What I Did for Love Lyrics - Chorus Line, A

Song Overview

There is a moment late in A Chorus Line when time seems to slow. A dancer is hurt. The audition halts. Someone asks the hardest question in the room: what happens if you cannot dance anymore? Diana steps forward, and out floats a steady, unsentimental ballad - a statement of purpose rather than a plea. It is built like a classic show tune and shaped like a quiet promise. With the Original Broadway Cast, the track arrives as cut number 12 on the album, sung by Priscilla Lopez and the ensemble, and it has lived far beyond the proscenium.

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. A late-act ballad from A Chorus Line, led by Diana Morales - sung on the album by Priscilla Lopez with company.
2. Music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban; produced for record by Goddard Lieberson for Columbia Masterworks.
3. In the stage show, it answers a career-ending question; in the 1985 film, the number was reassigned to Cassie, shifting its frame.
4. The tune became a standard beyond Broadway, recorded by singers from Aretha Franklin to Josh Groban; it saw chart action via covers in the 1970s and beyond.
5. Tempo sits in a slow-to-moderate ballad pocket; typical performance key is A flat major with a mezzo range.

Creation History

Hamlisch’s melody arrives with a simple, almost conversational lift, the kind of line you think you already know even on first hearing. Kleban’s lyric keeps the sentences short and declarative - “Kiss today goodbye” - and lets repetition carry the weight. The orchestration in the Original Broadway Cast recording is spare by design, a pit-orchestra warmth that leaves room around Lopez’s timbre and the ensemble’s cushions. On record the song runs just under four minutes, which makes it unusually concise for a show’s principal ballad; it never chases a modulation for drama’s sake. During the show’s journey to Broadway under Michael Bennett, the number settled into its place as the moral center: a steadier pulse after the nervous electricity of auditions, with the cast joining Diana as the thought widens from one voice to many.

On screen in 1985, the number was shifted to Cassie and interlaced with dance, re-angling the song toward a romance subplot. That change is still debated at post-show bars: some like the cinematic intimacy; others feel the piece works best as a chorus’s credo rather than a lover’s torch. Either way, the tune’s portability helped it slip into concert sets and studio albums around the world.

Musical highlights

The hook is unusually plainspoken. No long pickup, no melisma-heavy lift. Hamlisch balances two instincts: a theater song’s need to move narrative forward and a soft pop ballad’s need to sit on a groove. The piano’s steady arpeggiation anchors it, while winds and strings draw discreet halos around the vocal line. Listen for the ensemble swell after the second verse; the chord voicings broaden but never smother. The last refrain avoids the clich