Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'

DESCRIPTION: "There's a bright golden haze on the meadow (x2), The corn is as high as an elephant's eye." The singer declares "Oh what a beautiful mornin'... I've got a beautiful feeling Everything's going my way."
AUTHOR: Words: Oscar Hammerstein II / Music: Richard Rodgers
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Broadway debut of the musical "Oklahoma!")
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 237, 554, "Everything's Going My Way"/"Oh What a Beautiful Morning" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 409, "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'-- Oklahoma!"
NOTES [185 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs refers separately to songs "Everything's Going My Way" and "Oh What a Beautiful Morning." I can't prove they're the same, but I can't find a camp song called "Everything's Going My Way," so I'm guessing they are.
It may be of interest to users of this index that the plot of the musical "Oklahoma!" is based on a book and play called "Green Grow the Lilacs" -- which used traditional songs, which Rodgers and Hammerstein replaced with their own compositions.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 467, estimates that this was the seventeenth most popular song in America in 1943 (probably mostly on the strength of a Bing Crosby recording), peaking at #4 in December 1943 (#1 for the year being Johnny Black's "Paper Doll," with the famous lines "I'd rather have a paper doll to call my own Than a fickle-minded real live gal").
I'm surprised to find that "People Will Say We're In Love" (also from "Oklahoma!") was an even bigger hit; Gardner estimates it was #2 for the year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF237O

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