Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh – Real Live Girl

(click song title above to listen)

This week we're delighted to bring you the recently discovered original demo of Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh's "Real Live Girl" sung by the writers themselves! The song was written for and sung by Sid Caesar in the hit 1962 Broadway musical Little Me which went on to be nominated for 10 Tony Awards. Jack Jones' suave & stylish interpretation would find success on his 1963 album She Loves Me.

Cy & Carolyn met at the Brill Building in the late-1950s and would go on to create music history together with standards like "The Best Is Yet To Come" originally cut by Tony Bennett, "Witchcraft" for Frank Sinatra, "Pass Me By" recorded by Peggy Lee and written for the Cary Grant film Father Goose, and "Hey Look Me Over" for the 1960 musical Wildcat starring Lucille Ball just to name a few.

Both writers would come to admit in interviews that their collaborative relationship would often result in "legendary battles". Coleman blamed her possessiveness and jealousy of his work with his jazz trio and Leigh summed it up as "we were young...there were a couple of very sensitive egos involved". They would manage to reconcile differences for the most part, even renting summer homes in the Hamptons close enough for Cy to swim over for an afternoon of writing. Sadly their creative partnership would eventually buckle under the strain of the London premiere of Little Me in 1963 but their extremely prolific five years together would produce some of the most clever, catchy, sophisticated tunes ever to grace the Great American Songbook!

Contact & Licensing Info
Publishing controlled by Notable Music Co. ASCAP (Cy Coleman)
Contact: Damon Booth/info@notablemusic.net
Administered by Downtown Music Publishing
Contact: Sean McGraw/seanmcgraw@dmpgroup.com
Publishing controlled by Carwin Music Co. Inc ASCAP (Carolyn Leigh)
Administered by EMI U. Catalog Inc.
Master controlled by Notable Music Co. Inc.