"So, I Find Myself Another Song That Will Vocally Challenge Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                That line is just MY riff on Sondheim's line in his classic song about New York, "Another Hundred People." which is from "Company."  The line actually goes, "Or they find each other, in the crowded streets, and the guarded parks....."

                                  What I am here to talk about is Pamela Myers singing "Another Hundred People!"  Oh, my God!  I will never forget the first time I heard it.  I was upstairs, in my parents bedroom, probably about to make a phone call, which was the only place in the house one could do so in privacy.  This was back, when I was a crazy, telephone talking teenager.  You know, like Ann-Margret as Kim in "Bye, Bye, Birdie!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                    The radio was on--a constant in my house, growing up, till bedtime--and the station (I think it was WNEW) began playing this song, which was clearly about New York, because the instrumentation perfectly caught the pace and rhythm of the city, plus it was sung by a young girl with the most piercing voice I have ever heard--and that still holds true, to this day!  At first, because of my obsession with "Frank Mills," I thought it might be Shelley Plimpton, but, damn, I knew her voice by then, and it just did not sound like her.

                                      I don't know when I finally discovered that the song was "Another Hundred People," it was by Stephen Sondheim, it was from his 1970 musical, "Company," the girl with the piercing voice was Pamela Myers.  I just HAD to hear it again. And I wanted to do THAT.

                                       So, I high tailed it into New York, and picked up, on vinyl, a copy of the Original Cast Recording of "Company," still the best, though there have been other fine renderings.  I listened to "Another Hundred People" over and over again, because no one ever, or has ever, come close, to Pamela Myers in doing it.  On October 25, 2004--almost ten years ago; can you believe it, darlings?????--I attended, at Avery Fisher Hall, a performance. sponsored by GMHC, called "Broadway Show Stoppers."  I got in by connections, and the evening started off special, for me, because it opened, with Priscilla Lopez doing "Nothing," exactly twenty-nine years to the day I first heard her do it!!!!!!!!!!!!  I also got to hear Alice Playten sing "Nobody Steps On Kafritz."  But when Pamela came out, and started singing "Another Hundred People," the audience stopped its breath, because, 34 years later, there was that same, piercing voice, doing it the way it should be done, and that no one--not even Julia Mackenzie and others I have seen try, have been able to do.  Including myself!

                                      Sondheim wrote this song especially for her.  So, it really in two ways, belongs to her.  First, because the composer wrote it for her, and second, because no one has ever been able to truly replicate it.  Like I said the other day, when I mentioned perhaps "Rags" should only be sung by a woman, maybe "Another Hundred People" should only be sung by Pam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         But, just don't take my word for it, listen for yourselves.

                                         And, afterwards, you can listen to Seth Rudetsky's brilliant deconstruction of the song.  I never realized it ended with the three note "Bobby Theme," but one thing he doesn't mention, which drives me crazy, is the instrumentation after "crude remarks," and then the way Pam sings "And they meet at parties, through the friends of friends, who they never know," and her  placement on "know"---oh, my God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           But don't listen to me!  Listen to Pam and Seth!  I love this song, the performer in me would  LOVE to do it, but, after listening to this, girls, you will realize why I would never DARE attempt it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!