# The Music Man **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2007, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078 "2007-10-26T05:20:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/41 "2007-10-28T00:01:04Z")
For years, “Goodnight, My Someone” was one of the standard bedtime songs I sang to my son. Last year, someone treated my son (who was 11) to a performance of MM by a professional company, and he absolutely loved it. I had no idea that Wilson wrote “Go, You Chicken Fat, Go”! ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/42 "2007-10-28T00:23:37Z")
_Pick a little, talk a little, Pick a little, talk a little. Cheep! Cheep! Cheep! Talk a lot, pick a little more._ (My apologies if I’ve put that tune in your head for the rest of the day.) I think I’m a bit to young to have seen it when it was in original release, but I do recall seeing it on TV when I was a ninth-grader and having serious hots for the librarian for several days. The “Marian the Librarian” sequence sticks in my mind the most (and might be the beginning of my inordinate fondness for any piece of music with an ostinato bass line). ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/43 "2007-11-02T00:26:39Z")
[QUOTE=jsc1953] [allmusic.com](http://allmusic.com) says that you’re right (that it was Willson. Unclear as to whether or not it was from Here’s Love). [/QUOTE] 😛😛😛 You took the bait. “Pine Cones and Holly Berries” is the actual name of the song “It’s Beginning to Look Lot Like Christmas”. “Pine Cones and Holly Berries” part is the intro which is usually discarded. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/44 "2007-11-02T00:29:58Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Sinatra would have sucked in that role. (I didn’t like him in Guys n’ Dolls–I’m not much of a Frankie fan). [/QUOTE] I once played Nathan Detroit in a community-theater production of _G&D._ He does less singing than any other major character. So who do they cast for the movie? Frank Sinatra. That’s Hollywood for ya. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/45 "2007-11-02T00:31:37Z")
After “Ya Got Trouble,” my favorite songs from _The Music Man_ are the barbershop-quartet numbers. “Lyda Rose, I’m home again, Rose . . .” ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/46 "2007-11-02T01:14:31Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I once played Nathan Detroit in a community-theater production of _G&D._ He does less singing than any other major character. So who do they cast for the movie? Frank Sinatra. That’s Hollywood for ya. [/QUOTE] Right. And then they had to switch some stuff around and add a song to be sure they used his voice enough. :rolleyes: Knowing Frank, I tend to doubt the story about him turning down the Harold Hill role. I heard he was mightily pissed about being cast as Nathan Detroit rather than Sky Masterson. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/47 "2007-11-02T02:21:58Z")
Yee, thanks for the sweet memories, Longhair. I have a tear in my eye too, about The Music Man. My Hollywood musician grandfather played in the band for the movie. He’s 28 years gone on yond, birthday coming up soon. I miss him. Now that Well’s Fargo Wagon song is blaring in my noggin. I remember my grandfather and I singing it. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/48 "2007-11-02T02:29:29Z")
Years ago, somewhere in the midwest, I think, a community theatre group got together with their local Sweet Adelines and SPEBSQSA chapters and cast the singers as the chorus and secondary parts (like the school board and the pick-a-little ladies) in the show. They also modified the choral arrnagements into barbershop harmony. I was told (by a member of Sweet Adelines who wasn’t in the show but did get to see it) that it was a resounding success. ---
**Author:** ![Fetchund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fetchund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fetchund)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/49 "2007-11-02T03:14:49Z")
[QUOTE=longhair75] Mom passed away seven years ago, and I miss her every day. I remember this movie outing like it happened last week. It was forty five years ago. I was nine years old. Tonight, I am up later than I should be, and I have had maybe more wine to drink than I should have, but I am remembering that night so long ago, and watching the movie through eyes oddly blurred… [/QUOTE] Just yesterday I was cleaning through my desk and came across a copy of my father’s eulogy. My brother wrote it, and it had tons of memories to sift through. One of them was that Dad used to wake us up on Sunday mornings by blaring “The Music Man” (Usually Gary, Indiana) on the stereo. Ticked my off for certain growing up, but I found myself singing it and smiling yesterday, remembering my dad. 5 years gone, but still singing. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/50 "2007-11-02T03:50:51Z")
I have no idea of the provenance of this video, but there is an absolutely hilarious version of “The Wells Fargo Wagon” on YouTube, [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oiBnFIC0uQ). Something about it just makes me giggle helplessly… ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/51 "2007-11-02T04:47:56Z")
