Al Pacino selected controversial 1949 tune as his favorite of all time | Music | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Whether he is taking part in Michael Corleone in The Godfather or Frank Serpico within the New York Police Department, Al Pacino’s characters typically problem the system – and his favorite tune is probably going not what you’ll count on both.

It’s ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’, a showtune from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 musical South Pacific, which relies on James A. Michener’s wartime tales and set on a distant island throughout World War II.

“It was a crucial time in our country’s history when the racial tension in the south was raging and the play (‘South Pacific’) was a direct reference to it” he advised NME in 2009.

The musical adopted a romance between a U.S. Navy nurse and a French plantation proprietor, however beneath the tropical setting and love story was a pointy commentary on racism and prejudice, and thought of fairly daring for its time.

That message comes by way of strongest in ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’, a brief however highly effective solo that calls out how racism is discovered, not innate: “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear / You’ve got to be taught from year to year.”

At the time, some Southern lawmakers referred to as the tune “un-American”, which led to it being banned in Georgia.

One state legislator accused it of spreading “philosophy inspired by Moscow”, and one other mentioned its assist of interracial relationships was a “threat to the American way of life.”

Even when confronted with such backlash, creators Rodgers and Hammerstein refused to take it out of the musical. They stored the tune in, and it sparked one of many first actual moments of political confrontation in American musical theatre.

Pacino admired the tune for its topic, and selected it as his favorite when requested by the music journal on their ‘Inspired by Music’ artist favourites roundup: “I believed it had an actual ardour in it and a relevance to the occasions we have been dwelling in.”

Since its launch, ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’ has been lined by artists as huge as Michael Jackson – on his 1973 debut album There Is a Breeze -, Barbra Streisand – on her Live in Concert 2006 album -, Billy Porter – on his 2017 album The Soul of Richard Rodgers – and James Taylor – on his 2020 album American Standard.