Cut Song

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    "I was going to use this as the extra stage theme. But I thought the extra stage song should be a little lighter, so I cried and cried and threw it out."

    —ZUN, on Magical Shop of Raspberry.

    A song from a stage musical or film musical written for the show but unused or dropped from the production.

    The melody to the song can sometimes be found in background music, especially dance music.

    Like the Image Song in anime, this can add depth to a character for those who know the song and its relation to the show.

    In the past, the Cut Song tended to be left off the original cast album even if it had already been recorded, so as not to give the impression that it was still part of the show. Nowadays, the Cut Song is a common bonus track on both new and reissued cast recordings.

    Since movie versions of stage musicals inevitably cut one or more songs from the original, cut songs from movie musicals should not be listed unless one or more of the following apply:

    1. they were written specifically for the movie
    2. they were filmed, but the footage was deleted (and, in all too many cases, subsequently lost)
    3. they remain on the soundtrack in some vestigial form

    Video game tracks are an interesting case; songs that cannot be heard in-game without hacking also double as Dummied Out.

    Not to be confused with the Wasted Song, which is where a song is present but receives very minimal playtime. See also Movie Bonus Song, Second Verse Curse.

    Examples of Cut Song include:

    Anime and Manga

    Film

    • "The Jitterbug" from The Wizard of Oz may be the most famous example of a Cut Song from a film musical. The audio has survived, but the original footage has not - a common fate for Cut Songs from old movie musicals. According to Margaret Hamilton, the song was cut to avoid dating the film via reference to the "jitterbug" fad. Many stage versions of the film, as well as an ice show tour in The Nineties, reinstated the number.
      • There was also meant to be a Dark Reprise of "Over The Rainbow" sung when Dorothy is trapped in the witch's castle. It had to be recorded live on set and reduced the cast and crew to tears.
        • "Over The Rainbow" itself nearly became a cut song, since producers initially could not figure out why a child would be singing in a drab farmyard. They wisely chose to leave it in.
      • There was a deleted Reprise Medley of "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" ("Hail Hail The Witch is Dead") and "The Merry Old Land of Oz" following the Wicked Witch of the West's death. Instead, the film cuts straight from the Witch's castle to the Wizard's throne room. Like The Jitterbug, the audio survived, but not the footage. "Hail Hail" and "Over the Rainbow (Reprise)" do appear in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 2011 stage adaptation, though.
    • "Human Again" was cut from Disney Animated Canon's Beauty and the Beast before it reached the animation stage (as the filmmakers felt it was too long a sequence), but it was newly recorded and animated for insertion into the 10th anniversary theatrical re-release and subsequent special edition DVD. Prior to this, it was incorporated into the Screen to Stage Adaptation.
      • The Beast had at lest one song in production that never even made it to the demo stage before it was cut. The stage version made up for this by giving him several songs.
    • Pocahontas had a love duet for the heroine and John Smith, "If I Never Knew You", cut when it bombed with kids in test screenings, though a pop version did appear over the end credits and it's a key motif in the underscore. It was later animated and restored to the film for its anniversary DVD.
    • For similar reasons, The Hunchback of Notre Dame did the same with an alternative to "God Help The Outcasts", "Someday". It later appeared in the German stage production.
      • There was also originally going to be a song called "As Long As There's a Moon", which involves Clopin marrying Phoebus to Esmeralda in what is supposed to be their wedding, but said wedding is immediately interrupted by the intervention of Frollo and his henchmen, who now has Esmeralda finally cornered.
      • Before "As Long As There's a Moon," we had the similar "In a Place of Miracles."
    • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had many songs written for it that weren't used in favor of more effective ones. The ones that survived as recordings were "Music In Your Soup" (for the scene immediately following the "Washing Song", which had full pencil animation and voice tracks made before being dropped for time/budget reasons) and "You're Never Too Old To Be Young", which was later performed by Dick Van Dyke and a chorus for the film's 1987 TV tribute special (it was the 50th anniversary).
    • The Marx Brothers movie A Day at the Races is another instance: "A Message From The Man In The Moon," which was to have been sung in the film by Allan Jones, remained only in the instrumental party music and a couple of lines sung by Groucho Marx in the movie's Reprise Medley finale.
    • A song was cut from A Hard Day's Night and replaced with a second round of "Can't Buy Me Love." Which song is uncertain, but general consensus is that the cut song is "I'll Cry Instead." That song is in at least one trailer, though. "You Can't Do That" was also cut from the final concert scene, but footage exists on the DVD and various making-of specials.
    • Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron has "Brothers Under The Sun", which appears on the soundtrack fully and with words, but only the melody is heard in the movie.
    • "Is This What Feeling Gets?" was written and recorded for the movie version of The Wiz; it comes after Dorothy first "meets" the Wiz and learns she has to go after Evillene. It was cut (though a prequel, "Can I Go On Not Knowing?", shows up early on), but it's on the soundtrack album and is THE big motif in the instrumental score. Given that the finished movie is two-plus hours as it is, it may have been cut for time reasons.
    • In the movie version of Kiss Me Kate, "Another Op'nin', Another Show" and "Bianca" are not sung, but can be heard in instrumental versions. (Arguably, "Bianca" deserves to be cut, having originally been written to spite the original actor playing Bill, who obnoxiously demanded an Act Two showpiece.)
    • Esther Williams was supposed to sing "On A Slow Boat To China" in Neptune's Daughter. Apparently, the censors objected to the lyrics, so the movie introduced the song in an instrumental version only.
    • Thanks to a substantial Retool from its Kingdom of the Sun origins, almost every song was cut from The Emperors New Groove, with the exception of "Perfect World." All the songs are still on the soundtrack, though—and "My Funny Friend and Me" still appears over the end credits. Sadly, Yzma's Villain Song, "Snuff Out the Light," was pretty frickin' sweet.
    • "Let's Go West Again" was removed from the movie version of Annie Get Your Gun; Judy Garland had already recorded it for the soundtrack when she was replaced by Betty Hutton, whose rendition of the song was also recorded but unused. The song had actually been written for the stage version of Annie Get Your Gun, but never had a spot in the script.
    • Little Shop of Horrors: The original darker ending had a song from the musical entitled "Don't Feed the Plants" as hundreds of giant Audrey IIs destroyed notable cities which was from the musical's ending. Also, the song "The Meek Shall Inherit" was heavily cut in the film version. Both songs appear on the DVD...or at least the original DVD. Also written for the film was the Villain Song "Bad," the predecessor to "Mean Green Mother."
    • Approximately a half hour of songs had to be cut from Repo! The Genetic Opera. One particularly infamous song from the stage show, "Come Up And Try My New Parts", was actually cut from the movie because it was too good.
    • "Never Smile at a Crocodile" from Disney's Peter Pan. Only the instrumental version is heard, as background music for the crocodile. It also resurfaced in a Disney Sing-Along Songs video.
    • In the year and a half between the filming of Summer Holiday and its (unsuccessful) release, lots of footage was cut out of the film, and the cut footage was subsequently destroyed in a fire. The deletions included four songs: "Never Again," "Omar and the Princess," "With I Had a Braver Heart," and "Spring Isn't Everything."
    • The movie version of Mamma Mia! cut out "The Name of the Game" (shown as a deleted scene at the DVD), which was in the actual Broadway show. It also scrapped out of the original script three songs: "Under Attack", "One of Us" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You", the last one being replaced with "When All Is Said and Done".
    • In Casper, the ghostly trio was originally going to have a fun jazzy number called "Lucky Enough to be a Ghost," with very risque lyrics ("I binge and I purge/I'm always obsessing/I'm an alcoholic, shopaholic inter-cross-dresser!"), but was cut when it was too expensive to animate. In the follow-up animated series, a similar, watered down song was used.
    • "Halloween" was cut from the movie of Rent, but appears on the DVD as a deleted scene. Many other songs were replaced by dialogue or eliminated entirely in the film of the show.
