DiscoverFresh AirRemembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse

Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse

Update: 2025-05-231
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We remember Broadway composer Charles Strouse, who died May 15 at age 96. He wrote the music for the hit musicals Bye Bye Birdie and Annie, which included such songs as "Put On a Happy Face," "A Lot of Livin' to Do," and "Tomorrow." Jay-Z sampled "Hard Knock Life," from Annie, on a Grammy-award-winning rap recording. Strouse understood why: "I wanted that song to be gritty. I didn't want it to be a fake. I wanted it to show these desperate times and these maltreated girls." Strouse spoke with Terry Gross in 2002.

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Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse

Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse

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