On September 26 1957 West Side Story opened at Broadway s Winter Garden Theater a turning point in the history of American Musical theater but also the launch of one of the most dazzling hit laden scores ever written for Broadway. Leonard Bernstein s music and Stephen Sondheim s lyrics immediately captured the public s imagination. In the last half century the greatest singers and instrumentalists in the pop and classical music have been reinventing these unforgettable tunes. This new collection brings together the very best of them from Johnny Mathis s classic cover of Maria to the Dave Brubeck Quartet s martini cool version of somewhere.