    • Coraline was originally intended to have significantly more musical numbers, and They Might Be Giants wrote several songs for the film. However, the film's tone was later changed to be more melancholy and all but one of the songs were taken out of the film (the remaining song being "Other Father's Song"). "Careful What You Pack", originally written for the movie, was worked onto their 2007 album, The Else. All the other songs will be released sooner or later.
    • The movie version of the Broadway musical Lady in the Dark cut out nearly all of the musical numbers, including the one that has the most bearing on the whole plot and ties the whole thing together: "My Ship". Reportedly this was a due to the producer of the film hating Kurt Weill (the composer) and the song itself. All that remained of the original score in the end were "The Saga of Jenny" and "Girl of the Moment".
    • "Hey Bulldog" by The Beatles was originally written for the Yellow Submarine movie, but ended up being cut (at least from US prints - it was included in BBC screenings) and was only released on the soundtrack album, despite being insanely good. The song was added back for the 30th anniversary version of the film.
    • The Movie Bonus Song "Learn to Be Lonely" from The Phantom of the Opera (played over the end credits) originated as "No One Would Listen", a new song for the Phantom that would have appeared after the discussion between Raoul and Madame Giry; it had completely different lyrics. It was filmed but cut; the two-disc DVD release includes the scene as a bonus feature. Had the song remained, the melody's appearance in the film's underscore would have made a lot more sense.
    • The Glenn Miller band can be heard performing an instrumental version of "At Last" in Sun Valley Serenade. They reintroduced the song in Orchestra Wives, this time with the vocal intact.
    • Disney's Alice in Wonderland had quite a few cut songs, including 'Beyond the Laughing Sky' (which was later used as the basis for 'Second Star to the Right' in Peter Pan), 'Beware the Jabberwocky' (cut because it was thought to be too scary), and 'I'm Odd', sung by the Cheshire Cat, and later included as an extra in the DVD.
    • "Necessity" was removed from the film version of Finian's Rainbow almost certainly to shorten its running time, as the song was recorded for the soundtrack and its melody can be heard in the background music just after where it would have been sung.
    • "Ain't It the Truth" was supposed to have appeared twice in Cabin in the Sky. Both versions were cut, leaving Louis Armstrong without a musical number. The footage of Lena Horne singing it in a bathtub was preserved because it was recycled in a short film, but only the audio of Armstrong's rendition survives. Horne got to revive her Bad Girl Song in the Broadway musical Jamaica.
    • "When Love Is Gone", from The Muppet Christmas Carol. Cut from the theatrical release for reasons of pacing, but added back into the VHS release (the DVD retains the theatrical cut, but the second DVD release includes the extended version, although not in widescreen).
      • The soundtrack has two songs that didn't make it into the movie at all (One song by Honeydew and Beaker, and one sung by Sam the Eagle), along with an additional verse to "Marley and Marley".
    • "The Land Of Sand", a song from a cut sequence during the development of Mary Poppins. The melody of the song was later reused for "Trust In Me", Kaa's song from The Jungle Book.
    • Ali Hakim's song "It's a Scandal" and Jud Fry's song "Lonely Room" were cut from the movie version of Oklahoma!!. The former can be heard in the score, and the latter would have given the film a LOT more depth.
    • A sheet music anthology of Leslie Bricusse songs discussed two films he worked on that were written as musicals but weren't filmed as such due to Executive Meddling.
      • Santa Claus -- The Movie (1985) had most of its songs dropped or reduced to background material because the producers didn't think a musical would sell in the mid-1980s; only "Patch Natch!" was performed onscreen, due to it being justified in-story as part of a TV ad. A fan site for the film has a page focusing on the songs and their fates.
      • Hook (1991) was de-musicalized due to concerns over budget and length. The only numbers sung onscreen at all are "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" (as part of a School Play) and "When You're Alone" (a lullaby Maggie sings to comfort herself in Neverland). One of the dropped songs, "Childhood", is a big motif in the underscore. Bricusse included the original version in the book, explaining that everyone was crushed to lose that song, but they couldn't figure out a way to perform it onscreen if the movie wasn't a musical.
    • "Is It A Crime?" was edited out of the movie version of Bells Are Ringing, though the film of the deleted scene survives. "Hello, Hello There" was reduced to background music and a few lines of dialogue which now mysteriously failed to result in a Crowd Song. "Mu-Cha-Cha" became more or less a Wasted Song.
    • "Strip Polka" was written for the movie Navy Blues, but the Hays Office wouldn't allow it to be used.
    • Many songs were written for Pinocchio but not used, including "Jiminy Cricket (Is My Name)," "Honest John," "Monstro The Whale," "Turn On The Music Box" and "Three Cheers For Anything." One of Jiminy Cricket's Cut Songs, "I'm A Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow," resurfaced in the short "Bongo" from Fun and Fancy Free, where it was sung by the cricket himself. The demo for "Honest John" is included in the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition.
    • Humuhumunukunukuapuaa, cut song and scene from High School Musical 2. Possibly cut because Disney would lose any plausible deniability about Ryan's sexuality after airing it. They put it back into the stage adaptation, though.
      • It ended up on the DVD (not as a deleted scene, in the movie, as if it had always been there).
      • There was also a song recorded for the 3rd movie called "Last Chance" that never made it into the movie apart from the reprise in the medley of most of the songs in the movie. A 40 second preview leaked in 2008 before the movie came out.
      • In the first movie, there were a few songs that didn't make the cut. "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" was recorded by the four main leads (kind of Squicky because two of them played siblings and ended up on the album and as a bonus music video on the DVD (it's made to look like they're all recording the song but Zac Efron is there instead of Drew Seeley who did most of the singing for Zac's character. It also made it into the play version of the movie a duet between Troy and Gabriella, as did "Cellular Fusion" and "Counting on You" but the song between Mrs. Darbus and Coach Bolton seems to be lost forever.
    • The 1997 rerelease of the Return of the Jedi soundtrack includes an alternate version of "Sail Barge Assault", which for many fans, blows away the film version. This unused version was also featured in the radio adaptation of ROTJ and two levels of Rebel Assault II.
    • The Lion King has the reprise of "Be Prepared".
      • It also has "Morning Report", which was cut from the theatrical release but was put back in for the musical adaptation and special edition DVDs.
      • Also "Warthog Rhapsody", which made it into a spinoff CD and the bonus features in said special edition DVD; it was replaced with the catchier "Hakuna Matata".
    • The movie version of Hair (theatre) is an odd variant of this trope. Several songs --"I Believe in Love", "Going Down", "Abie Baby/Fourscore", "Frank Mills", and "What a Piece of Work is Man"—were recorded for the movie, but cut for pacing and runtime. They were included in the original soundtrack album, but cut from the 1990 re-issue. Instrumental versions of "Don't Put It Down" and "Somebody To Love" are used as background music for several scenes. The odd part is that three songs on the soundtrack -- "Air", "My Conviction", and "Don't Put It Down"—were recorded by the cast exclusively for the soundtrack. Not because they were intended for the film, but because they were in the original play.
    • Bluto's song "I'm Mean" from Popeye is cut from every UK release for unknown reasons. It may have something to do with the UK distributor being Disney while the US distributor is Paramount.
    • A bunch of songs from the musical Grease got cut from the film, showing up only as background "music on the jukebox" during dialog scenes.
      • Well, sort of - that was the case with "It's Raining On Prom Night." (When Danny confronts Sandy at the Frosty Palace, this is the song she chooses on the jukebox.) "Rock 'n' Roll Party Queen" is heard on a radio before the start of the prom, and "Those Magic Changes" is performed by Johnny Casino and the Gamblers. Three additional songs, "Freddy My Love", "Mooning", and "Alone At A Drive-In Movie," appear solely on the soundtrack album.
    • Although few people have heard it to begin with, the "Dungeon Song" from Dr. Seuss's The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T had its third verse cut out due to increasingly horrific references as the song progressed. Not even sure the original track still exists:

