Oklahoma!: The Making of an American Musical

by Tim Carter

the best song in the show—when it is written” (Draft2, 2-2-35). This became the rather feeble “Boys and Girls Like You and Me,” eventually dropped for the reprise of “People Will Say We’re in Love.”

To this reader it is the best song in the show. The last two lines are genius.

Rodgers may offer an explanation: “Oscar was so moved by this song that just listening to it made him cry. He once explained that he never cried at sadness in the theatre, only at naïve happiness, and the idea of two bone-headed young people looking forward to nothing more than a ride in a surrey struck an emotional chord that affected him deeply.”19

As I write this, it is 8 days before Christmas and I have experienced my primary "naive happiness " moments from MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, WHITE CHRISTMAS, and SCROOGE (1951).