Oklahoma! Lyrics – Oklahoma

Song Overview

Song Credits

• Artists: Shirley Jones, Gordon MacRae & Charlotte Greenwood
• Album: Oklahoma! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Track 12
• Release Date: August 1, 1955
• Composers/Lyricists: Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
• Arranger: Robert Russell Bennett  |  Conductor: Jay Blackton
• Recording Venue: 20th Century-Fox Scoring Stage, Los Angeles
• Genre: Show tune • Rousing ensemble anthem
• Key: B-flat major  |  Tempo: 126 BPM, brisk two-step
• Length: 3 min 25 sec
• Instrumentation: Full Hollywood orchestra—brassy fanfares, fiddle flourishes, boom-chuck percussion, choral power chords
• Mood: Jubilant, frontier-proud, barn-raising exuberant
• Label: Capitol Records
• Copyright © 1943, 1955 Rodgers & Hammerstein LLC

Song Meaning and Annotations

Some finales pull the curtain; Oklahoma! blows the doors clean off the barn. The song text is a booster-rocket of state pride—half political campaign, half square-dance benediction. Rodgers fires a six-gun of dominant chords that resolve on triumphant downbeats; Hammerstein answers with pantry-stocked imagery: barley, carrots, pertaters, and enough fresh air to fill a zeppelin.

I still remember the first time those trumpets burst through my living-room speakers—felt like a county-fair parade marching right across the rug. The Lyrics aren’t shy about regional branding (“Brand new state! Gonna treat you great!”), yet the deeper pulse is communal. Aunt Eller opens with mother-hen optimism, Andrew chimes in, Curly takes flight, and soon the entire company welds harmony into civic handshake.

We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand

Rodgers underpins that declaration with a pedal B-flat that refuses to budge—sonic bedrock for settlers staking claim. The melody then vaults upward a sixth, mimicking a flagpole rise before the company belts the iconic “Yeeow A-yip-i-o-e-ay.”

When the wind comes right behind the rain

A sneaky secondary dominant here paints the scent of post-storm wheat; you can nearly smell petrichor drifting through the score.

Section-by-Section Rundown

Prairie Inventory

Woodwinds chatter like midday farmers’ market gossip while low strings rumble tractor-steady underneath Andrew’s “barley, carrots and pertaters.” The arrangement leaves little sonic space—plenty o’ room on land, zero room in the mix.

Curly’s Sky-High Verse

MacRae’s baritone rides a cantering rhythm; violins ripple to evoke hawks circling thermals. Rodgers lands each phrase on open-fifth intervals—wide vistas in musical shorthand.

Chorale Reprise

The ensemble stacks four-part harmony on the word “land,” symbolically homesteading the very note. A timpani roll, cymbal crash, then the letters O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A fire like fireworks in dotted-eighth bursts.

Similar Songs

1. “America” – Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story)
   Both numbers celebrate place through rhythmic fireworks: Rodgers gallops in cut time, Bernstein syncopates a hemiola mambo. One sells prairie promise, the other critiques urban possibility—yet each lets ensemble voices volley pride and punchlines across the stage.
2. “Old Man River” – Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II
   Earlier Hammerstein hymn to landscape-as-identity. Where “Oklahoma!” pumps adrenaline, “Old Man River” moves like the Mississippi’s slow churn, but both anchor human story to geographical heartbeat.
3. “You Can’t Stop the Beat” – Shaiman & Wittman (Hairspray)
   Six decades apart, yet the formula holds: finale anthem, wall-to-wall modulation, cast united in kinetic chant. Trade wheat fields for TV dance floor—spirit of collective triumph stays intact.

Questions and Answers

Did this tune really become the state song?

Yes—Governor Raymond Gary signed it into Oklahoma law on September 5, 1953, replacing a 1905 waltz few citizens could hum.

Why does the chorus spell the state name twice?

Rodgers wanted rhythmic punch; Hammerstein loved audience participation. The stutter-spell lets dancers hit high kicks on every consonant.

What vocal range does the finale require?

Sopranos soar to high B-flakes, basses rumble low F—nearly two full octaves of communal chest-thump.

How many key changes hide inside?

Three: initial B-flat, a sudden lurch to D-flat on “We know we belong,” and a victory lap back to B-flat. Modulations mirror territory to statehood leap.

Has any sports team co-opted the refrain?

You bet—the University of Oklahoma football band blares it after touchdowns, often truncating to the “O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A” chant for maximum bleacher boom.

Awards and Chart Positions

• 1956: Oklahoma! soundtrack LP topped #1 on Billboard Album Chart for eight weeks.
• 1958: Grammy Hall of Fame induction for original Broadway cast version featuring Alfred Drake—cementing the anthem’s legacy.
• Official State Song of Oklahoma since 1953.

Fan and Media Reactions

“Play this at sunrise on Route 66 and the whole highway feels like a ribbon-cutting ceremony.” @DustBowlDJ

“Those Lyrics snap like fresh laundry on a prairie clothesline—could power a small town on sheer gusto.” @VinylSpinster

“I’m convinced the high school marching-band circuit exists solely to shout-spell this title.” @TromboneDad

“Rodgers & Hammerstein basically wrote the best tourism jingle money never bought.” @StageLightsReview

“Goosebumps every ‘Yeeow!’—and I live in Wisconsin.” @CheeseStateChorister