The Original Annie Soundtrack | Glamour

"Maybe" The question is this: How many times, as a well-fed child in a two-parent household, can you sing "Maybe" without seeming like a total ingrate? As my mother came home from a full day of work to cook a healthy dinner, wash my ballet leotards, and call Lands' End to order me a new Squall jacket, I would sit in my bedroom and mournfully belt "won't you please come get your baaa-by," the faraway gleam in my eyes suggesting that I'd seen some s—t in my day. "Maybe" was, and remains, a great song—it's probably making a wannabe orphan out of a middle-class honor student right this second.

"It's a Hard Knock Life" As Jay Z can attest, this is an all-time great. Though it's not as much fun now that I know what the Chrysler Building is—back in the day, I imagined that Miss Hannigan wanted the floors to shine like the top of a modest, but well-respected, local car dealership.

"Tomorrow" Then: I reached for notes I had no business reaching for with gusto and failed to connect the dots when my beagle became both hard of hearing and suicidal. Now: Too many failed attempts at hitting the high parts in Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" have made me humble. I don't attempt to join in.

"We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover" OK, I understand this song a lot more now. Depression-era sarcasm doesn't really land with nine-year-olds. Especially ones who are, ironically, shoveling down a hot fudge sundae as people sing that not only do they not have a chicken, they ain't got the pot.

"Little Girls" Out of all the songs on the soundtrack, Miss Hannigan's was the one that became my anthem—a fact that now, of course, horrifies me. I was happy to sing it at recess, on the school bus, really anywhere that people appreciate a third-grader jazz-growling, "I'm an ordinary wo-MAN, with fee-elings, I'd like a man to nibble on my ear. But I'll AD-mit, no man HAS bit, so how come I'm the mothaaaa of the year?" I'm going to put the number of birthday party invitations this phase cost me somewhere in the 10 to 20 range.

"I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" Ah, the Broadway great-aunt of Beauty and the Beast's "Be Our Guest." I loved when the servants would cry out upgrades, like "The silk sheets? No, the satin sheets!" Hooray for the tiny seedlings of materialism this song planted in a generation!

"NYC" I completely forgot about this song. As a Manhattan expat, I appreciate Daddy Warbucks' conflicted take on life in New York City. I've never had a frankfurter answer back to me, but I have had a man pet my shearling coat while shrieking about the second coming of Christ. That's the same, right? (Taylor Swift, I love your energy—please enjoy the six months you have until you step in a warm, opaque puddle and lose your starry-eyed take on the city.)