"Suddenly Seymour" by Ellen Greene

I was among the millions of regular viewers watching The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson one random evening in February 1987 when Ellen Greene emerged gingerly onstage from behind the famous curtain and, after a charmingly starstruck interview with the great man himself, proceeded to blow the roof off the joint with her rendition of Suddenly Seymour... Much of the strength in her performance of the show-stopping number from Little Shop of Horrors is due to an incredible talent, but it didn't hurt that Greene had sung the song so many times during her stint in the musical's Broadway run.

The work of the late composer Alan Menken and his widower, the lyricist Howard Ashman, Greene is here accompanied by Michael Leslie - who once played the voice of Audrey II, the killer plant voiced in the movie version by Levi Stubbs; the video is posted here now on the occasion of Miss Greene's birthday, which the Pop Culture Institute is pleased to celebrate.
*