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Seventy-six Trombones

by Music Man

on Theatre Favourites (2012), Original London Cast - The Music Man - Original London Cast (1962)

Harold:
Seventy-six trombones led the big parade
With a hundred and ten coronets close at hand.
They were followed by rows and rows
of the finest virtuosos,
the dream of ev'ry famous band.

Seventy-six trombones caught the morning sun,.
With a hundred and ten coronets right behind.
There were more than a thousand reeds
Springing up like weeds.
There were horns of every shape and kind.

There were copper bottom tympani and horse platoons
Thundering, thundering all along the way.
Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons,
Each bassoon having it's big, fat say!

There were fifty mounted cannon in the battery
Thundering, thundering louder than before
Clarinets of ev'ry size
And trumpeters who improvised
A full octave higher than the score!

Seventy-six trombones hit the counterpoint,
While a hundred and ten coronets played the bridge.
To the rhythm of "arch", "arch", "arch",
All the kids began to march
and they're marching still, right today!

Additional lyrics when Professor Hill is waiting outside Miss Paroo's home:

Whistles first line...
And a hundred and ten coronets played the air.
Then I modestly took my place
As the one and only bass
And I oompahed up and down the square.