**jayjay** , that was hilarious. I loved the way they did the barbershop quartet harmony for the “cannon for the courthouse square” line and Winthrop’s verse near the end. I also thought it was interesting how they used the melodies from two other songs from “The Music Man” during the credits. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/52 "2007-11-02T14:22:43Z")
My high school humanities teacher showed the opening sequence to our class as a demonstration that rap music was nothing new or revolutionary. As the lights came back on, my classmates didn’t know whether to be more horrified by what they had just witnessed, or by the fact that I knew almost every word. I recently had the distinct pleasure of introducing my SO (who, as a lover of theater, movies, musicals, etc, was ashamed to admit this shocking gap in her education) to _The Music Man_ and its evil twin _Victor/Victoria_. Given the opportunity, she will be more than happy at any time to second my assertion that Robert Preston is a GOD. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/53 "2007-11-02T16:48:44Z")
**jayjay** , that was fantastic. Done with such love and joy. [QUOTE=BJMoose] _Pick a little, talk a little, Pick a little, talk a little. Cheep! Cheep! Cheep! Talk a lot, pick a little more._ [/QUOTE] _Good-night ladies, good-night ladies!_ I played Mayor Shinn in high school. I got chicken pox midway through the run and had to drop out of the final weekend. Grrr. Oh, and some trivia: When _The Music Man_ won the Tony for Best Musical, one of the shows it beat was _West Side Story._ This is regarded by some today, looking back with hindsight, as some kind of travesty, comparing the revolutionary jazz-influenced _WSS_, which was fairly controversial and not universally loved in its day but which over the years was elevated to the status of a classic, with the much more conventional American chestnut _Music Man._ What these people forget is that _The Music Man_ was almost as revolutionary at the time, giving us a liar and a thief as a hero (though redeeming him at the last minute), and more than that, not only including the music-free train-patter song “Rock Island,” which had almost no precedent in mainstream American theater, but having the freaking balls to _open the show with it._ Of all the time-travel fantasies in the back of my mind, going back to 1957 and watching “Rock Island” with an audience seeing it for the very first time definitely ranks right up there. Would I pick _The Music Man_ over _West Side Story_ as a better musical? I don’t know. It’s a toss-up. The former doesn’t stretch the boundaries as much as the latter, but is nearly perfect; the latter is more revolutionary, and probably more influential, but has some flaws. How could you possibly choose? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/54 "2007-11-02T17:03:56Z")
While checking into the authorship of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” (or whatever you want to call it…), I noticed that Meredith Willson was born in Iowa in 1902. If he was a character in his own bit of nostalgia, he would be squarely between Winthrop and Tommy, in age. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/55 "2007-11-02T17:24:37Z")
I always loved _76 Trombones_, where Prof. Hill waxes ecstatic about Sousa’s band. In Wilson’s _The Unsinkable Molly Brown_, he wrote one song around Sousa’s _Billboard March_. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/56 "2007-11-02T17:30:13Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] What these people forget is that _The Music Man_ was almost as revolutionary at the time, giving us a liar and a thief as a hero (though redeeming him at the last minute) [/QUOTE] _Pal Joey_ (1940) ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/57 "2007-11-02T20:46:44Z")
Just a few random thoughts. Along with his musical theater pieces Wilson wrote the Iowa Fight Song, beloved of several generations of U of I students: What’s the word? The word is fight, fight, fight for Iowa, Let every loyal Iowan sing, The word is fight, fight, fight for Iowa ‘Till the walls and rafters ring, Rah! Rah! Rah!……. Which gives rise to a running joke: Michigan 42-Iowa Fights Ohio State 21 - Iowa Fights Minnesota 35 - Iowa Fights For me, as rousing or touching as some of the other pieces might be, the song that hit’s the nail on the head is Iowa Stubborn : Oh, there’s nothing half way About the Iowa way to greet ‘cha If we greet ‘cha, Which we may not do at all… But we’ll give you our shirt And a back to go with it If your crop should happen to die. Years ago the town put on a production of the Music Man for a summer entertainment. Every once in a while the old guys at coffee spontaneously break into the Rock Island Song patter: Why it’s the Model T Ford Made the trouble Made the people wanna go Wanna get, wanna get Wanna get up and go Seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, Fourteen, twenty-two, Twenty-three miles To the county seat Yes sir, yes sir Who’s gonna patronize A little bitty two by four Kinda store anymore? Whaddaya talk, whaddaya talk, Where do you get it? Gone, gone, gone With the hogshead cask And demijohn Gone with the sugar barrel Pickle barrel, milk pan Gone with the tub And the pail and ….… That was my part. It does turn some heads. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/58 "2007-11-02T21:13:01Z")
Dang, SG…that’s awesome. I wish I had the whole thing memorized. (The “whaddya talk” guy is Keenan Wynn, right?) ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/59 "2007-11-03T00:57:50Z")
Jayjay, thanks so much for that! A whole lotta work went into what looks like a simple thang. Smilin, gigglin’ broad, here. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078/60 "2007-11-03T01:20:23Z")
Well, as much as I’d like to believe they actually recorded that themselves, listening to different versions leads me to believe the audio itself is from the 2003 Matthew Broderick version. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-music-man/424078.md?page=4)