We've hair on our chests, so what we like the best are the nights

l-r: Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green

BBC Radios 3 and, to a lesser extent, 2 have been going mad lately in celebration of the centenary of the prolific composer Leonard Bernstein; featuring myriad compositions from his repertoire, some great and many - bearing in mind his penchant for modernism, which in orchestral music can be excruciatingly difficult to listen to - not so great.

The culmination of the celebrations was (inevitably) at the BBC Proms, with Prom 57 on Saturday (Lenny's actual birthday) dedicated to his first foray into the genre of musical theatre, On The Town. The film version of the stage production was a notable success, but Mr Bernstein boycotted it when the producers replaced all but three of his original compositions with ones by MGM Studios' "in-house" writer Roger Edens.

But here, by way of a jolly pick-me-up suitable on this Tacky Music Monday (despite the fact that is is a Bank Holiday so we're enjoying another free day off), are two numbers from that film version - the first composed by Leonard Bernstein, and the other by Mr Edens...

Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin - New York, New York

We'll find the romance and danger waiting in it
Beneath the Broadway lights;
But we've hair on our chests
So what we like the best are the nights
Sights! Lights! Nights!

New York, New York, a helluva town.
The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.
The people ride in a hole in the groun'.
New York, New York, it's a helluva town!

Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller, Betty Garrett and Vera Ellen - On The Town

We're going on the town, New York,
We're riding on a rocket, we're going to really sock it,
Because tonight's the night.
We're going on the tube,
We're going to raise a riot, the Brooklyn Bridge we'll buy it,
And hit the hype tonight, the highest hype tonight.

East side, west side, rouse the city,
One day, one night, that's the pity.
And we won't look ahead,
We'll let the light of dawn get around,
We're really living, Jack, we're going on the town.

Indeed.

Leonard Bernstein (born Louis Bernstein, 25th August 1918 – 14th October 1990)