My Favorite Things ( song ) - wikipedia My Favorite Things ( song ) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2012 ) `` My Favorite Things '' Song Language English Published 1959 Composer ( s ) Richard Rodgers Lyricist ( s ) Oscar Hammerstein II `` My Favorite Things '' is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. In the original Broadway production, this song was introduced by Mary Martin playing Maria and Patricia Neway playing Mother Abbess. Julie Andrews, who played Maria in the 1965 film version of the musical, had previously sung the song on the Christmas special for The Garry Moore Show. Contents 1 Background 2 Other notable versions 3 References 4 External links Background In the musical, the lyrics to the song are a reference to things Maria loves, such as `` whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ''. These are the things she selects to fill her mind with when times are bad. The original Broadway musical places the song in the Mother Abbess 's office, just before she sends Maria to serve Captain von Trapp 's family as governess to his seven children. However, Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter for the film adaptation, repositioned it so that Maria would sing it with the children during the thunderstorm scene in her bedroom, replacing `` The Lonely Goatherd '', which had originally been sung at this point. Many stage productions also make this change, shifting `` The Lonely Goatherd '' to another scene. The first section of the melody has the distinctive property of using only the notes 1, 2, and 5 ( tonic, supertonic, and dominant ) of the scale. By using the same melody - pattern, Rodgers harmonized it differently in different stanzas, using a series of minor triads one time and major triads the next. The song ends with a borrowed line of lyric and notes from Rodgers ' earlier composition with Lorenz Hart, `` Glad to Be Unhappy '', a standard about finding peace in the midst of unrequited love. Using the same two notes for the phrasing of `` so sad '' in the original song, Rodgers brings the gloom of the song to a similar upbeat ending -- `` and then I do n't feel so bad. '' In 2004 the movie version of the song finished at No. 64 on AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. Other notable versions This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2017 ) John Coltrane played a fourteen - minute version in E minor as the title track of an album recorded in October 1960 and released in March 1961. It became a jazz classic and a signature song for Coltrane in concert, also appearing on Newport ' 63 in 1963. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass released a version in 1969 as a single from their 1968 album, Christmas Album. It reached No. 45 on the Billboard 100. Lorrie Morgan 's version appeared in 1994 and again in 1999 at No. 64 and No. 69, respectively, on the Hot Country Songs chart after she recorded it for her 1993 album, Merry Christmas from London. References Jump up ^ Gary Giddins ( 22 October 1998 ). Visions of Jazz : The First Century. Oxford University Press. p. 485. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 987953 - 3. Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel ( 2008 ). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, Inc. p. 287. ISBN 0 - 89820 - 177 - 2. External links Notes, lyrics, mp3s, different versions compared `` My Favorite Things at 50, '' public radio documentary on the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane 's rendition of `` My Favorite Things. '' Rodgers and Hammerstein Stage musicals Oklahoma ! Carousel Allegro South Pacific The King and I Me and Juliet Pipe Dream Flower Drum Song The Sound of Music A Grand Night for Singing State Fair Cinderella Productions I Remember Mama Annie Get Your Gun Happy Birthday John Loves Mary Show Boat The Happy Time Burning Bright Films State Fair ( 1945 ) Oklahoma ! Carousel The King and I South Pacific Flower Drum Song State Fair ( 1962 ) The Sound of Music Cinderella Television Cinderella The Sound of Music Live ! Songs `` Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin ' '' `` The Surrey with the Fringe on Top '' `` Kansas City '' `` I Cai n't Say No '' `` Many a New Day '' `` It 's a Scandal ! It 's a Outrage ! '' `` People Will Say We 're in Love '' `` Lonely Room '' `` The Farmer and the Cowman '' `` All Er Nuthin ' '' `` Oklahoma '' `` If I Loved You '' `` Soliloquy '' `` You 'll Never Walk Alone '' `` It Might as Well Be Spring '' `` That 's for Me '' `` A Fellow Needs a Girl '' `` So Far '' `` Some Enchanted Evening '' `` There Is Nothing Like a Dame '' `` Bali Ha'i '' `` I 'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair '' `` I 'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy '' `` Younger Than Springtime '' `` Happy Talk '' `` You 've Got to Be Carefully Taught '' `` I Whistle a Happy Tune '' `` Hello, Young Lovers '' `` Getting to Know You '' `` We Kiss in a Shadow '' `` Something Wonderful '' `` I Have Dreamed '' `` Shall We Dance ? '' `` No Other Love '' `` I Enjoy Being a Girl '' `` The Sound of Music '' `` Maria '' `` My Favorite Things '' `` Do - Re-Mi '' `` Sixteen Going on Seventeen '' `` The Lonely Goatherd '' `` Climb Ev'ry Mountain '' `` So Long, Farewell '' `` No Way to Stop It '' `` Edelweiss '' Related articles `` Something Good '' The Sound of Music ( 1965 soundtrack ) The Sound of Music : Music from the NBC Television Event Trapp Family Singers Members Maria von Trapp Georg von Trapp Rupert Agathe Maria Franziska Werner Hedwig Johanna Martina Johannes Memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers Films The Trapp Family ( 1956 ) The Trapp Family in America ( 1958 ) The Sound of Music ( 1965 ) The von Trapp Family : A Life of Music ( 2015 ) Other adaptations The Sound of Music ( 1959 musical ) Trapp Family Story ( 1991 anime ) The Sound of Music Live ! ( 2013 ) The Sound of Music Live ( 2015 ) Songs `` The Sound of Music '' `` Maria '' `` My Favorite Things '' `` Do - Re-Mi '' `` Sixteen Going on Seventeen '' `` The Lonely Goatherd '' `` Climb Ev'ry Mountain '' `` No Way to Stop It '' `` So Long, Farewell '' `` Edelweiss '' `` Something Good '' Albums The Groovy Sound of Music ( 1964 ) The Sound of Music ( 1965 soundtrack ) The Sound of Music : Music from the NBC Television Event ( 2013 ) Related Elisabeth von Trapp The von Trapps Trapp Family Lodge Trapp Family Austrian Relief Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=My_Favorite_Things_(song)&oldid=849728984 '' Categories : 1959 songs List songs American Christmas songs Jazz compositions in D minor Jazz compositions in E-flat minor Jazz compositions in E minor Jazz compositions in F minor Songs from The Sound of Music Mary Martin songs Julie Andrews songs Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from September 2012 All articles needing additional references Articles needing additional references from November 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Italiano עברית Magyar 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Русский Suomi Türkçe 4 more Edit links This page was last edited on 10 July 2018, at 23 : 17 ( UTC ). 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Question: who wrote these are a few of my favorite things
Answer: Richard Rodgers