Which songs are the same?


Common trick in musicals. Save money/effort/whatever by using one song twice, disguising it with a time signature change. Can you guess which songs in SOM are the same? How about in THE MUSIC MAN?

Can you name other musicals that have done this?

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I always thought the song played during the scene with the Captain and Maria dancing was a rewrite of The Lonely Goatherd.

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Ding ding ding! You are correct! It’s the lonely goatherd in 3/4 time.

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Everything that Andrew Lloyd Webber has written has all sounded the same to me.

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Can’t comment on that, but here’s the Meredith Wilson answer for you. Good night my someone and 76 trombones are the same song in 3/4 time and march time.

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Always a pleasure to meet another music fan. My father played trumpet, composed and arranged for The Dorsey Brothers big band. Their singer was Doris Day. Do you like music in addition to show libretti?

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You bet, and color me very impressed by the Dorsey’s and Doris. Would I have heard of your father?

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Dorseys, you stupid autocorrecter.

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Autocorrect will be the death of me as well; as will AI ultimately kill us all, because our species is stupidly and greedily developing it. (Here endith the rant.) My Dad published under the name Ray Owens, because our family name is German, difficult and confusing. His best-known composition was titled Long John Silver. He was a very literate man, and enjoyed, among others, the works of Robert Louis Stephenson, the author of Treasure Island, which probably spawned, after a time, all the Johnny Depp pirate stuff. I met Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I recall that they were very kind to me, and that they seemed to have a lot of respect for my father. I know that you know that the arranger is the king/queenpin of the music world (e.g., Isaac Hayes), the editor and taste arbiter of what we hear. I never met Doris Day, though I did meet my Dad’s idol, Louis Armstrong, when I was 12. (I got his autograph! And a conversation!) You probably know there was a time in the 50s when Dorris Day was the was the biggest female movie star in the world, bigger than even MM. My mother’s favorite album was Day By Day. I have it on CD, backed by the follow up, Day By Night. You could call it Easy Listening. You could call Sinatra the same; and he’d rise from the dead and smite you, and you know it! This music in the 50s was competing against the excitement of a new US artform, rock ‘n’ roll, created (in my opinion) by Chuck Berry (with the Chuck Berry change-down and the CLASSIC CB duck-walk), taking the lead from the Country-Western-derived Rockabilly. Elvis and Bill Haley and the Comets and, my favorite, Buddy Holley topped the charts, and Sinatra worried that he might be finished. My new friend, I love rock with a love born in my childhood; but no more than my acquired love for Classical, Jazz, Standards and Opera. May I ask what you enjoy?

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Impressed.

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That means a lot, coming from you. Thank you.

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I was hoping your dad might have composed for school bands and that I might have played something of his in high school. MM - Mickey Mouse? I was a fan of the 1950s and 1970s Mickey Mouse Club. I've loved showtunes, soundtracks, easy listening (especially Percy Faith), and pop rock. Was never sophisticated enough to love album rock. Was never a regular concert-goer (I'll be seeing Elton John for the first time this winter). Never really had a favorite rock group though, if pressed, I'd say Steve Miller Band. I think music is like literature. Genre doesn't matter - if it's good, it endures.

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Wow, that's great! I acquired a love for 1930s-1940s swing music from my dad, and have always been a big fan of the Dorsey brothers, together and with their separate ensembles. I'm very familiar with "Long John Silver" and very impressed you dad was an arranger back in those great days of music. I've got all my dad's collection of hundreds of 78 rpm records, and I'm pretty sure I've seen the name Ray Owens on some of them.

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