In the original stage version, Anita – the girlfriend of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks, and the most important female character after Maria – praises America while a fellow Puerto Rican, Rosalia, supports Puerto Rico.[1] This version of the song deprecates the island and highlights the positive qualities of American life ("I'll drive a Buick through San Juan/If there's a road you can drive on"). The irony of this supposedly pro-American number, however, is its vibrantly Hispanic musical style, with Latin percussion, complex cross-rhythm and Spanish guitar.
In the 1961 film version, Anita, played by Rita Moreno, still sings in favor of the United States while Bernardo, played by George Chakiris, replies with corresponding criticisms of America and American ethnic prejudice, especially against Puerto Ricans ("Life is alright in America/If you're all White in America"). Some of the original song's disparagement was removed. In 2004, this version finished at No. 35 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
The alternating bars of 6 8 (six eighth-notes in two groups of three) with 3 4 (three quarter-notes) (similar to a guajira) is a distinctive characteristic of the song. This rhythm has been called both a hemiola and a habanera but is not really either. The two bar types alternate and are not superposed, as in a hemiola. The alternation is comparable with the "Habanera" from "Carmen", but "America" lacks the distinctive characteristic underlying rhythm of the habanera form.
Stephen Sondheim claims that Bernstein returned from a holiday in Puerto Rico and told him he had come across a wonderful dance rhythm called Huapango which gave him the idea for the song. Many years later, a friend of Sondheim's found, in a box of Bernstein's papers, an unproduced ballet called Conch Town which contained the tune. Sondheim concludes that Bernstein had invented the story of finding the rhythm on holiday simply so he could reuse an old tune.[4]
The composer's tempo instruction is "Tempo di Huapango".
Cover versions
An instrumental version, with the signature rhythm reduced to a uniform 4 4, was released in 1963 by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass on their album Volume 2.[5]
In 1968, The Nice, featuring Keith Emerson, covered an instrumental version of "America" as the band's second single. This version had the main theme playing against a straight 4 4 beat, also including pieces of Dvořák's New World Symphony, then changing in the middle to 6 8 for improvised guitar and organ solos. At a July 7, 1968, concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the band controversially burned an American flag after performing the song.[7] Emerson later folded the melody into a great many of his jams including the finale medley on Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1992-1993 tours, which also used musical themes from "Blue Rondo à la Turk", a jazz standard composed by Dave Brubeck. An example of this medley can be found on the album Live at the Royal Albert Hall.
The English psychobilly band King Kurt covered this song on an EP called America, released in 1986.
A version of this song was performed by the in-house band and singers to introduce a 2012 episode of the Polish version of Name That Tune, Jaka to Melodia?, complete with a set of dancers.
In 2011, the song was covered by the cast of musical comedy television series Glee in the fifth episode of the third season, "The First Time" (aired on November 8), with character Santana Lopez (portrayed by Naya Rivera) on the lead.[9] A minor controversy was caused over using the film version of the song, while a high school would normally use the stage version.
In 2003, the song was used in advertisements for Admiral Insurance though with different lyrics.
In 1994, the song was the unofficial anthem at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States and was sung by the Three Tenors (Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti) at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles to an estimated global TV audience of 1.3 billion viewers. The BBC also used it as its theme for its coverage of the World Cup.
A version of the song with truncated lyrics is used in the end credits of the 2018 film Vice.
A supercut of the musical number, combining the footage of the 1961 and 2021 film versions of the sequence, was edited and uploaded by narrative/documentary filmmaker Max Hechtman to his YouTube channel on March 13, 2022 and was featured in an article for Collider on "10 Great Movies That Had a Decades-Long Gap Between Them and Their Remake."[13][14]
References
^Maslon, Laurence (October 8, 2021). "The divided states of "America" – why Rita Moreno objected to West Side Story's original lyrics". PBS. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
^Bouzereau, Laurent (2021). West Side Story the Making of the Steven Spielberg Film. ISBN 9781419750632.
^Anderson, Erik (December 12, 2021). "St. Louis Film Critics nominations: 'Licorice Pizza,' 'West Side Story' lead". AwardsWatch. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
^"www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
^"www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
^Dome, Malcolm. "The Story Behind The Song: America by The Nice". Retrieved June 28, 2017. Archived October 9, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
^Stevenson, Joseph. "For New York, variations on themes of Leonard Bernstein for orchestra". AllMusic. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
^""Glee" Performs "West Side Story" and Billy Joel on Tuesday's "The First Time" - Popdust". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
^The music of 'West Side Story', from Bernstein to Metallica
^"West Wing Story THE SIMPSONS". The Simpsons. Archived from the original on 2021-12-20. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
^"Airport Sushi - SNL". Saturday Night Live. Archived from the original on 2021-12-20. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
^"America" - West Side Story 1961/2021 Supercut on YouTube
^Pineda Pacheco, Diego (September 26, 2022). "Better Late Than Never: 10 Great Movies That Had a Decades-Long Gap Between Them and Their Remake". Collider. Retrieved 29 January 2024.