New York, New York (On the Town)

"New York, New York" is a song from the 1944 musical On the Town and the 1949 MGM musical film of the same name. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The best known line of this song is, "New York, New York, a helluva town. The Bronx is up but the Battery's down." For the film version, the word "helluva" was changed to "wonderful" to appease the Production Code offices.

It is not to be confused with the "New York, New York" popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1980 and written by John Kander and Fred Ebb for the 1977 Martin Scorsese film musical of the same name, in which it was performed by Liza Minnelli.

Cultural references

• The song was parodied on The Simpsons episode "Boy-Scoutz N the Hood", when Bart Simpson and Milhouse sing about "Springfield, Springfield". Another character runs in and starts to sing "New York, New York," at which Bart and Milhouse point him in the direction of New York while Bart exclaims "New York is that a-way, man!".
• It was also parodied twice on The Critic.
• It was also parodied on the Australian sketch comedy program The Late Show by Jason Stephens, Mick Molloy and Tony Martin, running through the streets of what was obviously the Australian city of Melbourne, aping the performances of the three original leads in full sailor uniforms, to the original soundtrack recording of the musical number.
• This song is referenced in the song B-Boy Bouillabaisse by the Beastie Boys with the lyrics changed to "New York, New York - it's a hell of a town You know The Bronx is up and I'm Brooklyn down."
• The song was mashed with "I Love New York" by Madonna, on the Season 2 Finale of the TV Series Glee.
• The song was also parodied in Terry Pratchett's book "I shall wear midnight", where a coach driver sings : Ankh Morpork! it's a wonderful town! The trolls are up and the dwarfs are down. Slightly better than living in a hole in the ground! Ankh Morpork it's a wonderful tooown!
• Pippi sang that song in 19
• Ali Merryweather from Pahappahooey Island sang it in 68 & 69.
• A brief use of the line "The Bronx is up and The Battery is down..." was used by Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane character near the end of the movie Sleepy Hollow(1999)

References