Despite a long and successful career that spanned Hollywood and Broadway, Mason City, Iowa native Robert Reininger Meredith Willson (1902-1984) maintained a strong connection with his hometown. He is most remembered for his first Broadway musical, The Music Man (1957), which was set in a town very much like Mason City. When The Music Man became a film in 1962, it premiered in Mason City, timed to coincide with the North Iowa Band Festival. Willson would return for this annual festival several times throughout his life. Willson spent his early career working in film and radio in Hollywood. He is also known for a handful of classical compositions and more musicals, especially The Unsinkable Molly Brown. He is profiled at Wikipedia, the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, Masterworks Broadway, and IMDb.
The Music Man was an immediate hit when it debuted on Broadway in 1957. It won five Tony Awards, and its cast album won the first Grammy Award for Original Cast Album and stayed on the Billboard Charts for more than four years. The musical tells the story of Harold Hill, a con man who goes to small towns, sells them instruments with promise of starting a town band, and leaves before ever doing any actual teaching. He attempts this same scheme in River City, Iowa, but local librarian Marian begins to understand what he is up to. Before she exposes him, though, Hill helps her kid brother with his lisp, and Marian finds herself falling in love with him. Sensing a real connection, Hill stays, risking the exposure of his scheme, finally putting his “Think” method to the test. The musical spawned a 1962 movie, two Broadway revivals, and countless community and school productions. It has also inspired at least four concert band medleys. The first, by Philip Lang, appeared in 1958 and has since gone out of print:
No less a figure that Alfred Reed produced a medley in 1959. This compact medley has endured in print.
Johnnie Vinson produced an arrangement for younger bands in 2000:
There is also an unpublished arrangement by Barton Green. All of these feature a different selection of tunes from the show, with a few showing up regularly. The most prominent is “76 Trombones“:
It’s worth seeing the movie finale using this song as well:
“Till There Was You” marks the point where Marian reveals her feelings to Harold:
It was also famously covered by The Beatles in 1963:
“The Wells Fargo Wagon” delivers the instruments to River City. Here it is in an excellent high school production:
“Pick-A-Little Talk-A-Little” lampoons the gossiping ladies in River City:
“Good Night, My Someone” borrows the tune from “76 Trombones” for a gentle lullaby:
Other favorites include “Marian the Librarian“:
And “Lida Rose”: