| "Never Give All the Heart" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Smash cast feat. Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty | ||||
| from the album Bombshell[1] | ||||
| Released | April 09, 2012 | |||
| Recorded | 2012 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 3:13 (Single version) | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman | |||
| Producer(s) | Marc Shaiman | |||
| Smash cast singles chronology | ||||
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"Never Give All the Heart" is an original song introduced in the first episode of the first season of the musical TV series Smash, titled "Pilot".
The number was written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman,[2] but within the Smash universe the song is depicted as having been written by songwriting duo Julia Houston (Debra Messing) and Tom Levitt (Christian Borle) for a musical based on Marilyn Monroe's life titled Bombshell.
While a portion of the song is sung by Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) in the pilot, Karen Cartright (Katharine McPhee) sings the song in its entirety in the tenth episode "Understudy". Ivy Lynn's version of "Never Give All the Heart" was performed in the show as demo track that was recorded for Tom and Julia as they pondered actually attempting the Marilyn musical.[3] Karen, on the other hand, sings the song to the Bombshell producers and director in the last minute of her episode.[4] The song was also reprised in the sixth episode of Season 2, "The Fringe" by Karen, as a more uptempo version than previous renditions.
The song was released as a single on iTunes and as a track on the cast album Bombshell. The rendition on the single and the standard edition of the Bombshell album is McPhee's version; Hilty's version is a track on the Smash the Complete Season 2 album as a bonus.