Charles Petzold



Vista Sings “New York, New York”

November 13, 2006
New York, New York

According to this MSNBC article, the log-on tune for Windows Vista took 18 months to develop:

But my friend Eric Maffei finds the four-note tune to be a bit, umm, reminiscent, let’s say, of the Leonard Bernstein music for the song “New York, New York” from the musical On the Town (book and lyrics by Comden and Green). That’s the song that begins “New York, New York, it's a helluva town: the Bronx is up and the Battery's down” (although the word “wonderful” was substituted for “helluva” in the 1949 movie).

Listen to the setting of the lyrics “New York, New York” in the clip of this song on Amazon:

Or, here's an MP3 clip from the movie with Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin.

Do we have a match?