    THIRD FLOOR DUNGEON! Household appliances. / Spike beds, electric chairs, / gas chambers, roasting pots, / and scalping devices.

      • There was at least six additional songs written for the film by Dr. Seuss that didn't make the final cut, and only survive on old production bootlegs. e.g. We Are The Guards: We are Two Terrible Twins With a Terrible Siamese Beard. / Don't get fresh with us now, Or you will get choked by the beard of the twins with the Siamese beard, with a terrible twin on each end.
    • Though not entirely cut, "Reflection" from Mulan was originally several verses long and would have been a torch song of sorts for Mulan, but it was cut down to just one verse for timing purposes. Lea Salonga was understandably a little miffed that her big number was pared down, and performs the full version in concerts.
    • The song "Arabian Nights" from Aladdin was actually going to be at least 4 verses long, with each verse being sung during different parts of the film, but in the final version, only the first verse was used. (two verses were still used later: one for the opening of The Return of Jafar - and subsequently s the opening theme for the TV series - and the one that would end the film on the ending of Aladdin and the Forty Thieves as Book Ends)
    • The song "When Does My Life Begin" from Tangled actually has two reprises. Only the second reprise made it into the film; the first reprise is actually soundtrack-exclusive.
    • The Disney version of The Little Mermaid had a song for Eric called "Her Voice" that was a companion piece to "Part of Your World." Bits and pieces of the song can still be heard throughout the score as Eric's theme, after a fashion. The stage musical ended up putting it back in.
    • Bedknobs and Broomsticks was shortened from its original 139-minute running length by cutting several of the Sherman Brothers' songs - "A Step in the Right Direction", "Nobody's Problems", "With a Flair" and part of "Portobello Road". All but "A Step in the Right Direction" were restored for the film's DVD release.
    • Sleeping Beauty had a few numbers for the fairies and a Villain Song for Maleficent.
    • While present in all stage versions, Brad's ballad "Once In A While" was removed from The Rocky Horror Picture Show for pacing reasons. The scene has been included has a bonus feature on several home video releases, though never officially inserted back into the film. (Fans have done this themselves, even surprising theater audiences with the scene... and the audience reaction is almost always negative. It's a complete snore of a song.)
      • Additionally, American-made prints of Rocky Horror are missing most of "Super Heroes," as US distributors thought it made the ending too depressing. All that remains is the Crim's verse and one really bad jump-cut.
    • A notable soundtrack example: Christopher Nolan wanted Paranoid Android by Radiohead to close out Memento, but the licensing fee would have increased the (already quite low) budget by too much.
    • Beauty and the Beast has the alternate version of "Be Our Guest", which is exactly like the final version of the song but has Lumiere and the enchanted furniture sing to Maurice instead of Belle.
    • The 1968 film Oliver! cuts quite a few songs from the musical, including That's Your Funeral and My Name.
    • Streets of Fire had "Never Be You" and "Streets of Fire".
    • The Aristocats has "She Never Felt Alone", where Duchess actually sings to her kittens and Thomas O'Malley about her owner Madame on their way back to Paris via milk truck, and that Madame will become extremely worried if she found out that her cats are gone. In the final version of the film, this scene is spoken instead of sung, and the scene where Madame learns about her cats' disappearance is now a scene following the one where her evil butler Edgar (who kidnapped the cats in the first place) accidentally leaves the cats behind in the French countryside after being attacked by a pair of dogs, but before Thomas O'Malley is introduced, where Madame is seen climbing out of her bed in the middle of the night (and accidentally revealing to the audience how beautiful she really is despite her old age) and discovering that her cats are gone after checking on their basket where said cats sleep, causing her to go crazy and run around the hallways of her mansion screaming.
    • Anthony Newley’s notorious autobiographical X-rated musical Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness had “Oh, What a Son of a Bitch I Am,” which appears on the soundtrack album but was cut from the film.
    • A non movie-musical example: William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet originally involved a song called "Come What May". Baz Luhrmann was able to salvage it for use in his next film, Moulin Rouge, but could not be nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar because it was not written specifically for the movie in which it appeared.
    • Cut from We're Not Dressing was "It's the Animal in Me," a big production number featuring Ethel Merman, who was otherwise underused in the film. The cut song and footage wound up in The Big Broadcast of 1936, which otherwise did not feature Ethel Merman at all.
    • Rodrigo y Gabriela helped Hans Zimmer write the score for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and even recorded a video for a track, The Pirate that Should Not Be. Guess if it appears in the movie?
    • Then-US President Richard Nixon convinced friend and producer Jack Warner to expunge the musical number "Cool Considerate Men," an ode to wealthy conservatism sung by the antagonist, from the film version of 1776 for purely political reasons -- and not just remove it but destroy all the footage. (As Warner was no longer working with his and his brother's namesake studio, however, the employees responsible merely packed it into unmarked boxes and stashed it with all of the other film negatives, letting Paramount Pictures rediscover it years later for the Special Edition.) Nixon had earlier attempted to pressure playwright Sherman Edwards into removing the number after seeing a performance of the play at the White House, but Edwards refused.
      • The film also cut quite a few of the songs from the stage version; the lucky ones were relegated to background music. It also truncated "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve" to less than half its original length.

    Music

    • The songs "When the Tigers Broke Free" and "What Shall We Do Now?" were both cut from the album of Pink Floyd's The Wall for lack of space. The former was released as a non-album single, whilst the intro to the latter was reworked into Empty Spaces, and its lyrics were included in the sleeve notes (though not, unfortunately, in the CD rerelease) and was used in the live tour. Both songs were ultimately used in the film version.
      • And "Hey You" and "The Show Must Go On" were cut from the film version.
      • Roger Waters recorded, rewrote, and re-recorded "The Wall" several times, each with varying lyrics and track sequences. One track, "Sexual Revolution," disappeared entirely - and was held until his solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch-Hiking.
