Ohio (1953 song)

"Ohio" is a song from the 1953 Broadway musical Wonderful Town,[1] sung by the protagonists Ruth and Eileen, bemoaning the fact that they had left Ohio for New York City. The lyric is centered around the rhyming phrase "Why, oh, why, oh, why, oh/why did I ever leave Ohio?"

The song features a spoken word section in the middle, where the girls recall all the things they hated about Ohio that prompted them to leave in the first place, that ends with the sung line "Thank heaven we're free!" before going back to the title lyric.

It was written by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green.[2]

In the original 1953 Broadway production, the song was performed by Rosalind Russell and Edie Adams, as a duet.[3]

Bing Crosby recorded the song on February 9, 1953, with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.[4]

A noteworthy recording of the song was made by Doris Day as part of her albums, Show Time (1960) and My Heart (2011).

An additional noteworthy release was in November 2010 when it was sung by Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester and Carol Burnett as her mother Doris on the U.S. television show Glee, which takes place in Lima, Ohio.[5][6] The original spoken word section is replaced with a new lyric about Sue's parents abandoning her to hunt Nazis.[7]

## See also

[edit]

* List of songs in Glee (season 2)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Wonderful Town | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information". Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2010.
2. ^ "Wonderful Town – Broadway Show – Musical". IBDb.com. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
3. ^ "Wonderful Town – Broadway Musical – Original". IBDb.com. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
4. ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". Bingmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
5. ^ Huver, Scott (November 8, 2010). "Jane Lynch: Sue Sylvester's Getting Married". Archived from the original on November 11, 2010. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
6. ^ Suke, Heidi (November 24, 2012). "Carol Burnett Talks Doris: Sue's Nazi-Hunting Passive-Aggressive Mother". WetPaint. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010.
7. ^ "Glee Cast (Ft. Carol Burnett) – Ohio". Genius Lyrics. Retrieved June 4, 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* Lyrics at LyricsPlayground

* v
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Leonard Bernstein

* List of compositions
* Awards

Opera and operetta|

* Trouble in Tahiti (1951)
* Candide (1956)
* A Quiet Place (1983)

Musicals|

* On the Town (1944)
* "New York, New York"
* "Lonely Town"
* Peter Pan (1950)
* Wonderful Town (1953)
* "Ohio"
* West Side Story (1957)
* "A Boy Like That"
* "America"
* "Cool"
* "Gee, Officer Krupke"
* "I Feel Pretty"
* "Maria"
* "One Hand, One Heart"
* "Something's Coming"
* "Somewhere"
* Tonight"
* "Tonight Quintet"
* A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1958, collaboration)
* The Race to Urga (1968)
* 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976)
* The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979, contribution)

Ballet|

* Fancy Free (1944)
* Dybbuk (1974)

Orchestral music|

* Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah) (1942)
* Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety) (1948–49, revised 1965)
* Symphony No. 3 (Kaddish) (1963)
* Fanfare for the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy (1961)
* CBS Music (1976)
* Slava! A Political Overture (1977)
* Divertimento (1980)
* Concerto for Orchestra (1986, 1988, 1989, originally Jubilee Games)

Concertante|

* Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1948)
* Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" (1954)
* Ḥalil (1981)

Chamber music|

* Piano Trio (1937)
* Clarinet Sonata (1942)
* Dance Suite (1989)

Choral|

* Hashkiveinu (1945)
* Chichester Psalms (1965)
* "Olympic Hymn" (1981)
* Missa Brevis (1988)

Vocal|

* Psalm 148 (art song, 1935)
* I Hate Music (song cycle, 1943)
* La Bonne Cuisine (song cycle, 1947)
* "So Pretty" (1968)
* Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra (1977)
* "My Twelve Tone Melody" (1988)

Piano music|

* Non troppo presto (Music for the Dance No. 1) (1937)
* Music for the Dance No. 2 (1938)
* Sonata for the Piano (1938)
* Anniversaries (1942—1988)
* Seven Ann. (1942–43)
* Four Ann. (1948)
* Five Ann. (1949–51)
* Thirteen Ann. (1988)
* Four Sabras (ca. 1950)
* Bridal Suite (1960)
* Touches (1980)

Other compositions|

* The Lark (incidental music) (1955)
* Mass (1971)
* Opening Prayer (1986)

Film adaptations|

* On the Town (1949 film)
* West Side Story (1961 film)
* West Side Story (2021 film)

Books|

* The Joy of Music

Related articles|

* Academy for the Love of Learning
* Artful Learning
* Bernstein–Mahler cycle
* Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution
* Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts
* New York Philharmonic concert of April 6, 1962
* Pacific Music Festival
* These Radical Chic Evenings (1970 essay)
* The Unanswered Question (lecture series)
* Young People's Concerts
* Maestro (2023 film)
* soundtrack

Category

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz work

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