Folks, listen!
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, 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 and 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 ev'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!