    • Five Iron Frenzy recorded three songs for Electric Boogaloo that got cut simply because the album was running too long. "Kamikaze" and "Dog Food" were released as-is on the b-sides collection Cheeses (of Nazareth); "Farewell to Arms" was revised, rerecorded, and included on The End is Here. Looking back, some members of the band thought that "Kamikaze" was the best song they ever wrote, and wondered what the heck they were thinking when they cut it.
    • Jason Martin of Starflyer 59 has said that "I Was 17" was his favorite song from the Americana recording sessions, but it couldn't be included because it was too stylistically different from the rest of the album. It was instead included on Easy Come, Easy Go.
      • In the production diary for Old, an instrumental song named "Jim" (featuring trumpet work by Richard Swift, oddly enough) was mentioned a few times, but nothing of the sort appears on the finished album. Jason has clarified that the song was indeed cut, and then the hard drive containing the song was damaged, so "Jim" is pretty much gone forever.
    • Sufjan Stevens' The Avalanche was basically an entire album's worth of songs that got cut from Sufjan's prior album Illinois.
    • The song "Rock Star" was supposed to be on the Hole album Live Through This, but was cut not long before the album's release because of the line "How'd you like to be Nirvana/So much fun to be Nirvana/A barrel of laughs to be Nirvana/Say you'd rather die, yeah like to try" (the album was released not long after Kurt Cobain's death). Funnily enough, the song was replaced with the song "Olympia", but the name on the album's cover wasn't changed.
    • Laserdance's rare track "Fall of the Wall"(referring to the Berlin Wall), judging by its sound, was apparently meant for the Discovery Trip album, but was relegated to a B-side on the Megamix Vol. 3 EP. Parts of it were also used for the intro and ending of Megamix Vol. 4.
    • P!nk's "Whataya Want From Me" was originally recorded for her Funhouse album, but when it didn't make the cut, she gave it to Adam Lambert. P!nk's version was later released on her Greatest Hits compilation.
    • Camper Van Beethoven's Key Lime Pie was originally going to have a "Closing Theme" to go with it's "Opening Theme" - the Lemony Narrator liner notes even apologize to David Lowery for not including it because it was decided it made the album run too long. "Closing Theme" eventually showed up on the rarity and outtake compilation Camper Van Beethoven Is Dead, Long Live Camper Van Beethoven, although it turned out that it had already been released as a b-side under the title "Guitar Hero".
    • On their album Rumours, Fleetwood Mac originally left off the song "Silver Springs" due to a lack of space on the vinyl. It's since appeared on re-issues of Rumours and on one of Stevie Nicks' compilation albums.
    • When XTC's B-Side "Dear God" became an unexpected hit, they added it to Skylarking and had to cut "Mermaid Smile" to make room. They did include "Mermaid Smiled" on the b-side\rarity collection Rag N' Bone Buffet, and a later reissue of Skylarking restored the song to it's original place on the album and moved "Dear God" to the end as a bonus track.
    • The Bee Gees' classic LP Trafalgar was originally sequenced with two extra songs - "We Lost The Road" and "Country Woman," which made for two overly-long sides. The former was held for their next album ("To Whom It May Concern"), while the latter became a surprisingly good B-side.
    • The Beatles' "White Album" in all its infamously overlong glory, lost enough songs to more or less comprise another whole LP's worth of material - "Not Guilty", "Junk", "What's The New Mary Jane", "Circles", "Child Of Nature" (a forerunner of Lennon's "Jealous Guy"), "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam", "Sour Milk Sea" (which many fans agree would've made for a killer single), "Step Inside Love", and others.
      • John and Yoko's avant-garde "What's The New Mary Jane" was evidently a last-minute omission - in interviews leading up to the album's release, John still described it as having 31 tracks, the extra being a three-minute edit of "Mary Jane."
      • Beatle producer George Martin suggested that three songs be dropped from Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band - "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane" (which became a standalone single, and Martin regrets removing them from the album to this day) and "Only A Northern Song" (which he found boring and wanted George Harrison to replace - he put "Within You, Without You" instead, and the original song eventually emerged in Yellow Submarine.)
    • George Harrison's mammoth three-LP All Things Must Pass lost enough material to warrant at least another disc-and-a-half. The missing tracks (all found in the bootleg boxed set 'The Art of Dying') included "Mother Divine", "Cosmic Empire", a brassy remake of "Get Back", "Beautiful Girl", "Window Window", "I Don't Want To Do It", "Down To The River" (later retitled "Rocking Chair In Hawaii" for George's posthumous 'Brainwashed' CD), and five minutes of guitarist Pete Drake singing songs through a talkbox, possibly intended for inclusion on the 'Apple Jam' disc.
    • Early promotional material for Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons, the show's second soundtrack album, listed the "Bad Boys" parody "Bad Cops."
    • Eminem's 2004 album Encore originally included a track titled 'Christopher Reeve' - who died before the album's release. Eminem not only removed the track, but destroyed all copies of the song so that there was no chance of a leak.
    • The Dixie Chicks' "Fly" includes a brief track titled "Ain't No Thang But A Chickin' Wang," which consists of silence. Apparently, on promo discs, this spot is taken by an actual song - the otherwise unreleased "Wherever You Are." This track was a duet with an artist named Deryl Dodd, who wanted to re-record his contribution for the final album, but fell ill before doing so.
    • David Bowie examples:
      • From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; all of these eventually were B-sides instead:
        • "Round and Round" (this Chuck Berry cover was replaced by "Starman" when RCA executives wanted a song that could be pushed as a single)
        • "Amsterdam" (one cover version replaces another—this Jacques Brel song was replaced by Ron Davies' "It Ain't Easy")
        • "Velvet Goldmine" (replaced by "Suffragette City")
        • "Holy Holy" (replaced by "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide")
      • "Dodo" was written for his aborted 1984 musical but, unlike other songs he wrote for it, didn't make it to the final track lineup of Diamond Dogs.
      • "Too Dizzy" did make it to Never Let Me Down, but became Old Shame for Bowie and was cut from all reissues.
      • "Bring Me the Disco King" was written and recorded for 1993's Black Tie White Noise, but left off; it eventually appeared on 2003's Reality.
    • The Foo Fighters have a few, mostly emerging as B-sides or bonus tracks in special editions. The weirdest case was "The Colour and the Shape", which is absent from the namesake album because Dave Grohl felt they didn't need another noisy track of that kind (but was eventually put in the 10th anniversary edition). Other songs include "Winnebago", "Podunk", "Butterflies" (which was played live but not issued officially), "Dear Lover", "Fraternity", "Walking a Line", "Normal", "The Sign", "Spill", "FFL", "If Ever", "Seda", "Bangin'" and "Better Off".

