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"Seventy-Six Trombones" is a show tune and the signature song from the 1957 musical The Music Man, by Meredith Willson, a film of the same name in 1962 and a made-for-TV movie in 2003. The piece is commonly played by marching bands, military bands, and orchestras. [1] [2]
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey.The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band.
Robert Reiniger Meredith Willson [1] (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American flautist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader, playwright, and writer.He is perhaps best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the 1957 hit Broadway musical The Music Man [2] and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (1951).
In 2005, The Music Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". [2] The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: "Seventy-Six Trombones" – Nominated [19]
The quartet started out as an unnamed foursome, singing for community groups around Buffalo. The original members were tenor Vern Reed, an executive for the Tonawanda Boys' Club; [2] lead Al Shea, who was a City of Buffalo policeman; baritone Herschel Smith, a corporate executive; and bass Bill Spangenberg, a truck driver for a steel company.
The music and lyrics were written by Iowa native Meredith Willson, also author of The Music Man, in 1950. [1] [2] The song is mostly a contrafact to his hit, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," much in the same way that "76 Trombones" and "Goodnight, My Someone" from The Music Man are based on the same harmonic structure. [citation ...
[3] White himself wrote of the film, "The story is interrupted every few minutes so that somebody can sing a jolly song. I don't care much for jolly songs. The Blue Hill Fair, which I tried to report faithfully in the book, has become a Disney World, with 76 trombones. But that's what you get for getting embroiled in Hollywood."
Leroy Anderson (/ l ə ˈ r ɔɪ / lə-ROY) (June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler.