Life's a Song and All the World's a Stage

Why do songs get stuck in your head or just pop into your thoughts out of nowhere? Why are we so tempted to sing of the wind sweeping down the plains when we hear about Oklahoma? Has your freshman English class, much to its embarrassment and amusement, suddenly broken into song in unison when the teacher said that an assignment was due Tomorrow? Have you ever ironically (or unironically) observed it to be a pity how pretty you feel?

If you haven't figured it out yet, today's entry is about musicals. More to the point, it's how songs from musicals tend to bubble up at unexpected times. This very morning, someone thought that I was going to break into "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain when I realized that I hadn't greeted everyone and then began to do so enthusiastically and with much emphatic hand gesturing. This discussion, of course, began a chain reaction in my mind about all the songs that find their way into our minds even if we haven't seen the musicals they reference.

There is something so magical about the lyrical narration of musicals. The best songs take the deepest and most complex feelings and distill them into the simplest terms. Musicals are often about everyday feelings and situations and the best ones are full of songs with simple lyrics and catchy melodies. Yes, they state the obvious, but they also have the potential to make the obvious into the profound. Just as an example, Disney songs are so enduring because they often capture the sense of hope and longing that everyone feels.

Anyone who ever took a music class knows Do-Re-Mi, even if they've never seen The Sound of Music (though my wife admits she watched it every single day as a child). I've never seen the whole of The Music Man but The Beatles' version of "Til There Was You" is probably the best cover song that they ever put on record. And if you've ever overheard two people at an impasse in a disagreement, there's a good chance they ended the conversation with "I say potato, you say potahto."

If you ever find yourself part of the circle of life and living in a whole new world, if you wish you were somewhere over the rainbow, or if you have the urge to encourage someone to put on a happy face, be sure to thank Gershwin, Rogers and Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Weber, and Walt Disney for their contributions to our culture. And ask yourself why would anyone in their right mind be caught singing and dancing in the rain?