A Guest Submission

An unofficial submission to our recent contest by Gussie Lenehan (the redoubtable mother of Aidan) was interesting enough that I thought it merited special note.  Gussie felt that Run, Freedom, Run reminded her of Gonna Build A Mountain, from Stop the World, I Want to Get Off (1961).  Gonna Build A Mountain is a fine answer - it certainly owes a great deal to the gospel tradition.  But there's even a closer similarity between these two songs that I hadn't noticed before.

First, listen to the first stanza of Run, Freedom, Run:




Then listen to the first stanza of Gonna Build A Mountain:



These two songs not only share exactly the same melody for the first four measures, they use an identical chord structure for the entire verse.  Kudos to Gussie, and her keen ear!

Side Note:  Stop the World, I Want to Get Off opened first in London, and didn't make it to Broadway until 1978, some 17 years later.  It's an odd, abstract little piece, based around the concept of an entire man's life (Littlechap), from birth to death, being represented by a circus. Sammy Davis Jr. starred in the Broadway version, which lasted for exactly 30 performances. The miracle is that anyone remembers this show at all (and for the most part I'd like to forget it). But Sammy made one song from the show his own, and his personal fame managed to keep this song in the public consciousness:  What Kind of Fool Am I?