    Professional Wrestling

    • Several songs were left on the cutting room floor from the WWF Forceable Entry album, which likely would have found their way into the televised product:
      • Kane was going to be given this theme by Type O Negative, but instead was given "Slow Chemical" by Finger Eleven, which at least was a pretty good song in its own right. Type O's version was eventually published as a bonus track for their Life is Killing Me album.
      • 12 Stones' song "Back Up" was originally intended to be a theme song for The Rock.
      • Slayer recorded "War Zone" to be Test's theme, but this was left off in favor of Union Underground's "Across the Nation"—which ended up being bootstrapped into the theme for Monday Night Raw.
      • Averted in the case of Seether's "Out Of My Way"—originally recorded to be Kurt Angle's theme on Forceable Entry, it was cut from the album, only to surface later as Zach Gowen's theme.

    Theater

    • In the 1920s, the Gershwin song "The Man I Love" was cut from two different musicals in their pre-Broadway tryouts, and was ultimately written out of a third show which reached Broadway after a three-year production hiatus. This didn't stop the song from becoming a big hit.
      • The Jerome Kern-PG Wodehouse song "Bill" had a similar history. It spent almost a decade being cut from various productions, but was finally introduced on Broadway by Helen Morgan in Show Boat.
    • Many songs were cut from Show Boat during the tryouts of the original production, and revivals tend to cut several more due to the show's length, though sometimes a few of them are reinstated. Here is an incomplete list:
      • The vocal for "Mis'ry's Comin' Aroun'" was deleted (except for the tragic coda, which original cast member Helen Morgan even recorded). The haunting tune remained in the miscegenation scene and was reused in the overture. The song has been restored in a number of later productions.
      • "Till Good Luck Comes My Way" (Ravenal's establishing song) originally began with a recitative that was cut from the original production. Later revivals cut the number and the scene in which it appeared, though it remains in underscoring.
      • "I Looked Down At Him" (sung by Magnolia in the Pantry Scene to lead into a reprise of "Make Believe") and parts of "The Creole Love Song" (an early precursor to "You Are Love") also remain as underscoring.
      • "I Might Fall Back On You" and the burthens of "Queenie's Ballyhoo" (which is surprisingly plot-relevant) and "Dandies on Parade" became merely dance music in the 1946 revival.
      • "Hey, Feller!" was added to the show in 1927 just so the blackface actress who played Queenie could have a big number to sing in the second act. It's probably the least used number that remained in the original production, though the 1951 film version has some dance music based on it. Interestingly, Oscar Hammerstein II had tried out the "baskin'/caressin'/askin'/yessin'" rhyme in two earlier Cut Songs: "Let's Have a Love Affair," sung by the Beta Couple in the Sigmund Romberg operetta The Desert Song but replaced by a reprise of "It" soon after the show's Broadway opening; and, before that, "Come On and Pet Me" (whose Vincent Youmans tune was more profitably recycled as "Sometimes I'm Happy") from the instantly forgotten 1923 musical comedy Mary Jane McKane.
    • "I Hope You're Happy" was composed for Wicked, but was considerably pared down until it only survives as a few throwaway lines at the beginning of "Defying Gravity."
      • Wicked has a whole catalogue of songs that were tried out and subsequently cut during its various stages of development, including two versions of "Making Good" (early attempts at an "I Want" Song for Elphaba, eventually replaced by "The Wizard and I"); a song called "As If By Magic" (featuring Elphaba and Fiyero helping Dr. Dillamond with his research, before the whole Animals sub-plot was retooled); "Bad Situation" and "Far Be It For Me" (two early duets establishing the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba, which were eventually supplanted by "What Is This Feeling?"); and "The Emerald City Stomp" and "Which Way To The Party?" (two attempts at introducing the character of Fiyero, ultimately replaced by "Dancing Through Life"). Several of these songs were performed as part of a one-off benefit concert, Wicked: The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken.
      • "No Good Deed" originally had a Dark Reprise of the "Unlimited" motif ("Unlimited, the damage is unlimited...") that was dropped after the San Francisco try-out and replaced by the "Limited" lyrics at the beginning of "For Good".
    • "Come Down From the Tree" was cut from Once On This Island. Audra McDonald recorded it on one of her albums.
    • A bunch of songs that had been cut from earlier Stephen Sondheim musicals were fashioned into a new 2-person musical revue called Marry Me a Little. Interestingly, though "Marry Me A Little" was a Cut Song from the original production of Company, the Broadway revivals have reinserted it at the end of the first act.
      • "Marry Me A Little" was in fact one of four attempts to write a final song for Company. The earliest, "Multitudes Of Amys", was written when the 'plot' of the show was substantially different (Amy refuses to marry Paul at the end of Act I and ultimately ends up with Robert in Act II). "Happily Ever After" capped the show during Boston try-outs, but audiences response to the song was extremely negative and Hal Prince insisted that Sondheim write a more optimistic replacement. Said replacement became the canonical ending, "Being Alive".
    • Of the many songs cut from Follies, three ended up being used as instrumentals. "All Things Bright And Beautiful" became the dreamy waltz music which plays during the prologue; a fragment of "That Old Piano Roll" can be heard immediately after (and at the curtain call); pieces of "Can That Boy Fox-Trot" are used as incidental music. Sondheim reused several other Follies Cut Songs in the soundtrack to Stavisky. The 1998 Paper Mill cast recording of Follies, billed as complete, does not include all the Cut Songs, nor does it include any of the songs written for the 1987 London production except "Ah, But Underneath."
    • In recent years, political correctness has forced the writers of The Fantasticks to replace the song "It Depends On What You Pay" with a song called "Abductions" because the former referred extensively to orchestrating a "rape", using the word in what was called a "literary" sense to mean a kidnapping or abduction. (The later instrumental piece "The Rape Ballet" was similarly renamed to "The Abduction Ballet", but was not actually cut.)
    • Jason Robert Brown's ex-wife specified in their divorce papers that he wasn't allowed to write about their marriage. After he wrote The Last Five Years, she sued, and "I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You" was cut and replaced with "Shiksa Goddess".
    • "From This Moment On" was cut from Out Of This World before the show reached Broadway; Cole Porter was not pleased. However, by the time the song was reused in the movie of Kiss Me Kate, it had already become a hit.
    • Judge Turpin's "Johanna" (not a reprise of the earlier "Johanna") in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is routinely cut from most productions (including the original 1979 Broadway production (though it can be found on the cast recording), the 1984 taped peformance and the 2007 movie), due to its high Squick rating. Additionally, "Parlour Songs" is either cut or abridged in most productions (usually leaving out "Tower of Bray"), an additional Contest segment (The Toothpulling Contest) is almost always cut, and "The Beggar Woman's Lullaby", added for the London revival, is sometimes cut as well.
    • Gilbert and Sullivan had a lot of cut songs. About half of them are lost, but a good number survive and are occasionally performed:
      • "Fold your flapping wings" from Iolanthe.
      • Two versions of Robin's second-act patter song (not the trio) from Ruddigore; neither is commonly used. A few D'Oyly Carte revivals in the 20th century also cut Rose's first-act duet with Richard, her half of their second-act number "Happily coupled are we," and the second-act finale "When a man has been a naughty baronet" (which was replaced with a simplified reprise of "Oh, happy the lily" from the first-act finale).
      • "Come mighty must", a rather extended series of grammar puns, is often cut from modern productions of Princess Ida.
      • "Happy are we in our loving frivolity" was the original opening to Act II of The Sorcerer. It was replaced with a much more complicated opening in the revival, in order to give a little more spectacle. It's occasionally added later in Act II. Sorcerer also has a rather bizarre cut: Lady Sangazure has a recitative in Act I that, unlike practically every other piece in Western music, fails to resolve to the tonic at the end, instead setting up an unused key change. This is because it was originally meant to transition into a cut song, and the recitative was neither revised or cut when the following song was.
      • Averted in The Mikado: Gilbert planned to cut the title character's song "A More Humane Mikado" before opening night, but ended up not doing so (allegedly by request of the chorus). Posterity seems to have sided with the chorus; it's one of the operetta's best known songs. The incident is dramatized to great effect in the film Topsy-Turvy.
      • The Yeomen of the Guard is particularly notable for a great deal of cut songs that still survive. For example, Colonel Fairfax's aria "Is Life a Boon" has alternate music. Wilfred's Establishing Song, "When jealous torments rack my soul," is a particularly unfortunate cut (made when Rutland Barrington left the cast): It's one of Sullivan's most unique works. Some productions that restore these cut "Rapture, rapture" instead. Also, Sergeant Meryll has "A laughing boy but yesterday," cut because Gilbert decided he didn't like it.
      • "Though men of rank may useless seem," an entrance song for the Duke in Patience.
    • The Rodgers and Hammerstein songs "When I Go Out Walking With My Baby" and "Boys And Girls Like You And Me" were both cut from Oklahoma!! and recycled over 50 years later in the Screen to Stage Adaptation of State Fair. "Boys and Girls Like You and Me" is also sung by the King and Queen in the Screen to Stage Adaptation of Cinderella; it was also recorded but cut from the movie Meet Me in St. Louis (of all things).
    • "Momma's Talkin' Soft" from Gypsy, which originally was intertwined in a Counterpoint Duet with "Small World" and meant to foreshadow the "Momma's talkin' loud" section of "Rose's Turn," was cut because it was sung by the young June and Louise on a piece of the set that was above the action, and the child actress playing young Louise was afraid of heights. Despite still being cut however, this song is included in the 2008 Patti LuPone Revival Cast Recording, along with a few others:
      • "Mother's Day," an earlier idea for Baby June's act.
      • "Nice She Ain't," Herbie's only solo number. Jack Klugman felt his pitiful singing voice didn't deserve a Superfluous Solo.
      • "Smile, Girls," a second-act opener for Rose which was introduced and discarded during the Philadelphia tryout.
      • "Who Needs Him?" was to have been sung by Rose after Herbie's departure; it was replaced by a short reprise of "Small World."
      • "Three Wishes For Christmas," for the Minsky Christmas show.
    • The surprisingly good Villain Song "Let's Work Together" was cut from the surprisingly bad American version of Chess.
      • And then there's the rarely-used Info Dump "The Story of Chess". Most stage versions put "Let's Work Together" back and throw that one out.
    • "Traveling Light" from Guys And Dolls.
    • "Gabey's Comin'" was originally cut from On the Town, despite having significant musical motifs echoed in the "Lonely Town" sequence and in the big Dream Ballet (and a Title Drop in its lyrics). More recent productions have reinstated it. Other notable Cut Songs include "The Intermission's Great," an Irrelevant Act Opener in the extreme, and the blues song "Ain't Got No Tears Left."
    • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has a bunch of Cut Songs, including "There's Something About A War" (replaced with "Bring Me My Bride") and the duet "I Do Like You." Cut but retaining a presence in the score were "Love Is In The Air" (one of two rejected opening numbers) and "The House Of Marcus Lycus." The first half of the original opening number "Forget War" was rewritten slightly and turned into the opening number for The Frogs, retitled 'Invocation Aand Instruction To the Audience'

