Jango Song Of The Day-James Rado & Gerome Ragni

Artist:James Rado & Gerome Ragni
Song:Hair
Album:Hair: Original Broadway Cast: Broadway Deluxe Collector's Edition





Hair is one of the most enduring of Broadway musicals. It came along at the right time in the late 60s when psychedelic counterculture was becoming popular. But make no mistake about it. Hair's roots was clearly in musical theatre. The music is great but there's nothing counterculture about it. The lyrics for Hair were written by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and the music was written by Galt MacDermot. MacDermot was already an established composer when he met Rado & Ragni in 1964. MacDermott won a Grammy in 1961 for Cannonball Adderley recording of his song African Waltz. Rado & Ragni had met while working together in the off-Broadway show Hang Down Your Head And Die. The idea for Hair came from people they knew in New York. They took the draft of Hair to producer Eric Blau and he sent them to MacDermot and the show was written in a few weeks. The original off-Broadway production was produced by Joseph Papp of the New York Shakespeare Festival. Chicago businessman Michael Butler bought the rights and produced the Beoadway production with direction by Tom O'Horgan. Needless to say, it was very successful and the Original Broadway Cast album was a huge seller. This 2CD deluxe edition includes an interview with Galt MacDermot. Rado & Ragni performed Hair in the show. The song went on to be a big pop hit for The Cowsills. And several other songs from the show became pop hits as well. There have been many productions of Hair over the years including the 1979 film adaptation that isn't well liked. Galt MacDermot went on to write other shows including the hir show Two Gentlemen Of Verona and he has written other kinds of music too. Gerome Ragni wrote another musical with MacDermot called Dude and worked on revisions of Hair until his 1991 death. James Rado has produced several stage revivals of Hair and continues to do that today. Here's the Los Angeles cast of Hair including James Rado & Gerome Ragni performing Aquarius, Hair and Let The Sunshine in on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour 1968.