8 Criminally Overlooked Epic Songs From Musicals

These songs deserve way more love, attention, recognition and all that jazz....

1. If I Can't Love Her - Beauty and the Beast

Who doesn't love Beauty and the Beast? It's a classic story with a collection of brilliant songs but the one that everyone forgets about - probably due to the fact that it doesn't feature in the Disney movie - is the Beast's beautiful and emotional ballad, tragically overlooked...

2. Kiss Me - Sweeney Todd

Tragically not included in the Tim Burton movie (although I can understand why) this is quite possibly the best song in the whole of Sweeney Todd and it is constantly in the shadow of more popular songs such as A Little Priest and Joanna (both great songs by the way) and epic it is: harmonies? Check. Great melody? Check. Soaring violins? Check. What more do you want?

3. Pharaoh Story - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

This musical as a whole is, I find, slightly underrated. Maybe it's because it's not as gritty as most other musicals or that it's more family friendly - who knows? Having said that, 'Joseph' gives us a couple of classics such as the famous 'Any Dream Will Do' and 'Close Every Door to Me.' Pharaoh Story sung by the Narrator is a great song and a fantastic second act opener that quite frankly blows a lot of other musicals' second act openers out of the water.

4. The Deal (No Deal) - Chess

Chess is jam packed with musical hits - I Know Him So Well, Anthem, One Night in Bangkok and even some slightly less mainstream gems like Pity the Child and Heaven Help My Heart but this second act, full cast, 10 minute (or so) long song has epic written all over it - sadly it also has forgotten written all over it but this is one song that will send any musical lover's pulse rate through the roof!

5. What are we Waiting For? - Only You Can Save Mankind

This is a yet to be released musical based on Terry Pratchett's best selling book so granted the whole thing is somewhat underrated but this song is by far the best. Performed by the equally epic Zubin Varla who sadly doesn't take advantage of his amazing singing voice and record more (but you can hear him play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, see below) this song takes a while to get into but once you do - wham! It hits you in the face with it's epicness!

6. Kim's Nightmare/The Fall of Saigon - Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon is a wonderful musical which really deserves a revival - (it's coming back to London next year!) The score is incredible and there are some great performance songs (The American Dream, The Heat is on in Saigon, What a Waste) and some fantastic ballads too (Why God, Why? I Still Believe, Bui-Doi) but this 10 minute long epic is seriously underrated, so much so that they can't even decide on a name for it! Tragic indeed...

7. Heaven on their Minds - Jesus Christ Superstar

Someone says Jesus Christ Superstar and the response is always the same :do you think you're what they say you are? That's all well and good but the show's opening number is just as good if not better than the closing one. Performed here again by the aforementioned Zubin Varla, Heaven on their Minds is a great song which really sets the scene and tone of the play from the off but is sadly often forgotten about when compared to the famous Jesus Christ Superstar and the wonderful Gethsemane.

8. Who Will Buy? - Oliver!

Despite not owning a copy of the soundtrack and only having seen the show once at a stage school's production I seem to be able to sing along to practically every song in Oliver! Maybe it's because each song is such a catchy stand alone song, one of the best songs is however one of the ones most people (myself included) tend to forget about when it's squeezed in with Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself and As Long as He Needs Me. This song is haunting, powerful and has a beautiful set of harmonies and really deserves to be remembered first once in a while

What did you think? Any more tragically underrated gems that you know about? Let us know in the comments section...