Second Hand White Baby Grand
"Second Hand White Baby Grand" is an original song introduced in the twelfth episode of the first season of the musical TV series Smash, entitled "Publicity". The song was written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Still, within the show's universe, it is written by songwriting team Julia Houston and Tom Levitt for their Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell. The song, with Megan Hilty's vocals, was initially released as a single from iTunes and Amazon.com's MP3 store and is on the cast album Bombshell.
Context in ''Smash''
In "Publicity," the song is written after the newly appointed Marilyn, Rebecca Duvall, requests some script changes. The song is performed by Marilyn Monroe's "shadow selves," the voices that she hears inside her head. Although the song is initially meant for Karen Cartwright, Ivy Lynn plots against her by making Ellis send her an anonymous text telling her that she is no longer needed in rehearsals, even though she is required to sing the song. With little time to waste, director and choreographer Derek Wills gives the song to Ivy. The song is sung in the rehearsal room. As the chair is pushed aside, a movable plank of wood that Ivy is standing on is moved centre stage. The song "bleeds over a montage of domestic activity featuring 'Smash' characters". As soon as Ivy finishes the song, Duvall says that Marilyn should sing it.A reprise of the song is performed in the fourteenth episode, "Previews", as the second last musical number of Bombshell and is performed by Duvall as Monroe as she lies on her bed, dying.
Production
The song is based on a true story about Marilyn Monroe's relationship with her mother and is named after a piano that she inherited from her mother. This is the same piano that Mariah Carey now owns after buying it at an auction.BroadwayWorld comments, "The tune is a tribute to Marilyn Monroe's most prized possession, her family's white baby grand piano that was auctioned off after her mother was committed to a psych ward."
In a 1999 auction of "The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe" the description for the piano read:
In an interview, Shaiman commented, "it is the only song wrote without it being specifically for an episode. The story was just so good; it inspired us." Wittman added: "It's the nearest and dearest to our hearts." He also explained that "for her entire life, she was looking for this piano until she found it at another auction and repurchased it. It was the one thing she kept with her . It was in her New York apartment when she died."