Show tune

A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context.

[2] Though show tunes vary in style, they do tend to share common characteristics—they usually fit the context of a story being told in the original musical, they are useful in enhancing and heightening choice moments.

(Even into the television and rock era, a few stage musicals managed to turn their show tunes into major pop music hits, sometimes aided by film adaptations and exposure through variety shows.)

Show tunes make up a disproportionate part of the songs in most variations of the Great American Songbook.

The reverse phenomenon, when already popular songs are used to form the basis of a stage production, is known as a jukebox musical.