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,
Somewhere (song) track on Side 2. This is rectified on the CD as "Somewhere" is correctly placed in sequence to the film between "The Rumble" and "Cool." In 1964, P. J. Proby released his version of "Somewhere", which reached number 6 on the British singles chart and 7 on the Australian singles chart. The song also charted well in various European countries. In 1965, the Supremes recorded the song for their album, "There's a Place for Us", though it went unreleased until 2004. They also used it for their debut appearance at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City and it eventually