Star-Telegram | 01/04/2007 | It's all music, man!

Just call her "yodelback girl." In her new single Wind It Up, pop star Gwen Stefani samples music and sings lyrics from the unlikely source of The Sound of Music song The Lonely Goatherd. And not only does she yodel, but on her music video, she pays hommage to the film.

Stefani's done the show-tune thing before, with her 2004 single Rich Girl, which uses If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof. But suddenly, she's leading a pack of pop artists finding new inspiration in musicals (and we're not talking about pop divas' musical turns on film, like Beyonce in Dreamgirls; or pop musicians' writing specifically for shows, like Duncan Sheik's work for the current Broadway smash Spring Awakening or Debbie Harry's upcoming pieces for a musical version of Desperately Seeking Susan).
These pop singers are borrowing from Broadway and turning its tunes into their own creations.

To boot: Jay-Z sampled from Annie on his Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem); rappers Missy Elliott and Young Jeezy have each used Big Spender from Sweet Charity; and OutKast did an instrumental drum 'n' bass version of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music on 2003's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
To all of this we say -- we want more! Here are our suggestions for songs from musicals for pop artists to drop into their hits:
Seventy-Six Trombones from Meredith Willson's The Music Man Gwen Stefani Look, she might as well continue her trend.

And with her penchant for marching drumbeats, as evidenced in Hollaback Girl and Wind It Up, this one makes sense. She could pick-a-little, talk-a-little and repeat the mantra "I ain't no sadder-but-wiser girl!" You Gotta Have a Gimmick from Jule Styne's Gypsy The Pussycat Dolls It's a purr-fect match.

The Pussycat Dolls started out as a burlesque troupe, and Gimmick is performed by burlesque girls Mazeppa, Electra and Tessie Tura. We figure these miss kitties are on the verge of a major hairball (remember the Spice Girls?), so if the Dolls are going to "uh, uh and uh uh uh," they gotta follow Tessie Tura's advice and do it with finesse.

The title tune from Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! Fergie She had the chutzpah to make herself an adjective for fabulousness with Fergalicious, so what's to stop the duchess going wilder with a role that takes a woman with built-in hubris? Hello, Fergie.

I Cain't Say No from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Nelly Furtado With the lyric "I'm just a girl who cain't say no," think of it as Promiscuous Part 2. Of course, the ubiquitous Timbaland would contribute, and with him, it's all er nuthin'.

Do-Re-Mi from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music Eminem Because the rapper's name and song title each has three syllables, and he'd have a ball with a shady "all about mi" lyric. Don't wanna know what he'd rhyme with "do," though. March of the Witch Hunters from Stephen Schwartz's Wicked The Dixie Chicks Actually, we'd rather hear Natalie Maines belt out Defying Gravity, but the witch-hunting theme is more appropriate for someone who's not ready to make nice.

Gwen Stefani and Jay-Z sampled and/or have been recently inspired by Broadway musical songs, but everyone from rockers to folkies have been doing the musicals thing for decades, covering songs in their own unique styles.
We suggest you get out the iPod and download these numbers, which happen to be a few of our favorite things. (Sorry, but vocalists known for their takes on standard pop songs, from Ella Fitzgerald to Barbra Streisand to Bette Midler to latter-career Rod Stewart, are excluded.

)
1. Till There Was You, the Beatles (1963), from Meredith Willson's The Music Man: Paul sings this lovely cover on With the Beatles, just six years after the show's Broadway debut.
2.

Little Girl Blue, Janis Joplin (1969), from Rodgers and Hart's Jumbo: Janis' bluesy stamp on a great song from a little-known musical.
3. Big Spender, Queen (2003), from Cy Coleman's Sweet Charity: Recorded live at a 1986 Wembley Stadium concert.

Great song for a gay man, but too bad Freddie Mercury changes the gender in the line "I don't pop my cork for every guy I see" to the feminine.
4. Corner of the Sky, the Jackson 5 (1972), from Stephen Schwartz's Pippin: Bouncy cover, from the same year the musical debuted.

The original cast recording was on the Motown label, and a 2000 reissue also featured covers by the Supremes and solo Michael Jackson.
5. I Get a Kick out of You, Dolly Parton (2001), from Cole Porter's Anything Goes: A fantastic bluegrass version of an effervescent classic.

6. I Could Have Danced All Night, Jamie Cullum (2004), from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady: Animated version from the young British pop pianist's Twentysomething album, which also includes covers of Singin' in the Rain and I Get a Kick out of You.
7.

Losing My Mind, Pet Shop Boys (1991), from Stephen Sondheim's Follies: Singer Neil Tenant's detached vocals are a surprisingly brilliant match for Sondheim's lyrics. Also see the Boys' synth-pop takes on Noel Coward's Sail Away and West Side Story's Somewhere.
8.

Beauty School Dropout, the Toadies (1996): from Grease: Very cool cover from Sandy Does Dallas, a Grease tribute album by North Texas rock bands.
9. I Don't Know How To Love Him, Emily Saliers (1994), from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar: The Indigo Girls and some of their rock buds performed their own take on the entire show, with Saliers as Mary Magdalene and Amy Ray as Jesus.

It works, considering that before the rock opera was first staged, the songs were recorded on album, with Deep Purple's Ian Gillan singing the Jesus role.
10. If I Were a Rich Man, the Magnetic Fields (1999), from Fiddler on the Roof: A haunting melancholy version from the experimental New York band, on the tribute album Knitting on the Roof, in which indie rockers make matches with Fiddler songs.

11. Somewhere, Tom Waits (1986), from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story: Waits' raspy voice makes the song beautifully creepy.
12.

Lost in the Stars, Martin L. Gore (2003), from Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Lost in the Stars: Depeche Mode's chief songwriter sings some of his band's ballads, and his take on the title song from this musical adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country is stunning.
13.

So in Love, k.d. lang (1990), from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate: One of the best tracks on the great Porter tribute album Red, Hot + Blue.

Lang has one of the most emotive voices in pop.
14. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Sin e ad O'Connor (1992), from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey.

Her amazing voice is a brilliant match for one of musical theater's great love songs.
15. My Favorite Things, Tori Amos (2005), from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music.

Amos could make Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah sad, and her melancholy reading of this uplifting classic is genius. It was recorded live on her 2005 tour stop in Manchester, U.K.

FYI, at her Dallas stop on that tour, she beautifully covered By My Side from Godspell.