In the years since, Annie’s been adapted into high-profile films (including a 2014 movie starring Cameron Diaz, JamieFoxx and Quvenzhané Wallis) and enjoyed multiple Broadway and West End revivals. What’s Annie’s enduring appeal? Part of it is the underdog-does-good story—Annie, as fans know, focuses on a plucky, resilient little girl whose parents left her at an orphanage as a baby—but the musical has also evolved and changed with the times, keeping it relevant through the years. In the 2014 movie, for example, Annie was in foster care rather than an orphanage, and the requirement that the lead sport red curly hair has gone away. While the cast of Annie Live! includes such showbiz standouts as Taraji P. Henson (as Miss Hannigan) and Harry Connick Jr. (as Daddy Warbucks), the songs have always been what makes Annie so special. Still, you may not know the backstories to all those numbers, or which songs have been sampled by rappers and hip-hop artists, which number Carol Burnett (who played Miss Hannigan in 1982’s Annie) absolutely hated, which A-list actor sang an Annie track on South Korean TV (yep!) and more. So keep reading to find out all about the best Annie anecdotes with our trivia-filled guide to the songs from Annie the musical.
Songs from Annie
“Maybe”
The moody opening song finds Annie daydreaming about her parents, who had left her when she was a baby, and what they might be doing today. She hopes they might return to take her back, but rather than wallowing in self-pity at her current situation, Annie keeps her chin up: “Their one mistake/Was giving up me!” Charnin once revealed that “Maybe” was originally conceived as the second number in the musical after “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” but he and Strouse ultimately reversed that order after they realized that “the most important thing about getting this show going was for us, the audience, to know what [Annie’s] problem was. What ‘Maybe’ does, I think, is it bring, bring you squarely—it confronts her problem. And what it ends up being able to do, which is really important, is substitute 32 bars of music for maybe 10 pages of dialogue… A really good song is always able to do that.”
“It’s the Hard Knock Life”
Sung by Annie and the rest of the orphans, this deceptively upbeat song finds them lamenting their rough existence. (“Empty belly life!/Rotten smelly life!/Full of sorrow life!”) JAY-Z famously sampled “It’s the Hard Knock Life” for his hit “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).” Rapper Lil’ Romeo and Lukas Graham have also drawn on the song for sampling inspiration.
“Tomorrow”
Annie’s soaring anthem and huge showstopper, “Tomorrow” finds Annie in a hopeful headspace: She’s escaped from the orphanage (albeit briefly) and is feeling optimistic about a brighter future. “Tomorrow” has an interesting backstory. Composer Charles Strouse originally wrote a song called “Replay” that appeared in a 1970 short film. However, as the decade progressed, he chipped away at the music and the tune evolved into “Tomorrow.” For a brief time, “Tomorrow” was included in a musical called Charlie and Algernon (based on the novel Flowers for Algernon) before finding its forever home in Annie. It’s hard to imagine this song anywhere else now, as it’s a pop culture staple: Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver sing an a cappella version in the 1993 film Dave, while Ryan Reynolds even sang it while appearing as a Unicorn on the South Korean reality show King of Masked Singer.
“We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover”
This song is dedicated to the 31st President of the United States, although not for warm reasons. In her travels, Annie comes across a community of unhoused people. During the Great Depression, these camps were colloquially called Hooverville due to Hoover’s reluctance at providing help via the federal government. So when cast members sing, “We’d like to thank you, Herbert Hoover/For really showing us the way,” there’s more than a touch of scorn.
“Little Girls”
Miss Hannigan is one of Broadway’s great villains: cold, mean and hateful. In “Little Girls,” she laments that she’d like to have a man, but instead, she’s a de facto mom to the orphanage residents. (Her big dream is legally dubious: “If I wring/Little necks/Surely I will get an acquittal.”) The song is Hannigan’s time to shine, as Jane Lynch memorably did when she played the role on Broadway’s 2012 revival. The song was significantly altered for Diaz in the 2014 film—and yes, the actress has said that really was her singing in the movie and it terrified her. “I had to actually have a voice for this song, for this film. I did a lot of training—as much as I could!” Diaz told Ellen DeGeneres around the time of the movie’s release. However, she also told Seth Meyers that she “literally cried” over her numbers, adding, “[It was] white knuckles on the ledge, holding on for dear life.”
“I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here”
To her dismay, Annie was caught and returned to the orphanage. However, her luck soon turned: Grace, who works for an uber-rich billionaire called Daddy Warbucks, rescues Annie from drudgery and invites her to Christmas at the mansion. The song describes what happens when she arrives and encounters what’s basically paradise: food, tennis courts, and no chores.
“N.Y.C.”
“We were in love with the idea of doing a New York musical. We wanted to do a musical about this city,” lyricist Charnin has said about what he and Strouse most wanted to achieve when they sat down to work on Annie. So it’s no wonder that they created this classic mash note to the Big Apple, sung by Daddy Warbucks and Grace as they show Annie the dazzling sights and sounds of the city that never sleeps.
