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,
Fanfare for the Common Man (Emerson, Lake & Palmer song) or "Medley" that contains Fanfare and adaptations called America (based on America by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) and/or Rondo (based on Blue Rondo à la Turk by Dave Brubeck), both of which were played by Emerson when he was in the band The Nice. This arrangement was an opening theme song for the "CBS Sports Spectacular". It is also used by Australia's Seven Network as a theme song for their sports programs and some sports. Fanfare became a staple of ELP's concerts, and while the opening and closing portions of the piece follow the recorded version fairly closely, Emerson's