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On Broadway
Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in collaboration with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Category: Rock Instrument: Any Subjects(s): Jazz • Repertoire • Rock

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On Broadway

"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." Additionally the melody was in compound time and the backing riff modulated between the root and the minor 2nd.

On Broadway — Premium Play-along Track

A Premium Play-along track that features key modulations inspired by George Benson's rendition from Weekend in LA. This cool track takes you on a musical journey through the keys of E, F, F#, G, and Ab, just like Benson's iconic version.

Premium Play-along Tracks are only available to Premium members and Active/Private Students.

Here is a Demo of Desafinado to get an idea of the quality of these custom play-along tracks.

Play-along Demo: Desafinado

DesafinadoPremium Play-along Track with Guitar Melody Played


I, (Curt) originally created these tracks to perform over for gigs and this was a demo for booking gigs.

These Premium Play-along Tracks are available to LearningUkulele.com Site Members and are my personal one-of-kind tracks I (Curt) and Chuck Anderson recorded and arranged.

On Broadway is in the The Daily Ukulele 365 Songs for Better Living book.

Strum a different song every day with easy arrangements of 365 of your favorite songs in one big songbook! The Daily Ukulele features ukulele arrangements with melody, lyrics and uke chord grids and are in ukulele-friendly keys that are particularly suited for groups of one to one hundred to play and sing.

On Broadway…

The songwriters, Weil and Mann were based at Aldon Music, located at 1650 Broadway, New York City, and 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. Additionally the melody was in compound time and the backing riff modulated between the root and the minor 2nd.

George Benson's version of On Broadway, from his 1978 album Weekend in L.A., hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the soul chart. The George Benson 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. The song appeared in the films Big Business and American Beauty. George Benson's performance of the song was used during the opening credits of the 1979 film All That Jazz, which featured dancers on stage auditioning for a musical similar to Chicago. George Benson also performed "On Broadway" with Clifford and The Rhythm Rats for the 1994 Muppet album Kermit Unpigged.

Main Song Download(s)
The main downloads for this song.
WEB_CONTENT_ONLY
On Broadway - Premium Play-along

Premium play-along track for On Broadway. Modulates up a key each time through.

WEB_CONTENT_ONLY
On Broadway - Leadsheet for Playalong

Leadsheet for "On Broadway", Playalong.

WEB_CONTENT_ONLY
On Broadway - Original Handwritten Leadsheet for Playalong

Original Handwritten Leadsheet for "On Broadway", Playalong.

Related Lessons
Related Lessons for On Broadway.
UL101
Common `Ukulele Tunings

Any tuning is possible on a ukulele, as long as the ukulele’s construction supports it and a string is available.

UL04
Six Essential Scales for `Ukulele

The six essential scales are: Blues Major Pentatonic Mixolydian Dorian Aeolian and Ionian From the six essential scales, you can get through a wide variety of traditional and contemporary music. A scale is simply a collection of pitches or notes, not really a "this is a Jazz scale", "this is a Blues" or "this is a Rock scale". It's how a scale is used that really matters not its name.

UL07
Learning the `Ukulele Fingerboard (Finally!!!)

Most players struggle with learning the names of the notes of the ukulele fingerboard. There doesn't seem to a pattern and notes repeat. There is an easy way and "it's easier that you think." Most players know the names of the open strings for their favorite tuning.

UL06
Playing by Ear - The Ultimate Goal

The ultimate goal for any musician when playing a musical instrument is to "Play by Ear". It’s true whether you’re singing, banging a drum, strumming a guitar, or our favorite instrument, the ukulele. If your fingers can already interpret and follow what your inner ear commands, you’ve obtained your goal and are "Playing by Ear."

ULHA-YB-181
On Broadway

Harmonic Analysis (RMA) Worksheet for the song: "On Broadway".

Related Lesson Series
Related Lessons Series for On Broadway.
Types of Chords Available on Ukulele

On the ukulele, there are various types of chords that you can explore, including open position chords, movable form chords, 4-part chords (commonly known as jazz chords), and free form chords.

Common Chord Progressions and Remembering Songs

Understanding the similarities between chord progressions and songs can greatly enhance your ability to remember and play a wide variety of songs. It's fascinating how much common ground (chord harmony) exists among different musical compositions.

Basic Ukulele Chords Charts

Not so much a series - but the basic chords ALL ukulele players should know.

Jazz Standard Chord Progressions

These are the chord progressions, extracted from my book "Exploring Jazz Chords on Ukulele" for use with on-line and private students.

Modular Phonetic Rhythm by Chuck Anderson

Modular Phonetic Rhythm represents a significant advance in the teaching and application of rhythm. Eliminating many inefficient aspects of rhythm education, Modular Phonetic Rhythm streamlines the traditional educational approach, resulting in a reflexive reaction to rhythm.

Related Songs
Related Songs for On Broadway.
UL520
Sunny

Sunny is the name of a song written by Bobby Hebb. It is one of the most covered popular songs, with hundreds of versions released. BMI rates "Sunny" number 25 in its "Top 100 songs of the century".

UL513
Moondance

Moondance is a popular song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter an Morrison and is the title song on his 1970 album Moondance. Morrison did not release the song as a single until November 1977, seven and a half years after the album was released. It reached the Billboard Hot 100, charting at #92. The single's B-side, "Cold Wind in August" had been released in the same year, on his latest album at the time, A Period of Transition.

UL528
Light My Fire

Light My Fire is a song by The Doors which was recorded in August 1966 and released the first week of January 1967 on the Doors' debut album. Released as a single in April, it spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and one week on the Cash Box Top 100, nearly a year after its recording. A year later, it re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 following the success of Jose Feliciano's version of the song, peaking at number 87.

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On the web since 1992 and a Mac since 1987 (Mac II) • Serving up Ukulele content since 2003 ( 22 years ago )Lets Kanikapila!!! v12.13.0 (8.2.23) • And, since Sept 2020, happily on Pop!_OS Linux and a System76 Thelio. Half the cost of the iMac and a real treat to use. I use it for ALL development work. Only wish the Affinity Suite of apps by serif where available on Linux (and I do know you can run them in Wine with a few hacks).
This sit has ben profesionaly red. awl tpyos aree free and no aditonal chrge • I'm blaming it on “jazz” fingers. “Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
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