America (West Side Story song) America (West Side Story song) “America” is a song from the musical "West Side Story". Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics and Leonard Bernstein composed the music. In the original stage version, Anita – the most important female character after Maria and the girlfriend of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks – praises America while a fellow Puerto Rican immigrant, Rosalia, supports Puerto Rico. This version of the song deprecates the island and highlights the positive qualities of American life ("I’ll drive a Buick through San Juan/If there’s a road you can drive on"). The irony of this supposedly pro-American number,
Pets (song) radio play. No material was cut; the edit had virtually the same running length as the album version. Commercially, the song reached No. 67 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, No. 1 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 53 on the UK Singles Chart. In Australia, "Pets" was the 33rd most popular radio hit on the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown for 1993. Most versions of the single included the previously unreleased non-album track "Tonight", recorded during the "Porno for Pyros" album sessions. "Tonight" is a cover of a song written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim