Surrey With the Fringe on Top Lyrics – Oklahoma

Song Overview

Song Credits

• Artists: Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones & Charlotte Greenwood
• Film Characters: Curly McLain, Laurey Williams, Aunt Eller
• Album: Oklahoma! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Track #3
• Release Date: August 1, 1955
• Composers/Lyricists: Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
• Producers (1998 remaster): Ron O’Brien & Andy McKaie
• Arranger: Robert Russell Bennett  |  Conductor: Jay Blackton
• Recording Venue: 20th Century-Fox Scoring Stage, Los Angeles
• Genre: Show tune • Cowboy courtship ballad
• Key: G major  |  Tempo: jaunty 96 BPM
• Length: 4 min 55 sec
• Instrumentation: Clip-clop pizzicato bass, prancing clarinets, slide-whistle neighs, twinkling celesta, velvet strings
• Mood: Playful, picturesque, gently persuasive
• Label: Capitol Records
• Copyright © 1943, 1955 Rodgers & Hammerstein LLC

Song Meaning and Annotations

Leave it to Rodgers & Hammerstein to make a horse-drawn ride sound saucier than a brand-new Cadillac. The Surrey With the Fringe on Top Lyrics read like an automobile brochure written by a smitten farmhand. Rodgers trots out a syncopated two-step—bass notes clop, clarinets whinny, violins flick their “fringe” with airy grace notes. Hammerstein answers with down-home catalog poetry: isinglass curtains, snow-white horses, genuine-leather dashboard. The subtext? If Curly can sell Laurey this carriage, maybe he can sell her on the guy holding the reins.

The number doubles as Oklahoma’s equivalent of a modern power-ballad pickup line. Each image stacks stakes higher—first neighborhood envy (“Nosy pokes’ll peek through their shutters”), then cosmic romance (“I can see the stars gittin’ blurry”). By the final verse the song drift-changes from midday brag to twilight lullaby, orchestration slowing to a dreamy rubato while Laurey’s head nods toward Curly’s shoulder. You can almost feel the sunset paint horsehair gold.

Watch that fringe an’ see how it flutters
When I drive them high-steppin’ strutters

Rodgers accents “flutters” with a flute trill, literalizing the motion. The lyric’s internal rhyme—flutters/strutters—gives the rhythm a playful kick like a colt bucking the fence.

With isinglass curtains you can roll right down
In case there’s a change in the weather

Isinglass was once dried fish bladder—curly science fact meets prairie charm. The orchestra drops to pianissimo here, letting Curly’s whispered practicality flirt with tenderness.

Scene-by-Scene Hitching

Opening Sales Pitch

Pizzicato cellos set the clip-clop before Curly sings a single word—marketing jingle meets heartbeat. Laurey rolls her eyes; Aunt Eller smirks, yet both lean closer.

Call-and-Response Comedy

Aunt Eller’s “Would you say the fringe was made of silk?” gets a brass chuckle, MacRae’s baritone answering with faux indignation. The gag humanizes the fantasy, grounding Curly’s ad copy in porch gossip realism.

Wild-Ride Verse

The tempo nudges faster, woodwinds soaring as Curly imagines birds and frogs harmonizing with wagon wheels. Rodgers cycles through secondary dominants—each one like an extra lash on the reins.

Dusk-Till-Dream Coda

Cellos slide into a lull; harp arpeggios mimic fireflies. Laurey’s eyelids droop, Curly soft-pedals his bravado to a hush: “Hush, you bird, my baby’s a-sleepin’.” The final line rides off on a suspended harmony that resolves only after Curly commands the horses to “creep”—hope floating on that unresolved note.

Similar Songs

1. “Seventy-Six Trombones” – Robert Preston (The Music Man)
   Both tunes are sales pitches in 6/8 swagger—Curly hawks fringe, Harold Hill hawks brass bands. Each hero seduces townsfolk with technicolor imagery: yellow wheels versus copper horns. Where Curly relies on rustic charms, Hill fires up marching-band bombast, yet both melodies march upward in stepwise patterns that mirror confidence building by the bar.
2. “A Bushel and a Peck” – Vivian Blaine (Guys and Dolls)
   Another farmyard metaphor for affection, but this time from the gal’s perspective. Rodgers’ lilting two-step finds a cousin in Loesser’s jaunty shuffle; animal imagery (chicks, ducks, cows) pops up in both, reinforcing rural vernacular as shorthand for exuberant love.
3. “If I Were a Bell” – Julie Andrews (jazz standard)
   The rhythm leaps like a bell tower swing just as “Surrey” clip-clops. Miles Davis famously adapted both songs for cool-jazz quartets, proving Rodgers’ country carriage and Loesser’s liberated church bell share harmonic bones sturdy enough for trumpet improvisation.

Questions and Answers

Was the surrey ever shown on stage in the 1943 Broadway production?

Nope—space and budgets were tight. Audiences painted it in their heads, guided by Curly’s verbal showroom tour.

Why do jazz musicians love this tune?

The chord changes move through ii-V sequences ideal for bebop lines, and Ahmad Jamal’s 1952 trio cut inspired Miles Davis to add it to his book—opening floodgates for countless sessions.

Is “surrey” just a fancy word for carriage?

Exactly—a four-wheeled, two-seat carriage popular in the late 1800s. The fringe was trendy sun-shade swag, the Victorian equivalent of a convertible’s ragtop.

How did the filmmakers capture the wagon’s motion indoors?

Cinematographer Robert Surtees mounted the carriage on a gimbal rig surrounded by rear-projection prairie plates while stagehands fluttered the fringe with wind machines.

Did any pop recordings chart?

Ray Charles and Betty Carter’s 1961 duet reached the Billboard Jazz Top 20, while Bing Crosby’s 1943 radio rendition became a Armed Forces Radio favorite, though it didn’t enter commercial charts.

Awards and Chart Positions

• 1961: Ray Charles & Betty Carter duet – #11 Billboard Jazz Singles
• 1955: Oklahoma! soundtrack LP went RIAA Gold; “Surrey” remained one of its most requested tracks on radio variety shows.

Fan and Media Reactions

“Rodgers turns horse hooves into a swing beat—these Lyrics never need gas, just imagination.” @VinylBuckaroo

“Charlotte Greenwood’s deadpan silk question still cracks me up seventy years later.” @StageDoorStew

“Trying to explain isinglass curtains to my kids is harder than teaching them to drive stick.” @MomLovesMusicals

“Ray Charles vamped the bridge so hard Miles had to steal it—true story.” @JazzLore

“If you don’t sing the ‘chicks and ducks and geese’ patter at double-time you’re missing 80% of the fun.” @PrairieKaraoke