West Side Story (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

It's nearly alarming how charming West Side Story remains long after the film's 1961 release. Composer Leonard Bernstein and tyro lyricist Stephen Sondheim update Romeo and Juliet with beautiful balladry ("Maria", "Tonight", "Somewhere") and songs that deliver incisive social commentary with complex rhymes and plenty of jokes ("Jet Song", "America", "Gee, Officer Krupke"). The New York Philharmonic gives the Broadway classic a special kick, especially during Bernstein's lively Stravinsky-influenced instrumentals, including "Prologue", "The Rumble" and the memorably multicultural "Dance at the Gym".