Musical Songs From Before 1970? (Help!)

The Fantasticks is the show – Try To Remember is the name of the song.

How about something from Guys and Dolls?

A couple I really like that might fit your requirements:

Everything’s Alright from Jesus Christ Superstar

I Feel Pretty from West Side Story

Hair was all the rage back then…Aquarius…just DO IT!! ;)

These two from Bye Bye Birdie are upbeat and reasonably wholesome and age appropriate.

What’s the Matter With Kids Today

Put On a Happy Face

and

Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is fun and up tempo, though there might be a couple of things your parents might not like in it if they’re going to be really strict about the content of the song, but without the dialogue it’s pretty tame.

My New Philosophy from You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Too high? Oh, wait. It’s a duet.

Or, maybe “A Spoonful of Sugar” form Mary Poppins?

Good call @Cruiser! Some other great ones from Hair are Good Morning Starshine for uptempo or Easy to be hard for the ballad

How about the song Some People from Gypsy? This version that I have linked here is Chris Colfer from Glee singing it. It was originally sung by Ethel Merman (it’s meant to be sung by a woman, but Chris has an amazing voice with a very high range).

Or I Could Have Danced All Night sung by Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady

Or Thoroughly Modern Millie sung by Julie Andrews in the musical of the same name.

Or Be Optimistic by Shirley Temple from Little Miss Broadway

Or Loverly from My Fair Lady, sung here by Marni Nixon.

For a ballad, how about Something Good sung by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music

Or Feed the Birds sung by Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins

Or Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music

Or Till there was You sung by Shirley Jones in The Music Man

Or Goodnight My Someone sung by Shirley Jones in The Music Man

Or My Man sung by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl

Or People sung by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl

Or Tammy by Debbie Reynolds

I really like Frank Mills from Hair. Pretty much anything from Hair really. It’s my favorite musical that I’ve been in so far.

How many bars do you need? There’s some good ones in Fiddler on the roof, but almost every song is an ensemble song with short solos. Far from the home I Love is a good one.

I need 32 bars. And thanks everyone for all the suggestions. It’s very mind boggling with all of the songs you guys posted, but thanks! :D

Hair is full of wonderful numbers. Frank Mills, Good Morning Starshine, The Flesh Failures (my favorite), or Easy To Be Hard would all be great choices.
The Sound of Music might work, if you have the pipes.

Unfortunately, pre-1970s is not quite my era, so I can’t give you a heap of suggestions, but I think I can give you some tips to cut down your suggestions! It depends on the program you are auditioning for, but here are a couple of ‘Don’ts’ when it comes to audition songs:

You should not sing a song that is overdone or too well known, because when you stand up there to sing ‘How Lovely to Be a Woman’ and the panel has heard it ten times already, they’re already bored. This rules out The Fantasticks, Bye Bye Birdie, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady. You may just get away with Hair, Fiddler, YAGMCharlieBrown, The Music Man. It depends on the current musical trends in your area.

You should not sing a song that has been made famous by Julie Andrews, Ethel Merman, Barbra Streisand, etc. You can’t live up to their performances.

You should not sing a song with a difficult accompaniment. So basically no Sondheim (overdone anyway). (And no Jason Robert Brown, but you don’t have to worry about that for pre-1970s).

I suggest you look into She Loves Me, a musical by Jerry Bock. A Trip to the Library is sweet, or you could cut one of Amalia’s songs so you don’t have to sing anything too high.

Also, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, all have written great songs and not all are overdone in auditions.

I thought of I Feel Pretty from West Side Story too.

Maybe something from the King and I, I am drawing a blank right now.

@Kardamom You won’t be surprised to know that the first song that came to mind was People from Funny Girl!

People for a 13 year old? I would not have thought of that.

@Magic5678 Let us know what you pick. And, how it goes.

@JLeslie I was thinking that People was a pretty difficult song, but if she could pull it off, it would be mind-blowing! In college my music history teacher used that song (on the piano) to show us the incredible range of the notes going from high to low. I wish that I could sing like that , but alas that shall never happen.

@iphigeneia I never thought of the idea of using popular/well known songs as being a problem. But you might be right. I’m going to go back to the drawing board, but maybe the Be Optimistic song by Shirley Temple would work (I’d never heard it until a few weeks ago when I rented the movie, I LOVE Shirley Temple!).

@Kardamom Makes sense. As far as popular, I think it has to be well known enough that people like to sing along with the song, but not overdone. Like, I have no need to hear somewhere over the rainbow again. LOL.

Thanks again everyone for all of the suggestions!! There are three up-tempo songs I can’t decide from (they’re all so good!)so I’m going to work on all three and in a few weeks decide which one of these to do:
If I Were A Bell-Guys and Dolls
Some People- Gypsy
My New Philosophy- YAGM Charlie Brown

I am still trying to find a few more good ballads to pick from. Thanks! :D

(Also, I LOVE Funny Girl and I think People would be a good ballad for me. (I’m working on hitting that high note) )