Seventy-Six Trombones

(Formerly The Ol'Kunnel's Bar And Grill)

Ever since Meredith Willson wrote this rousing march for The Music Man in 1957, school bands have been blaring it out at Saturday afternoon football games, circus clowns have been cavorting to its strains, and no parade is complete without at least one brass band strutting to its lively rhythm. "Seventy-Six Trombones," sung in both the stage and film versions by Robert Preston as the Music Man, "Professor" Harold Hill, isn't just a standard; it has become a tradition. What probably started it all: In the early 1920s, Willson had played in the band of March King John Philip Sousa. In addition to this classic, Willson's score for The Music Man contains "Goodnight My Someone," the barbershop standard "Lida Rose," "Trouble" and "Till There Was You" (The Ol'Kunnel is looking for this one).

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade,
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.
They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos,
The cream of ev'ry famous band.
Seventy-six trombones caught the morning sun,
With a hundred and ten cornets right behind.
There were more than a thousand reeds spring up like weeds;
There horns of ev'ry shape and kind.

There were copper-bottom tympani in horse platoons,
Thundering, thundering, all along the way.
Double-bell euphoniums and big bassoons,
Each bassoon having his big fat say.
There were fifty mounted cannon in the battery,
Thundering, thundering, louder than before.
Clarinets of ev'ry size and trumpeters who'd improvise
A full octave higher than the score.

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade,
When the order to march ran out loud and clear,
Starting off with a big bang-bhong on a Chinese gong,
By a big bang-bhonger at the rear.
Seventy-six trombones hit the counterpoint,
While a hundred and ten cornets played the air.
Then I modestly took my place as the one and only bass,
And I oompahed up and down the square.

Music provided by: Henry's Midi Place.

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