Don't Forget Me (Smash song)

"Don't Forget Me" is an original song introduced in the fifteenth episode of the first season of the musical TV series "Smash", entitled "Bombshell". It was written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman,^[1] but in the show's universe, it was written by the songwriting team of Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) and Julia Houston (Debra Messing) for their Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell.

In the episode, the song is sung by Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) as Marilyn Monroe during a Boston preview for the musical after having just taken over the role from Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman), who has been felled by illness.

The song is reprised by Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) in the twelfth episode of Season 2, "Opening Night", as part of the performance of Bombshell's opening night on Broadway opening, with Ivy playing the lead of Marilyn.

The song was initially released as a single from iTunes and Amazon.com's MP3 store and is currently available on the cast album Bombshell.

Production

The song is about Marilyn Monroe's legacy, how she will inspire people, and make the world a better place through her tragic 'cautionary tale'. It has a tempo of quarter = 138 and is described as "Moderately flowing". The song ranges from F#3 to Eb5. It starts off in the key of E Major, but has a key change after the first chorus to F Major and another at the end of the bridge to G-flat Major.^[2]

Within the context of the series, the song is written by the songwriting duo as a finale song in under 3 hours after a reprise of Let Me Be Your Star in a suicide scene was deemed too depressing as the final number. After all the drama that went on beforehand, "Karen walks out onstage [after managing to memorize the song in record time] and brings down the house with 'Don’t Forget Me'.^[3] As the song ends, "we see Ivy back in the dressing room with a bottle of pills".^[4] Chris Rovzar of Vanity Fair suggests the following, "we don’t hear the final response from the Bombshell audience, but the way they reacted during the key change in “Don’t Forget Me” suggests they were poised to give a standing ovation".^[3] The song ends with the camera spinning in a circle around Karen as she "triumphant[ly] flail[s]...her arm[s in the air]".^[3]

Critical reception

Chris Rovzar of Vanity Fair comments that "the lyrics were terrible and the composition spotty", and questions whether this was because within the context of the episode, "Tom and Julia supposedly did write it in just three hours", or because Shaiman and Wittman had genuine faith on the song. While he says that Karen "hit [the song] out of he park", he suggests that some lyrics were less than believable, such as "help for the downtrodden”, which he argues was never "one of Marilyn’s signature messages".

Though he gave the show as a whole much praise, even stating that "[he'd] buy tickets for it tomorrow if the show actually existed", Michael Slezak of TV Line gave Don't Forget Me a negative review, describing the "final ballad [that] Tom and Julia cook...up for Karen" as "downright embarrassing". He described the music as in the style of "rejected Disney princess theme songs", and also criticized the out-of-place and cheesy lyrics, such as, ”when you sing happy birthday to someone you love/or see diamonds you wish were all free/ Please say that you won’t, I pray that you don’t forget me”. He claims that the song requires a rewrite.^[5]

PerezHilton.com described Don't Forget Me as a "breathtaking finale performance".^[6]

JJ of TV Is My Pacifier said of the song, "the orchestration was amazing, the lyrics worked, and it really tied into Marilyn and the music of 'Bombshell'. I couldn't have imagined a better finale".^[4]

Idolhead wrote in his blog that the song is "one for the ages", and speculated it would be up for an award, along with “Let Me Be Your Star”, the unofficial theme song of the show.^[7]

Nathaniel Rogers of Thefilmexperience.net describes the song as "the second worst original song in a generally sensational musical score", and described it as a "weak song" that sounds like the "interchangeable anthemic ballads that they always end American Idol with". He gave the song a C- grade.^[8]

Jonathan Elliott of CinemaBlend.com describes the song as a "nice capper on the season".^[9]

Pat Cerasaro of broadwayworld.com describes "Don't Forget Me" as the "spine-tingling new swan song epilogue for the show-within-the-show".^[10]

References

Smash Episodes Season 1 "Pilot" "The Callback" "Enter Mr. DiMaggio" "The Cost of Art" "Let's Be Bad" "Chemistry" "The Workshop" "The Coup" "Hell on Earth" "Understudy" "The Movie Star" "Publicity" "Tech" "Previews" "Bombshell" Season 2 "On Broadway" "The Fallout" "The Dramaturg" "The Song" "The Read-Through" "The Fringe" "Musical Chairs" "The Bells and Whistles" "The Parents" "The Surprise Party" "The Dress Rehearsal" "Opening Night" "The Producers" "The Phenomenon" "The Transfer" "The Nominations" "The Tonys" Music albums The Music of Smash Bombshell Original songs Season 1 "Never Give All the Heart" "The National Pastime" "Let Me Be Your Star" "The 20th Century Fox Mambo" "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" "History Is Made at Night" "I Never Met a Wolf Who Didn't Love to Howl" "Let's Be Bad" "On Lexington & 52nd Street" "Touch Me" "Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking" "Dig Deep" "A Thousand and One Nights" "Second Hand White Baby Grand" "Smash!" "Don't Forget Me" Season 2 "Cut, Print...Moving On" "Broadway, Here I Come!" "They Just Keep Moving the Line" "Caught in the Storm" "Good for You" "Our Little Secret" "I Can't Let Go" "Public Relations" "A Letter From Cecile" "Heart Shaped Wreckage" "Ce N'Est Pas Ma Faute (It's Not My Fault)" "Rewrite This Story" "(Let's Start) Tomorrow Tonight" "I Heard Your Voice In a Dream" "Reach for Me" "Hang the Moon" "Don't Let Me Know "The Goodbye Song" "At Your Feet" "The Love I Meant to Say" "Pretender" "I'm Not Sorry" "The Right Regrets" Other Smash (novel) Bombshell (musical) Hit List (musical) Characters Category