    Also, many productions cut the trio "Pretty Little Picture," which is not easy to sing.

    • It would take a whole page to list all the songs that were cut or not cut from the various productions of Candide. And there is such a page.
    • The "Lost in Boston" albums consist entirely of Cut Songs from various Broadway musicals. Among the ones recorded are a few of the dozens of Cut Songs written for 110 In The Shade.
    • It's commonly believed that "Always" was a Cut Song from The Cocoanuts, since Irving Berlin published it around the same time as the songs he wrote for the show. Actually, "Always" was never part of the show at any stage of its production, though the possibility of Groucho singing it was vaguely considered.
    • In the original London production of Les Misérables Cosette had an aria called "I Saw Him Once," and Gavroche's song "Little People" was much longer. Both songs were eventually cut, but can be heard on the London cast recording. Many other songs, such as "Fantine's Arrest" had additional lyrics and "Stars" was originally placed much earlier in the show. These extended versions can be found on the preview rcordings:
    • The Embassy Ball music in My Fair Lady is based on two Cut Songs: a Fanfare version of "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight" (which was somewhat inappropriately reused in Gigi -- "Pray I'll be Wellington, not Bonaparte" is an uncharacteristic sentiment for a French girl), and the waltz song "Lady Liza," whose replacement, "Oh, Come to the Ball," was also cut.
    • Miss Saigon originally had a song called "Too Much for One Heart" that was cut for timing purposes. Lea Salonga still performs it in her concerts because it was that good.
    • Lucy's aria from The Threepenny Opera.
    • "It's Never Too Late To Mendelssohn" was written for Danny Kaye to sing in the second Dream Sequence of Lady in the Dark. The song was cut, but Kaye recorded it. The third Dream Sequence originally had the song "No Matter Under What Star You're Born" as Liza's astrological excuse for not Making Up Her Mind, but it played poorly and was replaced by the show-stopper "The Saga of Jenny." The zodiac number was reused with substantial revisions in The Firebrand of Florence.
    • "My Magic Lamp" and "Bored" were cut from Kismet, but the former remained in the underscoring preceding the finale and the latter was kept as Lalume's entrance music. (Like many of the other songs, their melodies were derived from Borodin's Prince Igor.) "Bored" was sung in the movie version, and both songs reappeared in later stage productions.
    • Most Cirque Du Soleil shows, with the exceptions of LOVE and Viva Elvis, have original scores and songs are written for specific acts. If an act is dropped, the song usually is too, though sometimes they are repurposed for understudy acts. Since soundtracks usually arrive within a year or two of a show's opening, this can make listening to some of them confusing, especially those of the tours as they more frequently add/drop acts. The fan site Cirque Tribune has a section that keeps up with the evolution of the shows' music and how the soundtracks match up; notable examples of this trope include:
      • Mystere had "Rumeurs", "Caravena", and "Birimbau"—all for acts that were cut and replaced less than three years into the show's run. They all appeared on the original soundtrack album, but after the show's revamp it had a second soundtrack recorded which included the material written to replace the old songs, and the original fell out of print. (Curiously, the company's 2009 Greatest Hits Album 25 used "Birimbau" to represent this show even though no trace of it remains in the score.)
      • Banana Shpeel was written as a hybrid of Cirque, vaudeville, and musical, but all the originally-written songs (and their key singers) were cut when it proved to be too many elements and characters to handle—which was so late in the game that the preview of the show that ran on the 2009 season finale of America's Got Talent featured one of the tunes.
      • In Saltimbanco, "Pokinoi" was the song for the Vertical Rope act, which has long since been retired and is absent from the video. Later live performances used it for the second interlude, and it was also reworked as "One Love" for Delirium. "Kaze/Norweg" was completely dropped after the retirement of the Double Wire.
    • Many passages were cut from Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly following its troubled La Scala premiere. Most of the cut passages were short and recitative-like, but they also included a drinking song for Yakuside.
    • The stage version of Jekyll & Hyde went through several iterations of cuts in its years long trip from off-broadway to on. The original stage production was almost throughly rewritten, axing songs like "Love Has Come of Age" in favor of "Take Me As I Am", it was made into a new album to drum up interest and funds for the Broadway production, and between those last two were several other cuts; Lucy's "Bring on the Men" (replaced with the darker and more thematic "Good 'N' Evil") and "Girls of the Night", Jekyll's Dark Reprise of "Once Upon a Dream" and overall, too many to list. The show overall is probably better for the cuts but many of the cut songs were excelent on their own.
      • Some productions drop "Good 'N' Evil" and reinstate "Bring on the Men".
    • "My Best Love" from Flower Drum Song.
    • "When Messiah Comes" is perhaps the best-known Cut Song from Fiddler on the Roof. It was to have been sung by Tevye in the final scene, but its gallows humor tone didn't go over with preview audiences. One of the other Cut Songs, the rejected opening number "We Haven't Missed a Sabbath Yet," has lyrics for a tune that ultimately remained in the score only as set change music.
    • The 1988 revival of Anything Goes (more faithful to the original Cole Porter score than the 1962 revival) actually reinstated two songs cut from the original production: "There's No Cure Like Travel" (countermelody to "Bon Voyage") and "Easy To Love" (which had been reused in the movie Born to Dance). On the other hand, "Where Are The Men?" was left out, as it had no purpose other than to give the Chorus Girls a turn.
      • In one early draft of the show, "What a Joy to Be Young" was to be given several reprises. It was dropped during tryouts, despite one recording implying that it made it into New York.
    • "Thousands of Flowers" was arguably the best song Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote for I Do! I Do! It didn't survive the pre-Broadway tryout.
    • "Silly People" was a song cut from the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music during Boston try-outs. It was to have been by sung by Frid, a character who doesn't do much for the show (and otherwise doesn't sing) except serve as a lover for Petra. (The original Frid, George Lee Andrews, can be heard performing "Silly People" with Tunick's orchestral accompaniment in the contemporaneous concert recording Sondheim: A Musical Tribute.) Trevor Nunn reinstated the song for his recent London production and it quickly became clear why it had been cut. The music is sub-par for Sondheim, while the lyric is essentially a less elegant rehash of the ideas explored in "The Miller's Son", which is sung not a few minutes later by Petra.
      • Other cut songs from A Little Night Music include "Two Fairy Tales," a duet for Anne and Henrik in Common Time (otherwise avoided in this show); "Bang!", a polonaise for Carl-Magnus and Désirée prefiguring "In Praise Of Women"; and "My Husband the Pig," an extended solo for Charlotte from which a few lines were salvaged and developed into "Every Day A Little Death."
    • South Pacific had "Loneliness Of Evening," which appeared in the 1965 remake of Cinderella; "My Girl Back Home," used in the 1958 movie version of South Pacific; "Suddenly Lucky," a song for Cable (replaced with "Younger Than Springtime") whose refrain reappeared in The King and I with new lyrics as "Getting To Know You"; and "Now Is The Time," the music of which was retained for several scene changes.
    • Cabaret features a number of cut songs, most notably "I Don't Care Much", which is used in later productions, sung by the Emcee. Other cut songs include "Roommates", "Good Time Charlie", and "It'll All Blow Over". Also, while they are present on the Original Cast Production, "Meeskite", "Telephone Song", and "Sitting Pretty" are usually cut to make room for "Mein Herr", "Maybe This Time", and "Money, Money", which originated in the movie soundtrack.
    • Shortly after the Broadway opening of Camelot, "Then You May Take Me To The Fair" and "Fie On Goodness" were cut, but it was too late to take the songs off the original cast album. They have often been reinstated.
    • When Annie Get Your Gun was revived in 1966, the songs "I'll Share It All For You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?" were dropped, along with the charming but inconsequential Beta Couple who sang them.
    • Larry Grossman and Hal Hackaday wrote a title song for Woody Allen's non-musical play Play It Again, Sam. This was recorded by Tony Bennett but ultimately unused in the play.
    • Six songs were cut from Kiss Me, Kate: "It Was Great Fun The First Time," for the principal couple, was to have been the second number when the show opened with "Wunderbar"; "We Shall Never Be Younger" and "A Woman's Career" were replaced with "So In Love" and its second-act reprise; "What Does Your Servant Dream About?" was a comic interlude for the servants; two others, "I'm Afraid, Sweetheart, I Love You" and "If Ever Married I'm," were never dramatically required.
    • Mark Charlap and Carolyn Leigh wrote some splendid songs for Peter Pan like "I've Gotta Crow" and "I'm Flying," but other numbers were apparently unsuitable and replaced with new ones by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Perhaps the most poignant of the cut Charlap/Leigh songs was "When I Went Home," reflecting on Peter's Parental Abandonment, which was apparently too dark and replaced with the Styne/Comden/Green "Distant Melody."
    • Several duets for Abner and Daisy Mae were cut from Li'l Abner; of these, "I Wish It Could Be Otherwise" was used in the movie version, and "It's A Nuisance Having You Around" was recorded by Rosemary Clooney. Mammy Yokum's song "The Way To A Man's Heart (Is Through His Stomach)" was cut. "There's Room Enough For Us," a List Song with far more lyrics than could ever be used, was dropped except for a brief reprise used as a Set Switch Song. "In Society" remained only as instrumental accompaniment for a dance sequence.
    • Two songs were dropped from the second act of Call Me Madam: "Mr. Monotony" (which had already been cut from the movie Easter Parade and the preceding Irving Berlin musical, Miss Liberty), and the political number "Free." Hopelessly irrelevant in Call Me Madam, "Mr. Monotony" was replaced with the livelier "Something To Dance About," though it would rise again a generation later in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. As for "Free" (whose deletion made room for the newly written "You're Just In Love"), it was recycled with different lyrics in White Christmas as "Snow."
    • 13 rules this trope. The most obvious examples would be "Here I Come" and "Opportunity", which were cut after the musical was changed from one act to two acts. However, the song list from the LA production and and the demo songs show that there were multiple cut songs.
    • Little Shop of Horrors had several deleted songs, for various reasons:
