"Fugue for Tinhorns" | |
---|---|
Song by Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, Douglas Deane | |
from the album Guys and Dolls (Original Broadway Cast Recording) | |
Released | 1950 |
Recorded | 1950 |
Genre | show tunes |
Length | 1:43 |
Label | Decca |
Songwriter(s) | Frank Loesser |
"Fugue for Tinhorns" is a song written and composed by Frank Loesser and first performed by Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, and Douglas Deane in 1950. [1] The song was featured in the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls .
Twelve years before writing "Fugue for Tinhorns," Loesser was taken to a racetrack by Jule Styne, who said Loesser "was crazy about the racing form and the phrase 'can do' after a horse's name", which Styne said was Loesser's inspiration for the song. [2]
Loesser originally called the song "Three Cornered Tune," and it was to be sung in Guys and Dolls by the characters Sarah Brown, Nathan Detroit, and Sky Masterson. As the play took shape, the characters singing the song were changed to Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Benny Southstreet, and Rusty Charlie, and the song was placed at the beginning of the show to establish context and tone. [3]
The song also mentions Equipoise (1928–1938), a real-life Thoroughbred racehorse and stakes race champion of his time. While the racehorse "Epitaph" mentioned in the song's lyrics is fictional, the American Quarter Horse stallion and racehorse Go Man Go (1953–1983) was a great-grandson of Equipoise. [4] Go Man Go was the World Champion Quarter Running Horse from 1955 to 1957, around the same time as the 1955 First Las Vegas and 1955 New York City Center revival productions of Guys and Dolls.
Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won a Tony Award for Guys and Dolls and shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for How to Succeed. He also wrote songs for over 60 Hollywood films and Tin Pan Alley, many of which have become standards, and was nominated for five Academy Awards for best song, winning once for "Baby, It's Cold Outside".
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Equipoise (1928–1938) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career which lasted from 1930 until 1935, he ran fifty-one times and won twenty-nine races. A leading two-year-old in 1930, he missed most of the next season, including two of the three American Triple Crown races through injury and illness. "Ekky" returned to the track in 1934 and proved to be a dominant champion, winning numerous important stakes races in the next three years. Equipoise died in 1938 after a short but promising stud career.
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Guys and Dolls is a 1955 American musical film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine. The picture was made by Samuel Goldwyn Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the screenplay. The film is based on the 1950 Broadway musical by composer and lyricist Frank Loesser, with a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, which, in turn, was loosely based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon. Dances were choreographed by Michael Kidd, who had staged the dances for the Broadway production.
"Luck Be a Lady" is a song written and composed by Frank Loesser in 1950 and first performed by Robert Alda. The song was featured in the musical Guys and Dolls. The lyrics relate the point of view of a gambler, Sky Masterson, who hopes that he will win a bet, the outcome of which will decide whether or not he is able to save his relationship with the girl of his dreams.
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Irving Actman was an American conductor, musical director and composer. He is known for his work in film and on Broadway musicals, most notably as the music director of the original 1950 production of Guys and Dolls.