Charles Strouse
speaker
86 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Charles Strouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
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I'm going to record if that's okay. Well, I'm going to suck my stomach in. The scene in his apartment, you know, it was a lot. It was chaotic. He's currently going through his archives, just the boxes and boxes completely covering the floors. And he's doing this in order to donate them to the Library of Congress.
Yeah, I guess the Library of Congress, which collects life itself. Yeah, they asked me. I mean, I wasn't asked to do this.
But in this box, here, tell me, we found... Oh, my God, it's so heavy. But there's this record from All in the Family. I wrote it. Oh, right, the theme song for the show.
Norman Lear... wanted to have a theme, but he couldn't afford a big orchestra. And I brought up the fact that when I was a kid, we all used to sit around and my mother used to play. And so that's how I wrote it. But boy, the tunes Glenn Miller played, songs that made the hit parade. Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days, and you knew where you were going. That she made up herself.
Girls were girls and men were men. Mister, we could use the Herbert Hooper again. But the song itself, as did the program, became very successful.
Yeah. You know, there's this huge framed picture of Jay-Z and the framed CD and cassette tape from the album that says, Volume 2, Hard Knock Life. Oh, it says from 1998. It's the hard knock life.
Well, what was it like working with Jay-Z? There he is. He was surrounded by... Bodyguards and all kinds of people. There was finally one point in my life where we got together and sat and talked.
Oh, because he also produced the most recent Annie movie remake from 2014.
I do remember I kind of won his heart. in a way, when I said, you've got to bring your wife with you. You know, I was being kind of snotty, and he must have told her that. Beyonce? Yeah, it was a nice relationship. But most of the time, he was... He was beyond such a small person as me.
You know, in one of the boxes, where is it? We found a letter from Stephen Sondheim. And there's a funny part to it. Do you mind if I read it? Yeah? Okay. So this is dated July 22nd, 2008. And he says, congratulations on your memoir that was just published. And then he says, quote, I bought a copy yesterday and naturally immediately looked up references to myself.
And then he supplies two corrections for you in case there are any future reprintings, he says. Was that kind of thing in character for him?
Stephen and I were friendly enemies. He didn't like me much. I didn't like him less. But on the other hand... I respected him a lot. Stephen and I knew each other so long that I stood danger of invading his territory. But even that was not... We came into two different worlds. But we were very old friends. He was my oldest friend in the theatre industry.
I mean, right now, Annie is surrounding us, right? There's posters on the walls and pillows, but also in this box, it's Annie stationary and letterheads. Also, there's the Annie cookie jar on the shelf and this Annie piggy bank. With her big, big song, Tomorrow, when you originally wrote it, did you think that you'd struck gold?
I didn't think. I thought that was a disposable item that we needed, necessary to keep the curtain up or down. But so many songs in musicals, go through that emotion. If a guy is a good theater composer, he learns to kind of think with two voices, so to speak. I love you, my darling.
The other is, I love you, my darling, but keep it going, this song, because we have to bring in the detective soon. I would say Tomorrow falls into that category. I needed some time. It's usually always that way when you're writing for the theater. The book writer most usually says, says he needs a song there, or you yourself, rather than here's my symphony to the stars.
And so you originally thought that that song was disposable, as you said. Now, in hindsight now, what do you think it is that makes that song so great?
I don't know. I mean, maybe I do know. Maybe I'm being modest here. I do think I'm talented. I think I write a song and I wanted to please the audience. I didn't know that it was going to be so big. And so I'm very proud if it made its mark.
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