      • "I Got A Hobby" and "Bad" were deleted, because they were replaced by "Dentist!" and "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" respectively, which are both better songs.
      • "The Worse He Treats Me" was deleted because it mischaracterized Audrey (depicting her as an intentional masochist, rather than someone stuck in an abusive relationship).
      • "A Little Dental Music" was cut because it's unnecessary for the plot and supposedly hurt the timing, although some disagree.
      • "We'll Have Tomorrow" was stated to be cut for timing, but very few people believe this, considering that it would have been one of the more emotionally significant songs in the show. It's likely that it was cut out because it was too depressing.
        • The song has never been reinstated, but in the finale "Don't Feed The Plants", Audrey and Seymour still sing, "We'll have tomorrow!" (This is a pretty baffling line without the song to give it context, especially since at that point, both are dead.)
      • A little-known cut song called "The Meek Shall Inherit (Reprise)" would have been a reprise of "The Meek Shall Inherit" for Patrick Martin, and was cut for unknown reasons as none of the creators have ever mentioned it.
    • The new U.S. touring production of Beauty and the Beast (launched in 2010) drops two of the stage-version-only songs, "No Matter What" and "Maison Des Lunes", as well as the choreographed battle between the Enchanted Objects and the mob. The consensus is that these were dropped for pacing purposes.
    • Many songs from the original version of Starlight Express--"Engine of Love," "Call Me Rusty," "He Whistled at Me," "Belle the Sleeping Car," "Wide Smile, High Style," "No Comeback," and others—were cut in the 1990s to modernize the show and to add a much greater focus on the character Pearl at the expense of the rest of the cast. Eventually, "He Whistled at Me" was rewritten as "He'll Whistle at Me," with different arrangement and lyrics and a much earlier appearance in the show. "A Lotta Locomotion," meanwhile, was changed almost completely for the 2003-2007 tours, going from a cute, cheeky, Double Entendre-laden "I Am" Song to an overtly sexual Chorus Girls-style number with an arrangement more typical of the Pussycat Dolls. The tour also removed "There's Me" and "Coaches' Rolling Stock" for financial purposes. Some of these changes occurred before the '90s revamp: "Engine of Love," the first song ever written for the show, was replaced with "Call Me Rusty" when Starlight Express made its debut, but the Japan/Australia tour and early Bochum productions included the former instead. In 1992, "Call Me Rusty" was cut, leaving Rusty without a genuine establishing song--"Crazy," its replacement, was one of his many attempts to impress Pearl. The 1980s Broadway production deleted "He Whistled at Me" in favor of "Make Up My Heart," making Pearl's first solo an angst-ridden pop ballad rather than a bouncy, erotic disco number."No Comeback" was cut in the 1980s to shorten the show, but the melody remained as a Leitmotif for Electra and his components.
    • The original Dream Ballet from Tanz der Vampire, called simply "Tanznummer" on the official recording, was cut in all later productions. It was replaced by "Stalker Als Wir Zind/Das Gebet", except in the Japanese version, which is the only production so far to restore it.
    • "Marking Time" from Pippin was judged to be not indignant enough for its spot and replaced by "Extraordinary," but its tune remained in the show as the underscoring for a romantic moment.
    • The score for Vanities: A New Musical was revamped no less than three times. "Nothing Like a Friend", "All The Brendas In The World", and "Open Up Your Mind" disappeared after the initial Theatre Works production in Palo Alto, replaced by "Cute Boys with Short Haircuts" and "Let Life Happen", and "In The Same Place" was rearranged into "The Same Old Music". The finale song changed from "Looking Good" to "Letting Go" in the Pasadena Playhouse version, then back to "Looking Good" in New York's off-Broadway Second Stage Theater version, then to "Letting Go" once again in Seattle's 5th Avenue/A Contemporary Theatre co-production. "Hey There, Beautiful", "Who Am I Today", "I Don't Wanna Hear About It", and "Feelin' Sunny(We're Gonna Be Okay)" were also dropped from the Off-Broadway show, replaced by "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"(no relation to the Aerosmith song), "Setting Your Sights", and its reprises, respectively. "Let Life Happen" was repositioned to take the place of "Okay", and "I Can't Imagine"'s reprise, "Counterpoint", was turned into a Dark Reprise and retitled "The Argument". In turn, the 5th Avenue/ACT version replaced "Sights" with "Mystery". Some remnants of cut songs appear in the others, e.g. a melody used in "Feelin' Sunny" also appears in "I Can't Imagine", the melody of "Nothing Like a Friend" is used in the intro of "Fly Into The Future", the off-Broadway version of "Looking Good" still drops the title of "Hey There Beautiful" near the end, and parts of that song's lyrics made their way into "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing".
    • Martin Guerre has so, so, many, due to the many rewrites. Songs cut between the original version and rewritten version include, 'Sleeping On Our Own' 'Here Comes the Morning' 'Welcome Home' 'When Will Someone Hear' 'Land of the Fathers,' and the beautiful 'Prologue' Songs whose melody remain but with changed lyrics include "I Will Make You Proud," "Me," "Martin Guerre" and "Tell Me To Go."
    • Avenue Q had "Tear It Up and Throw It Away" which was cut because it didn't have anything to do with the rest of the plot, plus the coreography left behind several scraps of paper on the stage floor with no good way to clean them up until the intermission (nearly an hour later in the show).
      • The London production also had "Time", an additional song and music video that would be played on the onstage video screens towards the end of the intermission. They stopped playing it for unknown reasons.
    • The Unsinkable Molly Brown: "Colorado My Home" was cut from the show, but nevertheless remained in the overture medley. It was later reinstated in a different spot.
    • Anyone Can Whistle:
      • "There's Always a Woman," a Fay/Cora number for a deleted scene in the third act.
      • "There Won't Be Trumpets" was in fact cut during the original Broadway run (which lasted only a week) because the monologue right before got already enough applause. The song was reinstated soon after.
      • A few other cut and replaced numbers can be heard on Stephen Sondheim's demo recordings: "The Lame, The Halt And The Blind" (replaced by "Miracle Song", but still used in the show as incidental music), "A Hero Will Come" (replaced by "There Won't Be Trumpets"), and an early version of "With So Little To Be Sure Of."
    • The Most Happy Fella:
      • Several songs for Marie were cut. Orchestrator Don Walker rued in particular the deletion of "Eyes Of A Stranger," which preceded "Don't Cry." "Is It Fair?" was in the middle of the second act. An abortive third act reprise of "Nobody's Ever Gonna Love You" remained, but the song originally capped a long Marie/Tony sequence in the first act, of which "A Long Time Ago" was one part.
      • "Wanting To Be Wanted," replaced by "Somebody, Somewhere." The orchestral cry of anguish that punctuates "Please Let Me Tell You" is based on its tune.
    • The original producers The Golden Apple eliminated the original final number, "We've Just Begun," in favor of a reprise of "It's The Going Home Together." The authors resented this Executive Meddling and reinstated "We've Just Begun" in the licensed edition of the show.
    • Porgy and Bess: A lot of things had to be cut out before the show's 1935 Broadway opening, unfortunately including "The Buzzard Song," which has been in most productions since (although the 1940s revival moved it to the final scene). Less surprising cuts made were the mostly-instrumental "Jazzbo Brown Blues," which most productions cut to avoid delaying "Summertime" for a long piano solo at the beginning of the show (it was the very first number to be cut), and "I Hates Yo' Struttin' Style," spoken rather than sung by Maria to Sportin' Life.
    • Many songs were cut from the Addams Family musical between the Chicago try-out and Broadway, including "Clandango" (replaced by "When You're An Addams"), "Passionate and True" (replaced by "Where Did We Go Wrong"), "As We're Slowly Dying" (a very brief duet between Wednesday and Lucas), and "At Seven/Teach Him How To Tango" (replaced in part by "Morticia"). "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love," originally a dance number featuring Fester, the ancestors, Wednesday, and Lucas, was moved to the second act and changed into a shorter song performed by Gomez, Fester, Grandma, and Mal. The tour version complicated things by cutting "Morticia," "In The Arms," and "Where Did We Go Wrong" entirely, although the tune of the latter can be heard in part of Gomez's new song, "Trapped"- and the soundtrack is that of the Broadway version.
    • Damn near the entire original score of Grease was replaced, with only a couple songs ("We Go Together" being one) remaining. It's not certain which seven songs comprised the original 'light on music, heavy on dialogue' production, though it is known that there was a title song (unrelated to Barry Gibb's "Grease" from the film), "Foster Beach" instead of "Summer Nights," Sandy's solo "Kiss It," and "Boogie Man Boogie" instead of "Born To Hand Jive." The 2011 Chicago revival, titled "The Original Grease," resurrected a number of these songs, as well as a few that were cut from the original production. (As well as including a handful of more familiar tunes, like "Hand Jive.")
    • Most recent tours of Cats eliminate the song "Of The Aweful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles", perhaps because of its strangely racist lyrics. Strangely, some programs still include the name of the Great Rumpus Cat, even though that character only appears in the cut song. In a similar vein, the film version does not include "Growltiger's Last Stand," since the same actor traditionally plays Gus and Growltiger, and Sir John Mills was too frail to play Growltiger. (Sometimes "Growltiger's Last Stand" is cut instead of "Aweful Battle" because the former requires a drastic change of scenery and costumes.)
    • Love Never Dies (the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera) had a soundtrack recorded before it officially opened, and thus all the songs that were cut/altered in its massive retool were preserved.
      • Originally, the show had a prologue set a few years after the main action and sung between Madame Giry and Fleck (one of the freaks in the Phantom's employ) in the burnt-out remains of Phantasma, which led into "The Coney Island Waltz". Fleck also had a brief song afterward, "That's the Place You Ruined, You Fool!" In the Australian production, the prologue lyrics were incorporated into "The Coney Island Waltz" sequence and given to the Phantasma performers.
      • "Heaven by the Sea" was a Crowd Song for the Coney Island visitors that opened the main action and was reprised in Act Two; the retooled opening sequence made this redundant.
      • "Giry Confronts the Phantom", largely an As You Know monologue for Madame Giry explaining what happened between Phantom and this show, was replaced with "Ten Long Years" for her and Meg.

