I've been meaning to mention Mark Steyn's appreciation of Oscar Hammerstein over at The New Criterion web site. And now I have. Excellent stuff. Now, I'm one of those who prefers Rodgers and Hart songs to Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, by a mile, but Steyn's essay did give me a new appreciation of Hammerstein. And, of course, Hammerstein's true legacy is the musicals as a whole, for he wrote not just the songs but the books, i.e. the scripts of the plays. That Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote better musical plays than Rodgers and Hart is a pretty well accepted opinion these days and I suppose I agree. The problem is that the Rodgers and Hammerstein songs often worked only in the context of the plays, whereas the Rodgers and Hart songs simply work; they are the backbone of the American Songbook. Still, Steyn makes an excellent case for Hammerstein and, of course, Steyn is always worth reading. Great fun.
It keeping with my new habit of accentuating my posts by embedding related musical tracks, and to go with the past few days seasonal songs, here's one of my favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, done beautifully by Rosemary Clooney:
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