Little Bit of Good Lyrics - Chicago

Little Bit of Good Lyrics

Little Bit of Good

Mary Sunshine:
When I was a tiny tot
Of maybe two or three
I can still remember what
My mother said to me...

Place rose colored glasses on your nose
And you will see the robins
Not the crows

For in the tense and tangled web
Our weary lives can weave
You're so much better off
If you believe...

That there's a little bit of good
In everyone
In everyone you'll ever know

Yes, there's a little bit of good
In everyone
Though many times, it doesn't show

It only takes a taking time
With one another
For under every mean veneer
Is someone warm and dear
Keep looking...

For that bit of good in everyone
The ones you call bad
Are never all bad
So try to find that little bit of good

Just a little, little bit of good

Is someone warm and dear
Keep looking...

For that little good in everyone
Although you meet rats
They're not complete rats
So try to find that little bit of good!

Matron:
Mr. Flynn, the reporters are here.
Billy:
Let 'em in, Butch. Okay, Roxie, act like a dummy; you sit
on my lap and do all the talking.

Matron:
Mr. Billy Flynn sings the "Press Conference Rag" - notice
how his mouth never moves - almost.


Song Overview

A Little Bit of Good lyrics by M. O’Haughey
M. O’Haughey is singing the ‘A Little Bit of Good’ lyrics in the original cast recording context.

Personal Review

“A Little Bit of Good” is the glittering operetta cameo that turns Chicago’s courthouse circus into a hymn of rosy spin, and the lyrics make the optimism feel deliberate, not naive. The lyrics paint Mary Sunshine as an ideal listener for Billy Flynn’s stage-managed version of truth, which is the real punchline of the number. Snapshot: a prim reporter trills about universal goodness while a savvy lawyer puppeteers a city hungry for spectacle.

Song Meaning and Annotations

M. O’Haughey performing A Little Bit of Good
Performance aura - prim, proper, and perfectly pliable.

The song sits in Act 1 as Mary Sunshine’s worldview manifesto. She’s the “sob-sister” columnist who believes in redemption by default, which is precisely why Billy Flynn courts her. The number’s sugar helps the show’s acid go down: Chicago is a satire about justice-as-showbusiness, and Mary’s silvery faith becomes a tool in the machinery.

Stylistically it’s a pastiche of light operetta - think warbling coloratura lines with polite waltz lift - placed inside a 1920s vaudeville frame. That contrast is the gag: a court of law scored like operetta, where sincerity and schmaltz sell better than facts.

The emotional arc is simple on purpose. She starts sunny, stays sunny, and ends sunny. The shift isn’t in her, it’s in us: by the end we hear how her goodness becomes a megaphone for whoever flatters it best. Kander and Ebb love this kind of bait-and-switch - polish on the surface, knives underneath.

Culturally, Mary is the ancestor of infotainment optimism. She predates push alerts and cable chyrons, yet her column shapes the trial narrative the way headlines do now. It’s a period piece that keeps aging into the present.

Message
“There’s a little bit of good in everyone.”

On its face, a credo. In context, a lever. The song shows how a comforting premise can be recruited by power - here, by Flynn - to remold public sentiment in real time.

Emotional tone

Weightless, dazzling, slightly treacly by design. The sweetness is camouflage for the show’s cynicism about courts, crowds, and charisma.

Historical context

Set in Jazz Age Chicago and premiered in 1975, the musical indicts the celebrity criminal phenomenon. Mary’s number lands just before the press-conference ventriloquism act, where Billy turns journalism into vent magic.

Production & instrumentation

Pit orchestra sheen: reeds doubling, brass punctuations, strings for sparkle, glockenspiel and woodwinds to halo the coloratura line. The orchestration frames Mary as a haloed authority even while the plot undercuts her.

Analysis of key phrases and idioms
  • “Rose-colored glasses” trope - signals selective vision as virtue, then lets the plot weaponize it.
  • “Everyone” as blanket subject - a rhetorical sweep that hides exceptions, costs, and victims.
About metaphors and symbols

Mary herself is the symbol: a soprano line that floats above the fray while quietly enabling it. The operetta style stands in for respectability, the mask that makes manipulation palatable.

Creation history

Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The original Broadway cast featured M. O’Haughey as Mary Sunshine - a countertenor written to sound like a crystalline coloratura. Many productions preserve the tradition and, in some stagings, reveal the “woman” to be a man late in the show to puncture the aura of authority.