    Video Games

    • For a video game example, the "Singing Mountain" theme from Chrono Trigger is fairly popular. It's still in the game's code and even made it to the game's official soundtrack, but it never plays in-game because the dungeon it was supposed to play in was never finished. There's also a second battle theme which shares a similar fate.
      • And now "Singing Mountain" plays in a new dungeon for the DS remake, and "Battle (2)" plays in the Arena.
    • Another video game example can be found in Final Fantasy X. Each of the main characters has his or her own Leitmotif, but Wakka's curiously never plays at any point... except the Sphere Theater, which is basically a glorified Sound Test.
    • The sound test in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 contains a track for the Hidden Palace Zone that was cut from the game during development.
    • Very common in video games where composition often starts before the games scenes and requirements are totally locked down, and where sections are often cut for time and budgetary reasons. Other video game soundtrack CD releases that contain music not used in the game itself include:
    • In The World Ends With You a number of songs which never made it into the game made it onto the soundtrack regardless, possibly because all of that game's music was awesome and they didn't want to waste any tracks just because they ran out of room in the game.
    • The ROM of Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos has the song "Inevitable", which is not used anywhere in the game, and even stranger, cannot even be heard in the sound test. It is thought to have been intended for the Final Boss, which uses the regular boss music instead.
    • The Megadrive version of Puyo Puyo has this unused song.
    • The soundtrack of the beta version of Cave Story features several tracks that didn't make it into the final game: The absolutely kickass "Wind Fortress", as well as "Leef", "Rock Org", "People of the Root", "Plant (B)", and "Pier Walk". There were also some variations on music that did appear in the final game: There were two versions of "Meltdown" (the Sand Zone music), and the original "Plantation" theme (alternated translated as just "Cave") was an alternate version of the main theme (rather than being exactly the same).
    • The song "Organ Smash" on the Iji soundtrack was intended for the game but not used due to Daniel Remar being unable to find a good place to put it.
    • Oh my gosh, Banjo-Kazooie. There are FOUR unused songs still in the game data, including two versions of the Click Clock Wood theme, and something called "Mumbo's Raindance". The most notorious, however, is "Advent", mainly because it sounds totally unlike anything else in the game. Some theorized that it was for the cut level Fungus Forest, but in fact, it's actually left over from very early in development, when the game was still called Project Dream, and the song was meant to be used for a map screen.
    • Salamander 2 has three songs that were clearly intended to be stage music: "Fire Tripper", "No Future", and "Nervous Break Down". None of them can be normally heard in-game; you'll have to use a utility for listening to arcade ROM music or use the PS1 and PSP ports' sound test modes.
      • In fact, nearly every arcade Gradius game has unused songs, dating back to an unused song in the original Gradius. that wouldn't see a real appearance until its use as the name entry music in Gradius ReBirth. The latter succeeds the former by 23 years.
      • The original Salamander/Life Force had several unused songs, some of which were used in the Japanese Updated Rerelease (Life Force JP) and the Famicom/NES version.
    • The earliest Touhou-games (PC-98) had several unused tracks. One of the most popular is Magical Shop of Raspberry, one of ZUN's personal favourites.
    • One song on the DoDonPachi: DaiFukkatsu BLACK Label OST, "Zatsuza", is a matter of debate. It has yet to be heard in-game, but judging by its designation as a "Secret" track, is name being "Hibachi" with all letters shifted back by eight, and it being a more frantic remix of the original DaiFuukatsu's True Final Boss theme, this carries a massive implication: there is quite possibly a SECOND True Final Boss (after Hibachi), or an alternate Hibachi.
      • Let that sink in. A boss harder than DaiFukkatsu BLACK Label Hibachi.
      • Terror confirmed by Cave: Zatsuza exists. It's just that no one's managed to unlock it yet.
      • It's been unlocked, and is an alternate version of Hibachi.
    • The Vagrant Story original soundtrack includes "Inside the City Walls", which does not ever play in the game, though fans speculate that it was left out of the game unintentionally. The percussive second half of "Escape" does not play either.
    • In Turok 2, there's an unused song in the sound test (Track 11 on the CD of the PC version) that was apparently intended for the Final Boss battle, but that uses the same music as the Mantid Queen.
      • One song from the N64 version(which had MIDI music), "Oblivion", was completely cut from the PC version(which uses Redbook audio), due to audio space limitations. Also, several songs were truncated to fit the CD, eg "Death Marshes" and "Lair of the Blind One's" are missing their epic climaxes.
    • After accusations of plagiarism, the Metal Gear Solid main theme was cut from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops' main theme, "Show Time".
    • The OST to the PC-8801 version of Ys I contains several deleted songs. "Theme of Adol" was used as the opening theme of the TurboGrafx-16 CD version, and several other songs such as "Chase of Shadow", "Dreaming", "Battle Ground", "Over Drive", "Fair Wind", etc. were used in the PC remakes of Ys I and II.
    • Silent Hill 3 had "Rain of Brass Petals", "Heads No. 1", "Life", and an untitled Dummied Out song on the game disc, which sounds like a remix of "Children Kill"(the ranking screen music) from SH 1.
    • Since Super/Return of Double Dragon was rushed out for release, a lot of songs didn't make it into the game, although a few were used in the Japanese version or included in its sound test. MP3s of them can be downloaded at Double Dragon Dojo.
    • When Resident Evil 2 was scrapped and restarted, most of the music pieces were retained, but three were dropped: "Distant Memories"(alternate Police Station first floor theme, used in the demo), "Fight with Monster#2"(alternate Birkin battle theme), and "Sign of Protoype" (similar to "Wreckage of the Mad Experiment", but played in the 1.5 Police Station lobby).
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire have some hidden tracks that are remixes of tracks from Pokémon Gold and Silver.
    • Final Fantasy II had a dummied out BGM (which was supposed to be a dungeon theme) "Dungeon" which was still in the game code. Six years later, this very song was enhanced for Final Fantasy VI as the BGM for the town of Jidoor during the World of Ruin. There were also a removed "Airship" theme (presumably removed for being too cheery in a rather depressing game), "Shop" theme, and "Battle Scene 3".
    • The Medal of Honor OST contains several songs intended for Dummied Out missions, such as "Approaching Colditz Castle", although they were later used in Allied Assault and its expansion packs, or in different missions than they were intended.
    • Halo 2's OST had the unused songs "Never Surrender" by Nile Rodgers, "Connected" by Hoobastank, and the other three movements of "The Odyssey" by Incubus. The first also had several outtakes, some of which were incorporated into the Anniversary remake. "Never Surrender" appeared as an Easter Egg in Halo: Reach.
    • GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64 has a Dummied Out music that appears to have been composed for the Jungle stage, which lacks music except for the battle with Xenia.
    • All of the Humongous Entertainment games have some cut music in their .HE4 files, few exceptions. Some of these would be used later on.
    • EarthBound has this, a frankly rather chilling rendition of the cave/dungeon theme from the prequel, that never appears anywhere in the final game. Strangely, it's present in the Game Boy Advance remake as well, though still unused.
    • Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga has several cut BGM tracks.
    • Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 has an unused theme for Getter Robo that can only be found by going through the game data.

    Web Comics

    • In Homestuck a dispute with a member of the music team caused a number of songs to be removed from the comic and replaced with other music.
      • Later on, a composer removed his music from "Homestuck Vol. 5" when he was caught accidentally plagiarizing another song.
      • "White Host, Green Room" contains a snippet from an unfinished song titled "The King in Red", which the composer later abandoned.
      • "Cascade", "Prospit Dreamers" and "Descend [dead link] " credit a song known as "Penumbra Phantasm". This song has never been released and may have been abandoned.
      • When the first four music albums were combined into one compilation album two songs were removed: "Sburban Jungle (Brief Mix)" and "Aggrieve (Violin Redux)". As indicated by the titles, they were remixes of existing songs.
      • The album "coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A" was the result of a music contest. Two songs were removed after their composer was caught plagiarizing. They are due to be replaced with new songs with the same names.

    Western Animation

    • "The Ballad of Klimpaloon" from Phineas and Ferb "Summer Belongs To You". The song is included on the soundtrack.
      • Candace's song, "Some Mysterious Force" was cut from the movie. It's on the DVD with accompanying animation.
      • Several other songs never made it past the demo versions, such as "You're Wrong", "This is Our Inspirational Song",[1] and "The Elf Police", which was cut from the Holiday Favorites CD.
      • "What Does He Want?" from Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation, although it returns in the extended version of the special.
    • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic had a full version of Pinkie Pie's "Hop, Skip and a Jump" advice from "Dragonshy", which was shortened for time. There was also the 'original' Cutie Mark Crusaders theme tune, which apparently wasn't deemed bad enough. The composer was so traumatised by having to mutilate his baby that unlike "Hop, Skip and a Jump", it has never been released to fans.
    1. ↑ a much more tongue-in-cheek, lampshaded precursor to "I Believe We Can"
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