Great article. The very beginnings of the great river of American popular music.
Things were different 100 years ago. No one listened to music in the car. No one (or almost no one) listened to recorded music at all. A "hit" was a song that a lot of people bought the sheet music for, so they could play it at home.
If you wanted music, you either made it yourself, or you went someplace where other people made it. And not only was rock 'n' roll not invented yet, neither was jazz. Or swing. Or bebop.
Richard Rodgers had the kind of moment most creators can only dream of, when Oklahoma had just opened on Broadway, and the very next morning he heard someone on the street singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning. It wasn't on the radio; that person had to have heard it live.
Because it speaks to the large number of people who engage with music they enjoy and can sing/hum along to easily, not the small group of self-styled "critics" who can only find joy in tearing down?
Well, that doesn't explain why it would stand out as such a hit because that explanation would apply to tons of songs that weren't hits or celebrated like that one.
Things were different 100 years ago. No one listened to music in the car. No one (or almost no one) listened to recorded music at all. A "hit" was a song that a lot of people bought the sheet music for, so they could play it at home.
If you wanted music, you either made it yourself, or you went someplace where other people made it. And not only was rock 'n' roll not invented yet, neither was jazz. Or swing. Or bebop.
Richard Rodgers had the kind of moment most creators can only dream of, when Oklahoma had just opened on Broadway, and the very next morning he heard someone on the street singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning. It wasn't on the radio; that person had to have heard it live.