“Easy Street”
The musical’s not even half over yet, so of course there has to be some kind of conflict to keep things interesting. That comes in the form of Miss Hannigan’s sneaky, down-on-his-luck brother, Rooster, who sees Daddy Warbucks’ affection for Annie as an opportunity for potential financial exploitation. After all, both Rooster and Hannigan are ragingly jealous of Annie: “It ain’t fair/How we scrounge/For three of four bucks/While she gets/Warbucks.” While “Easy Street” is one of the most fun songs in the musical, Burnett admitted in a 2020 interview that she had no fun shooting the number for the 1982 film (in which she played Miss Hannigan). “This being Hollywood, they wanted to open it up and make it this huge musical extravaganza, and we went out on the street itself and danced and sang and ran up and down fire escapes, and there was even an organ grinder with a monkey,” Burnett told Forbes. “That had nothing to do with the fact that we’re going to be on Easy Street. We found that half of a locket that belonged to Annie’s parents, and then suddenly, the plot went out of the window… It was total overkill.”
“You Won’t Be an Orphan for Long”
Annie confesses she wants to find her parents. Luckily, Daddy Warbucks thinks he can help, and calls in J. Edger Hoover and the F.B.I., of all people, to try and track them down.
“You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile”
Call this song a thematic cousin to “Tomorrow,” as it encourages nothing but optimism. Sia also covered this song for the 2014 Annie film, and her version was popular in Europe and the UK.
“Something Was Missing”
Despite the promise of a reward, the only people that came forward claiming to be Annie’s parents were fakes or crooks. (Most notably, Rooster and his girlfriend Lily—in disguise!—tried to say they were her parents.) Warbucks realizes that all of his money, acclaim and success are empty, because he’s missing love and personal fulfillment. In this song, he realizes that adopting Annie is what he wants to do.
“Annie”
Talk about a pep talk: This song finds the staff at Warbucks’ mansion (among others) singing about how Annie’s presence has brightened their life. Aww.
“I Don’t Need Anything But You”
As the adoption gets sorted out, Annie and her new father duet on a tender and upbeat song that puts an exclamation point on the musical’s positive vibe.
“New Deal for Christmas”
This song has multiple layers of meaning. Not only did Miss Hannigan, Rooster and Lily get their comeuppance for trying to scam Daddy Warbucks, but Annie and her orphanage peers are adopted and things are looking up politically thanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
What songs are in the Annie movie from 2014?
Many iconic songs from the Broadway musical appeared in the 2014 film, including “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “Tomorrow,” “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here” and “Easy Street.” However, the movie also boasted several original songs by Sia, including “Opportunity,” “Who Am I?” and a Beck-featuring song called “Moonquake Lake.”
Did Jamie Foxx sing in Annie?
Actor Jamie Foxx is no stranger to musically oriented movie roles. After all, he won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of RayCharles in 2004’s Ray. However, Foxx is also a successful recording artist with a No. 1 album (2005’s Unpredictable) and collaborations with Kanye West and Twista. So it makes perfect sense that the actor would sing in Annie. As the entrepreneur Stacks, he sings the tune “The City’s Yours” to Annie as the pair are taking a helicopter tour of New York City and “I Don’t Need Anything But You” as the movie comes to a happy close.
Did Cameron Diaz sing in Annie?
Cameron Diaz is mostly known as a comedic actress but she did indeed sing several songs while portraying Miss Hannigan in the 2014 Annie film. She and Jamie Foxx performed a duet on the brooding new original song “Who Am I?” and she also turned up the disdain for an over-the-top take on “Little Girls.” In summer 2021, the latter tune even had some viral fame via a TikTok video.
Who did the music for Annie?
Annie’s creative backbone was mighty impressive. Thomas Meehan wrote the story (or “book” in Broadway parlance) for the original Annie musical. Later, he also wrote the book for musicals The Producers, Hairspray and Young Frankenstein. The songs in the Annie musical themselves were written by composer Strouse and lyricist Charnin. Strouse is a decorated musician who kicked off his career writing music for Bye Bye Birdie, which earned him his first Tony Award, and later worked on the Lauren Bacall-starring Applause and did the score for 1989’s All Dogs Go to Heaven. With lyricist Lee Adams, Strouse also co-wrote the All in the Family theme song “Those Were the Days.” Charnin started his career directing TV specials (and won several Emmys in the process) before switching to Broadway. In addition to writing the lyrics for Annie, he directed the original Broadway musical, and later oversaw several touring shows.
Who did the music for Annie 2014?
In the 2014 movie, Sia teamed up with Greg Kurstin to freshen up some of Annie’s existing songs (including “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” and “Little Girls”) and also create new ones, including “Opportunity,” “Who Am I?” and “Moonquake Lake.” Sia herself sang several of these songs, including “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” Next, The 56 Best Christmas Movies You Can Watch Right Now on Netflix
