Changes

Perhaps the most familiar song from the musical is ''Seventy-Six Trombones,'' Hill's reminiscence of an imaginary parade when five top bandleaders "all came to town on the very same history day," creating a band in which "Seventy-six trombone led the big parade/With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand/They were followed by rows and rows o'/The finest virtuosos/The cream of every famous band!"

Perhaps the most familiar song from the musical is ''Seventy-Six Trombones,'' Hill's reminiscence of an imaginary parade when five top bandleaders "all came to town on the very same history day," creating a band in which "Seventy-six trombone led the big parade/With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand/They were followed by rows and rows o'/The finest virtuosos/The cream of every famous band!"

Willson was interested in the sound of rhythmic talking (he had created a group of actors that performed radio commercials in that style). One unusual "song" is "Trouble." In order to sell the town on the idea of a band, Hill uses scare tactics, looking for something he can use to convince the town that there is a problem which can only be solved by forming a band. He seizes on the only newsworthy thing that has happened recently in River City: a pool table which has just been added to a billiard parlor. In rapid-fire patter, he delivers what is almost a sermon, telling the River City parents that pool is a bad moral influence: "Ya got trouble my friends, right here in River City... with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for ''pool.''" In a classic example of "[[slippery slope]]" rhetoric, he tells them that pool is "the first big step on the road to the depths of degradation," and the next thing they know their sons will be drinking, gambling, consorting with "libertine men and scarlet women" and listening to "ragtime, shameless music that'll grab your son and your daughter with the arms of a jungle animal instinct." And the only solution is to hire him to organize a boy's band.

Willson was interested in the sound of rhythmic talking (he had created a group of actors that performed radio commercials in that style). One unusual "song" is "Trouble." It is delivered as rapid-fire rhythmic pattern, mostly spoken rather than sung, puntuated with isolated musical chords (indicated by the word "Slam!"). In order to sell the town on the idea of a band, Hill uses scare tactics, looking for something he can use to convince the town that there is a problem which can only be solved by forming a band. He seizes on the only newsworthy thing that has happened recently in River City: a pool table which has just been added to a billiard parlor. He delivers what is almost a sermon, telling the River City parents that pool is a bad moral influence: "Ya got trouble my friends, right here in River City... with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for ''pool.''" In a classic example of "[[slippery slope]]" rhetoric, he tells them that pool is "the first big step on the road to the depths of degradation," and the next thing they know their sons will be drinking, gambling, consorting with "libertine men and scarlet women" and listening to "ragtime, shameless music that'll grab your son and your daughter with the arms of a jungle animal instinct." And the only solution is to hire him to organize a boy's band.

The song "Till There Was You" has become a standard, and was recorded by the Beatles on one of their early albums.

The song "Till There Was You" has become a standard, and was recorded by the Beatles on one of their early albums.