"Everything's Coming Up Roses" is a song with music byJule Styne and lyrics byStephen Sondheim, written initially for the 1959 Broadway musicalGypsy. Introduced in the show's inaugural production byEthel Merman, "Everything's Coming Up Roses" became one of Merman'ssignature songs.
According toSammy Cahn, the song had its genesis in the 1947 musicalHigh Button Shoes, for which he was the lyricist. Cahn wrote lyrics to Jule Styne's music for a song titled "Betwixt and Between", to be sung by a female character who cannot decide between two men. The director ofHigh Button Shoes decided the song did not fit well into the show and removed it.
When composingGypsy, Styne decided to re-use the music for what became "Everything's Coming Up Roses", with new lyrics by Sondheim. It took Sondheim a week to come up with the title; the lyricist recalled: "The point was to [coin] a phrase that sounded as if it had been in the language for years but was in fact invented for the show." (The similar phrase, "come up smelling like a rose" has in fact been in general usage since the early 20th century, and the similar idiom "roses, roses all the way" derives from aRobert Browning poemThe Patriot[1]) Director of the showJerome Robbins responded to Sondheim's lyrics: "Everything's coming up Rose'swhat?" prompting Sondheim's assurance that "if anybody else has that confusion – anybody connected with the production, in the audience, any of your relatives – I will change the title."[2]
"Everything's Coming Up Roses" is performed at the end of the first act ofGypsy bystage mother Rose, upon learning her daughter June has eloped, abandoning thevaudeville act, and leaving Rose without a star for the show to which she has devoted her life. Rose's response is to make her other daughter Louise the object of her dubious star-making abilities. The title "Everything's Coming Up Roses" is a pun: Besides "roses" representing happiness, the title is referencing the possessive "Rose's" as in Rose's way or "Rose" as in Rose becoming a star herself, through her daughter.[citation needed]
Ethel Merman biographer Brian Kellow notes that while objectively "Everything's Coming Up Roses" seems "a big, brassypaean to the power ofpositive thinking ... done in the old, electric Merman style", within the context of the show "the song becomes a chilling illustration of blind ambition mixed withmegalomania". Kellow quotes Stephen Sondheim to the effect that while Merman's comedic prowess was "nonpareil" as showcased inGypsy's first act she lacked the dramatic precision to be fully effective as the play grew darker; thus, Sondheim recalled: "I wrote a song of the type that [Merman] had sung all her life, like [theAnything Goes number] 'Blow, Gabriel, Blow', which only requires a trumpet-voiced affirmation." However Sondheim added that Merman performed the song with an "intensity [which] came as a surprise."[3]
The emergence of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" as a Broadway anthem began with the song's melody being used to open and close the14th Tony Awards ceremony on April 24, 1960. (IronicallyGypsy won none of its eight Tony nominations.)[4]
In aid of the (successful) 1965 campaign ofJohn Lindsay formayor of New York City, Sondheim wrote new lyrics which were sung by Merman.[5][6] In 1974, Ethel Merman appeared in a television advertisement singing new lyrics to the tune of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" to promote theColgate-Palmolivedishwashing liquid Vel. That same year Merman recorded "Everything's Coming Up Roses" for her albumMerman Sings Merman recorded withStanley Black & theLondon Festival Orchestra. She again recorded the song forThe Ethel Merman Disco Album in 1979. In a cameo in the 1980 filmAirplane!, Merman sings a few bars of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" in what became her final film appearance.
Other versions of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" include:
