Seventy Six Trombones

Please folks, may I have your attention please? Attention please! I can deal with the trouble, friends, with a wave of my hand This very hand Please observe me if you will I'm Professor Harold Hill And I'm here to organize a River City's boys' band Oh think, my friends, how could any pool table ever hope to compete with a gold trombone? Rah rah, rah da da dat da, rah, rah Remember, my friends, what a handful of trumpet players Did to the famous, fabled walls of Jericho Old billiard parlor walls come-a tumbling down! Well, a band'll do it, my friends Oh yes, I said a boys' band, do ya hear me? I said River City's gotta have a boys' band, and I mean she needs it today! While Professor Harold Hill's on hand River City's gonna have her boys' band And sure as the Lord made little green apples And that band's gonna be in uniform Johnny, Willy, Teddy, Fred And you'll see the glitter of crashing cymbals And you'll hear the thunder of rolling drums And the shimmer of trumpets, tum ta da! And you'll feel something akin to the electric thrill I once enjoyed When Gilmore, Liberace, Pat Conway, the great Creator W.C. Handy, and John Philip Sousa All came to town on the very same historic day Seventy six trombones led the big parade With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos The cream of ev'ry famous band Seventy six trombones caught the morning sun With a hundred and ten cornets right behind There were more than a thousand reeds springing up like weeds There were horns of ev'ry shape and kind There were copper bottom tympani in horse platoons Thundering, thundering, all along the way Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons Each bassoon having his big fat say There were fifty mounted cannon in the battery Thundering, thundering, louder than before Clarinets of eve'ry size and trumpeters who'd improvise A full octave higher than the score Seventy-six trombones hit the counterpoint While a hundred and ten cornets blazed the way To the rhythm of "Harch! Harch! Harch!" All the kids began to march And they're marching still right today!