New York Times described the album as "a triumph of taste, sensitivity and musicality". Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 54 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, saying that it "remains a singular fusion of sound and vision". The album also won several awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album – Original Cast, the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.