Lyrics, Music Performance and Animations by The Freedom Toast. Check out their other parodies at this link. https://www.youtube.com/thefreedomtoast
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LYRICS to IN D.C.
I tried to talk a real tough game I’m D.C.
And all who disagreed I called Fake News.
But when you’re riding down the street
and you ain’t got enough to tweet
then CNN has got me beat, I knew.
I wouldn’t show my tax returns in D.C.
And yet they still made me the Number One.
But Bannon told me don’t play nice
and Priebus gave me bad advice
so now I pay the price and it’s no fun.
They say that I go paranoid in D.C.
I said it wouldn’t happen, not at all.
Before I could count one to ten,
Obama sent some small green men.
I hear them now and then right down the hall.
They said I wouldn’t last too long in D.C.
They said I’m better hosting on T.V.
But they’re just wrong I know they are
‘cause I got this here armored car
and I won’t stop ’til I’m a star in D.C.
HISTORY OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL
“On Broadway” is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in collaboration with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
Weil and Mann were based at Aldon Music, located at 1650 Broadway, New York City, and the song as written by Mann/Weil was originally recorded by the Cookies (although the Crystals’ version beat them to release) and featured an upbeat lyric in which the protagonist is still on her way to Broadway and sings “I got to get there soon, or I’ll just die”. The song was played as a shuffle.
When Leiber/Stoller let it be known that the Drifters had booked studio time for the following day and were a song short, Mann/Weil forwarded “On Broadway.” Leiber and Stoller liked the song but felt that it was not quite right; the four held an overnight brainstorming session that culminated in the better-known version of the song, now with a rock-oriented groove and with a more bluesy feel, which matched the new lyric in which the singer was now actually on Broadway and having a hard time.
A young Phil Spector played the distinctive lead guitar solo on The Drifters’ recording.[1] The personnel for the Drifters recording were Joe Newman, Ernie Royal – trumpets; Billy Butler, Bill Suyker, Everette Barksdale – guitars; Russ Savakus – bass; Gary Chester – drums; and Phil Kraus, Nick Rodriguez, Martin Grupp – percussion. The instrumental arrangement was written by noted arranger Garry Sherman.
The recording by the Drifters was a hit, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.
The Drifters’ version of the song was featured in a 1971 television public service announcement for Radio Free Europe (RFE). The Hungarian expatriate announcer is shown entering the RFE studio announcing “On Broadvay”, after which young Hungarians are shown listening to the “In sound from Outside”.[2]
George Benson’s version of “On Broadway”, from his 1978 album Weekend in L.A., hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the soul chart. Benson’s version also has had substantial adult contemporary and smooth jazz radio airplay ever since. It won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance.
Benson’s performance of the song was used in the 1979 film “All That Jazz” in a sequence that featured dancers on stage auditioning for a musical similar to Chicago. Benson also performed “On Broadway” with Clifford and the Rhythm Rats for the 1994 Muppets album “Kermit Unpigged.”