Evolution of Chess Songs

We've had a lot of demos for Bjorn, Benny, and Tim Rice's musical Chess emerge throughout the years, and I thought it would be fun to delve into the different versions that we have for certain songs, from early demo with simple lyrics and vocals to the final completed version as heard in the concept album, much like my Evolution of ABBA songs video I made a while back.

For this video I also included pieces of ABBA songs that ultimately became Chess tracks, or at least demos that never ended up making it into the musical.

I've had the idea for this video for a while now, but considering this year marks Chess' 40th anniversary, it seemed like the best time to do it.

Now I will say I've never actually been all that familiar with the songs with the exception of a few standout songs, so in preparation for this video I watched 2009's Chess In Concert, starring Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, and Adam Pascal just to name a few, and after all these years I finally seem to have a more proper idea of what the musical is about, and since watching that and then subsequently working on this video, I keep on getting the songs stuck in my head!

Despite all that, I still wouldn't consider myself a Chess expert, so I cannot guarantee with certainty the accuracy of the information in this video. However most of the information I used comes from Tim Rice's own podcast, and I assume that is accurate considering he literally wrote the musical with the Bs. So if there are any errors, please be kind.

Anyway, I did the best I could and am pretty happy with the way this video turned out, and I hope you enjoy it too.

SOURCES:

[WindowsOnWindows]

Wow - I’ve never noticed that part of Hovas Vittne in Merano! 😮

[discogareth]

Glad you found my uploads of Chess demos useful! That dodgy old cassette from 20+ years ago was wonderful. A few other evolutions went into the Swedish production. When the waves turned into ‘Glöm mig om du kan’. Press Conference was used in the Swedish version of The Arbitor and Lullaby from the Broadway production started as the Gemini song ‘when I close my eyes’ and was also featured before the Swedish version of someone else’s story. ABBA’s unreleased Lady Bird would feature parts that went into Someone Else’s Story. However to mention all the other bits and pieces from all the chess demos we know that went into future B&B compositions are very numerous!

[joegoodman]

Love your creativity Becky. Keep us entertained please! 😊
Love to you, Happy Thanksgiving! ❤

[michaelrochester]

I know him so well really sounds like an ABBA song that was repurposed for the Music

[sylvierau]

C'était trop génial . Pity the Child interprété par Bjorn était tout simplement magnifique . Merci Beckyfan56 pour le partage

[thatsgirl]

This was Awesome!
Awesome Creativity... thank you for sharing! 💖
Happy Thanksgiving! 🧡🦃💛

[discogareth]

By the way the other Every Good Man demo is sung by Benny, Bjorn and Tim. Not Murray Head.

[JF-shsm]

When the Waves Roll Out to Sea did end up in the Swedish version of the musical as Glöm mig om du kan (Forget Me If You Can)

Also, if I remember correctly, the second Every Good Man demo is actually sung by Benny and Tim Rice themselves!

Great job on this video! I love Chess and it’s always great to see how it evolved to become the masterpiece it is.

Some suggestions I have for maybe a future updated version of the video:
- You can find here on YouTube a demo sung by Karin Glenmark, known as Eyes of a Young Man which retained only its chorus to become You and I in its final version!
- The original finale for the musical countains a small portion of a melody. In the Broadway version, it was edited to become Lullaby. It was later reused to become When I Close My Eyes by Gemini.