Getting to Know You
Getting to Know All About You
I have recently seen a television commercial that uses a familiar show tune from The King and I.For me, Instant Ear Worm!
But with a twist.
I had listened to the cast album so many,many times (many, many years ago) that I now run through the entire show in my head over and over again--from "I Whistle a Happy Tune" to "Hello, Young Lovers" to "We Kiss in a Shadow" to "Something Wonderful" to, of course, "Shall We Dance?"
My favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals appeared on Broadway from 1943 to 1951 with the movie versions, which was what I saw, from 1955 to 1958. I watched them during my pre-teen years. We owned the cast albums for Oklahoma, South Pacific, and The King and I, and maybe a few others.
They influenced me in many way. There was a message of tolerance in the musicals. For instance, from South Pacific:
I think many of the romantic ballads gave an unrealistic view of romantic love that worked very well in the pre-teen world. I remember walking down the street where the boy with whom I was fixated lived --just in case I might see Him or lingering by his locker, looking about for Him! "You fly down a street on the chance that you meet, and you meet, not merely by chance." Actually, Lerner and Loewe in My My Fair Lady captured adolescent love most accurately:
I have often walked down this street before,
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.
Knowing I'm on the street where you live.
Even more unrealistic
Some enchanted evening
When you find your true love,
When you feel her call you
Across a crowded room,
Then fly to her side,
And make her your own
Or all through your life you
May dream all alone.
At that age, I did not appreciate how romantic mature love can be:
He will not always say what you would have him say.
But, now and then he'll say something wonderful.
The thoughtless things he'll do will hurt and worry you,
Then, all at once he'll do something wonderful.
Then there are times when one of those great songs just pop into your head:
Who hasn't walked outside and thought:
Oh, what a beautiful morning!
Oh, what a beautiful day!
I hear it over and over again--how this or that is the greatest, earth-changing invention. Often a certain ditty comes to me:
Everything's up to date in Kansas City.
They gone about as fer as they can go.
They went an' built a skyscraper seven stories high--
About as high as a buildin' orta grow.
Everything's like a dream in Kansas City.
It's better than a magic lantern show.
You can turn the radiator on whenever you want some heat.
With every kind of comfort every house is all complete.
You could walk the privees in the rain and never wet your feet!
They've gone about as fer as they can go.
It seems the songs from Oklahoma provide good comic relief. When I am being "convinced" to volunteer for something I really don't want to do:
I'm just a girl who cain't say 'no'
I'm in a terrible fix!
I always say 'Come on, let's go' just when I aughta say 'Nix.'
Although it is a bit to schmaltzy for me, I cried buckets when hearing it in Carousel, and I imagine it has given many people comfort:
Whatever your favorite and however these songs come to you--
Thank you, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Your songs Walk On.
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