Pop singers really need to stop remixing Broadway music into pop songs. I woke up yesterday to hear someone — Gwen Stefani, it turned out — singing these lyrics to the tune of If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof:
If I was a rich girl — na na na na na na na na na na na na na na
See, I’d have all the money in the world
If I was a wealthy girl
This overly excited departure from Zero Mostel’s impoverished and weary Tevye was already disorienting to hear first thing in the morning. It reminded me immediately of 1998, when rapper Jay Z remixed Hard Knock Life into a hip hop tune, thus taking me entirely by surprise when my rap-loving coworkers of the day loved the song without having any idea of its origin.
Irked by this latest Broadway reuse, I took the time to read the rest of Stefani’s lyrics online. I wish I hadn’t.
In Fiddler on the Roof, the song is Tevye’s lament that, while it’s no shame being poor, he wouldn’t mind too terribly having some money. Though he dreams first of an impractically ostentatious house with “one long staircase just going up, and one even longer coming down,” he reveals by the end what he would really do with his hypothetical fortune:
If I were rich I’d have the time that I lack
To sit in the synagogue and pray
And maybe have a seat by the eastern wall.
And I’d discuss the holy books with the learned men,
Several hours every day.
That would be the sweetest thing of all.
All he really wants is the luxury to sit quietly, studying and praying. What, by contrast, does Ms. Stefani (who, incidentally, has sold 40 million records) want?
No man could test me
Impress me
My cash flow would never ever end
Cause I’d have all the money in the world
If I was a wealthy girl
Moving.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
That’s some selective quoting. Although Gwen doesn’t yearn for the freedom to pray in peace, it’s not all crass materialism either. To wit:
So after satisfying all of life’s material desires, she brings it back to the staple of all pop music (and, one can reasonably argue, most art): love.
Aww.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hmm… maybe I’m just “pop lyrics incapable.” At least at 6:30 in the morning.
I approve of love, but I still don’t like the song.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
40 million records? that’s pretty good for just a girl.