South Pacific - A Wonderful Guy - Some Enchanted Evening - Mary Martin

"Wonderful Guy" starts at 3:15

Mary Martin and Wilbur Evans sing "Some Enchanted Evening" in the 1952 London production. Mary then sings "Wonderful Guy" - one of the best examples of the deceptive simplicity of Richard Rodgers' music.

Rodgers gives the verse a driving, aggressive beat (to emphasize Nellie's determination), and then does not start the chorus on the second beat as you would expect from reading the lyric:

"i'm as CORny as kansas in AUGust."

Instead, he starts it on the first beat:

"I'M as corny as KANsas in august"

...giving the song its distinctive feel and playing up Nellie's anger while still offering a light, happy tune.

"Wonderful Guy" starts at 3:15

But the real genius comes in one of his favorite tricks: the repeated phrase. While it appears that "I'm in love" is simply repeated 16 times in a row, in fact the orchestra is changing chords on each "love," frantically running through the series and building to a powerful climax.

No one could pair a simple melody with complex chords better than Rodgers, and it's one of the reasons his tunes are both so accessible and so enduring.
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