"I Feel Pretty" is a song from the 1957 musical West Side Story.
Production
The New York Times explained that "Mr. Sondheim…has said he was never particularly fond of his lyrics in 'West Side Story,' especially 'I Feel Pretty, later expressing that "The idea of the song is so simple". The original stage version of the lyrics were changed in the making of the movie version of West Side Story due to a change in the scene's occurrence. Making 'I feel pretty and witty and bright/And I pity/Any girl who isn't me tonight' into 'I feel pretty, and witty and gay/And I pity/Any girl who isn’t me today'. In the movie this night scene was changed to the daytime, so the rhyming words "bright" and "tonight" were changed to "gay" and "today". The song was cut from the 2019 Broadway revival in order to streamline the plot and condense it to a 90-minute intermissionless show.
Synopsis
In the musical, Maria is not yet aware that her love, Tony, has just killed her brother Bernardo, while in the film version, the song occurs before Bernardo's death. In the bridal shop where she works, Maria sings about being happy and feeling beautiful because she is "loved by a pretty wonderful boy", while her coworkers tease her about her silly behavior. Robert Cummings of AllMusic comments that the song "features one of Bernstein's more memorable melodies: its first four notes, deliciously rhythmic in their rising contour, repeat, then are reduced to three, then to two. …Bernstein's instrumentation colors the music with a Latin character…and so does the girls' chorus that enters midway through. Stephen Sondheim's lyrics deftly capture Maria's bliss and newfound sense of confidence".
Critical reception
described the song as "delightful", while The Tab deemed it a "classic". Applause Meter called it "sweetly charming" and VCOnStage called it "operatic".
Cover versions
The song has been covered by many artists, including Annie Ross and Julie Andrews. Little Richard covered the song as part of the 1996 RCA Victortribute albumThe Songs of West Side Story. The song was mashed up with the song "Unpretty" by TLC in a Glee episode to create "I Feel Pretty/Unpretty", a duet that attempts to show the irony in people feeling pretty on the outside but unpretty on the inside.
Parodies
On the children's showSesame Street, episode 3522, Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend, Grundgetta, is going to school to become a Grouch beautician. Upon explaining just that, she sings "I Feel Yucky", expressing how yucky she feels, and how she wants everyone to look and feel that yucky also.
In the Friends episode "The One with Chandler's Dad", Charles Bing sings the movie version of the song, with the lyrics "I feel pretty, and witty and gay".
In the 1995 VeggieTales film Are You My Neighbor?, a version called "I'm Busy" is sung in the "Story of Flibber-o-loo" segment.
