"Cool" is a song from the 1957 musical West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein composed the music and Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. This was the first song they wrote together, and Sondheim later recollects that Bernstein must have written the opening line ("Boy, boy, crazy boy") since he himself was not prone to writing melismatically.[1] This song is known for its fugal treatment of a jazz figure, described by one writer as "possibly the most complex instrumental music heard on Broadway to date".[2] In the 1957 musical, the song is performed by Riff as he advises the Jets to stay cool before entering the Rumble. This is however changed in the 1961 and 2021 film adaptations.
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