Capitol 0990
Musical director: Morton Da Costa
Track listing: Overture/Rock Island / Iowa Stubborn / Ya Got Trouble / Piano Lesson / Goodnight My Someone / Seventy-Six Trombones / Sincere / The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl / Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little, and Goodnight Ladies / Marian the Librarian / My White Night / Wells Fargo Wagon / It’s You / Shipoopi / Lida Rose and Will I Ever Tell You / Gary, Indiana / Till There Was You / Finale
March 17, 1958
12 weeks, nonconsecutive
When The Music Man opened on December 17, 1957, at the Majestic Theatre, the play’s writer, composer and lyricist Meredith Willson already had a hefty list of credits. He played flute with John Philip Sousa’s group, the New York Philharmonic Symphony and under the direction of Toscanini. He conducted orchestras for radio, TV, and motion pictures. He composed popular songs, appeared on radio and TV, and had written a novel. Yet The Music Man marked Willson’s debut on Broadway, and what a debut it was.
Based on Willson’s boyhood memories of growing up in Mason City, Iowa, The Music Man is a musical comedy about a salesman who peddles instruments and band uniforms to people in small towns with the promise of teaching the would-be musicians how to play. Yet since he himself cannot play a note, he skips town before fulfilling his promise. In River City, the protagonist’s usual operation is thrown off track when he falls for a local librarian.
The original cast album was cut soon after the play opened on Broadway to enthusiastic audiences and rave reviews. Barbara Cook, who played the part of the librarian Marian Paroo, still remembers the all-day session in which the album was cut. Robert Preston was cast as the lead character, Harold Hill, after Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Phil Harris passed on the part. “Robert was so nervous because he wasn’t used to doing that type of thing,” Cook says. “But he still did ‘Ya Got Trouble’ in one take, while we all cheered him on.”
While Cook admits it was often hard to recreate the stage performance in the studio, conductor Herbert Greene was able to keep the energy flowing. “He really had a strong hand and kept everything in control,” she says.
It was the unique material that made The Music Man stand out, Cook says. “The first time I heard the score, I was just bowled over,” she says. “I’d really never heard that kind of rhythmic, talking thing that Meredith had come up with. It was so unusual.”
The Music Man was the third-longest running Broadway musical of the 1950s, with a total of 1,375 performances. The album reached Number One in its fourth week on the chart and enjoyed an impressive 12-week run at the top. Yet its influence wouldn’t end there. “Seventy-Six Trombones” went on to become an American standard, the soundtrack to the film version of the production reached number two in 1962, and even the Beatles took a cue from The Music Man when they covered “Till There Was You” on Meet the Beatles!
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 17, 1958
1. The Music Man, Original Cast
2. My Fair Lady, Original Cast
3. Come Fly with Me, Frank Sinatra
A. The Late, Late Show, Dakota Staton
5. Pal Joey, Soundtrack