Taylor and Kristen and Latte
I mentioned yesrerday that Kristin Chenoweth made her big splash in the revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. And that got me thinking of her, and that in turn brought to mind my favorite performance I've seen her do.
This is something I saw live, when it was originally done in late 1999, almost 15 years. It was somewhat early in her career, and she was appearing on The Rosie O'Donnell Show -- I was just slightly aware of her, and I wanted to see more, so I tuned in. That's where I first came across her singing, "Taylor, the Latte Boy." Apparently my reaction to the song wasn't off-base, since she subsequently included it in her act, but has also performed it on quite a few other shows. There's a very good video of her singing it on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson -- she fine-tuned her performance and brought out some of the humor more -- but I just like the particular sweetness and naturalness of the original, which I think makes it all the better.
The song was written by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, as a sort of nightclub song, loosely based on Ms. Heisler's experiences as a customer at Starbucks.
I like the song a lot, and though various singers who now do it, Kristin Chenoweth's interpretation remains my favorite, and this is my favorite version of hers.
Side note to aspiring singers, whether on American Idol, The Voice or anywhere: this is what "performing" a song means.
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