"The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" is a show tune

Show tune

A show tune is a popular song originally written as part of the score of a "show" , especially if the piece in question has become a "standard", more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context...

 from the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...

 musical, Oklahoma!

Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...

It is the second song of the show, following the opening number, "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'

"Oh What a Beautiful Mornin" is the opening song from the musical Oklahoma! written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. It is sung by Curly McLain at the beginning of the first scene and was the first a cappella opening to a musical.*Joe Loss Orchestra recorded...

."

When Curly asks Laurey to go to the box social with him, he uses this song to persuade her by offering the prospect of taking her in a fancy rental car. In the movie version, the surrey

Surrey (carriage)

A surrey is a horse-drawn, four-wheeled, two-seated pleasure carriage with an open spindle seat.-Overview:The name comes from Surrey, the county in southern England where it was first built. It resembles a cabriolet but has a straight or nearly straight bottom, sometimes cut under...

 (a four wheel covered carriage, in this case pulled by two horses) is initially seen in a brief fantasy sequence, but appears for real at the end when Curly and Laurey ride off in it to their honeymoon.

As jazz standard

Versions of the song were recorded by Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...

, Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

, Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...

, Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

, Janis Siegel, Nancy LaMott

Nancy LaMott

Nancy LaMott was a singer, popular on the New York City cabaret circuit in the 1990s. LaMott performed twice at the White House for President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton...

, Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...

, Betty Carter

Betty Carter

Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...

, Blossom Dearie

Blossom Dearie

Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...

 and McCoy Tyner

McCoy Tyner

McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...

, Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...

, Wynton Kelly

Wynton Kelly

Wynton Kelly was a Jamaican-born jazz pianist, who spent his career in the United States. He is perhaps best known for working with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1959-1962.-Biography:...

, Johnny Smith

Johnny Smith

Johnny Smith is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.-Early years:...

, Julie Hamelin, Beverly Kenney

Beverly Kenney

Beverly Kenney was an American jazz singer.-Biography:Kenney worked early in life for Western Union as a telephone birthday singer...

, Ray Brown

Ray Brown (musician)

Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...

, Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...

, Joe Brown

Joe Brown (singer)

Joe Brown, MBE is an English entertainer.He has worked as a rock and roll singer and guitarist for more than five decades. He was a stage and television performer in the late 1950s and a UK recording star in the early 1960s...

 and the J. J. Johnson, Kai Winding

Kai Winding

Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...

 Trombone Octet and King Crimson

King Crimson

King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...

 as part of their track Moonchild

Moonchild (King Crimson song)

"Moonchild" is the fourth track from the British progressive rock band King Crimson's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King.The first section, "The Dream", is a mellotron-driven ballad, but after two and a half minutes it changes to a completely free-form instrumental improvisation by the...

.

Pop culture

In the film, When Harry Met Sally...

When Harry Met Sally...

When Harry Met Sally... is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years or...

, Harry and Sally sing a karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

 version of "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top".

Laura Love borrows a few of Hammerstein's lyrics for her song "I Am Wondering".

In The West Wing episode 100,000 Airplanes

100,000 Airplanes

-Plot:While the White House staff works intensely on President Bartlet's crucial State of the Union speech, Bartlet suddenly demands that a passage ambitiously promising a crusade to cure cancer within 10 years be included. Sam is the point person for this speech, which is billed as the most...

, the lyrics of part of the song are mentioned by two of the main characters. As well, during the same episode, the song, as a jazz arrangement, is played on piano during a cocktail party.

In Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

Episode 15, Leland Palmer sings the lyrics of "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" while wildly driving his convertible.

In ER

ER

ER or Er may refer to:* Еmergency room, a department of a medical facility that specializes in the acute care of patients without any prior appointments* ER, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country of Eritrea* ER, the IATA code of Astar Air Cargo...

season 6, episode 13 "Be Still My Heart", Dr. Mark Greene listens to the song on the radio and sings the lyrics while shaving in front of a mirror.

Stan Ridgway

Stan Ridgway

Stanard 'Stan' Ridgway is an American multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter known for his distinctive voice, dramatic lyrical narratives, and eclectic solo albums and was the original lead singer of the band Wall of Voodoo...

 recorded this song as an outtake, during the sessions for his album of standards "The Way I Feel Today".

An arrangement of the song is used as a segment of the area music for Main Street U.S.A in the Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...

 park of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Florida

Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...

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External links

• Lyrics