Rodgers & Hammerstein / Hayman Enchanting Melodies CD

Pre-eminent in his contributions to musical theatre and the film-musical, and one of the finest of twentieth-century popular songwriters, pianist-composer and producer Richard Charles Rodgers was born at Long Island, New York on 28th June, 1902. The son of doctor of medicine William Abraham Rodgers and pianist Mamie Levy, his keyboard skills and composing flair were encouraged from an early age and as a schoolboy 'Dick' reputedly spent his pocket-money at Saturday matinees of Jerome Kern musicals. He is also said to have written his first song at the age of eleven and his earliest surviving song, 'My Auto Show Girl', when he was fourteen, yet for several years his activity was confined to writing music and occasionally lyrics for social club shows until his talent was first recognized, by Max Dreyfus of Harms music publishers, around 1917. The following year, at sixteen, he enrolled at Columbia University and there met his first major collaborator in a fellow New Yorker, the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895-1943).

1. The Sound of Music (Selection): The Sound of Music/How Can Love Survive/The Lonely Goatherd/My Favourite Things/Sixteen Going on Seventeen/So Long, Farewell/Do, Re, Mi/Edelweiss/An Ordinary Couple/No Way to Stop It/Maria/Climb Ev'ry Mountain 2. Do I Hear a Waltz? 3. Carousel (Selection): Carousel Waltz/June Is Bustin' All Over/You'll Never Walk Alone/Mister Snow/If I Loved You/A Real Nice Clambake/What's the Use of Wonderin'?/If I Loved You (Reprise) 4. Our State Fair 5. Oklahoma (Selection): Oh, What a Beautiful Morning/People Will Say We're in Love/The Farmer and the Cowman/Oklahoma/People Will Say We're in Love/Out of My Dreams/Oh, What a Beautiful Morning/Pore Jud Is Daid/The Surrey with the Fringe on Top 6. It's a Grand Night for Singing 7. South Pacific (Selection): Dites Moi/A Cockeyed Optimist/Some Enchanted Evening/Bloody May/There Is Nothin' Like a Dame/Bali Hai/I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair/A Wonderful Guy/Younger Than Springtime/Happy Talk/Honey Bun/This Nearly Was Min 8. That's for Me 9. The King and I (Selection): We Kiss in a Shadow/Getting to Know You/Something Wonderful/I Whistle a Happy Tune/Hello, Young Lovers/The March of the Siamese Children/I Have Dreamed/Getting to Know You/We Kiss in a Shadow/Shall We Dance 10. The Sweetest Sounds