Verse Highlights

Scene from A Little Bit of Good by M. O’Haughey
Scene-setting sweetness - a useful illusion.
Verse 1

Opens with bright, bell-like lines that climb quickly and sit high. The diction is pristine - optimism as technique.

Refrain

Repetition of the creed functions as a chorus the audience can hum, which is exactly how propaganda prefers its messages: singable, certain, circular.

Key Facts

Scene from A Little Bit of Good by M. O’Haughey
Mary’s credo, set to satin and sugar.
  • Featured: Mary Sunshine (originally M. O’Haughey, countertenor on Broadway).
  • Producer: Phil Ramone; subsequent album producers credited on later editions include Martin Richards, Joseph Harris, Ira Bernstein, and reissue producer Didier C. Deutsch.
  • Composer: John Kander; Lyricist: Fred Ebb; Book: Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse.
  • Release Date: 1975 - Original Broadway Cast LP; CD reissue dated November 12, 1996.
  • Genre: Musical theatre - operetta pastiche within 1920s vaudeville frame.
  • Instruments: pit orchestra - reeds/clarinets, brass, strings, percussion, glockenspiel, piano.
  • Label: Arista Records (original LP); later reissues via Arista/Sony Masterworks.
  • Mood: sunny, credulous, prim; deliberately sugar-coated to contrast the show’s bite.
  • Length: 3:16.
  • Track #: 7 on Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville (Original Broadway Cast Recording).
  • Language: English.
  • Album: Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville - Original Broadway Cast Recording.
  • Music style: legit soprano coloratura over light waltz pulse.
  • Poetic meter: predominantly iambic patterns with patter-style pickups.
  • © Copyrights: © 1975 Arista Records; © Kander & Ebb for composition and lyrics.

Questions and Answers

Was “A Little Bit of Good” included in the 2002 Chicago film?
No. It was one of several stage numbers cut for the movie adaptation’s concept; the film leans on numbers imagined by Roxie.
Who originated Mary Sunshine on Broadway?
M. O’Haughey created the role in 1975 on Broadway, singing the part as a glittering countertenor.
What’s the musical style of the song?
Light operetta pastiche - bright coloratura lines over a graceful, old-world lilt.
Where does the number sit in the story?
Act 1, just before Billy Flynn’s press-conference spectacle, where Mary’s sunny copy helps sell his narrative to the city.
Is the role traditionally played by a woman?
Often no - many productions cast a male countertenor and even reveal that fact late in the show to puncture Mary’s authority.

Awards and Chart Positions

The 1975 original cast album didn’t snag a major award; Chicago’s later 1996 Broadway revival cast album did, winning the Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. When the 2002 film arrived, its soundtrack surged commercially, climbing as high as the Billboard 200 top two during awards-season heat.

How to Sing?

Vocal range & key. Mary Sunshine is typically cast as a legit coloratura with a range around B?3–B?5. Productions commonly set “A Little Bit of Good” in E? major, though materials circulate a whole-step either side for casting flexibility.

Breath strategy. Map the long arching phrases - plan snatched, silent breaths at rests and commas, keep ribs expanded, and avoid jaw tension on the quick ornaments.

Diction & spin. Crisp consonants without chopping the legato. Think “smile space” for the upper passaggio so the high B? blooms, not barks.

Tempo & style. Let the waltz lilt. It’s not a race - buoyant, slightly smug, then absolutely glowing on cadences. Remember: you’re not proving justice, you’re selling it with sweetness.

Songs Exploring Themes of optimism and media spin

“We Both Reached for the Gun” - Chicago. Same show, different weapon. Billy puppeteers a press gaggle while Roxie mouths his words. Where Mary sings hope, Billy choreographs headlines. The rhythm is perky, the lyrics are clip-fast, the mood is carnival. Together they diagram how performance beats truth on deadline.

“Popular” - Wicked. Glinda turns charm into curriculum. The joke is similar: expertise in surfaces stands in for substance. The orchestration bounces, the vowels sparkle, and beneath it sits a marketing plan for persona. It’s optimism as method, not morality.

“I Believe” - The Book of Mormon. Earnest faith belts over bombast. The lyric stacks certainties until the tower wobbles, and that wobble is the comedy. Unlike Mary’s number, sincerity here crashes into the real world, but the show still plays the audience’s appetite for a catchy credo.



> > > Little Bit of Good
Music video
Popular musicals
Musical: Chicago. Song: Little Bit of Good. Broadway musical soundtrack lyrics. Song lyrics from theatre show/film are property & copyright of their owners, provided for educational purposes