[1][2] In the musical, it is the primary sales pitch for a boys' band, sung by "Professor" Harold Hill.
[3] Hill uses the song to help the townspeople of River City, Iowa, visualize their children playing in a marching band by claiming to recall a time when he saw several famous bandleaders' bands in a combined performance.
The love ballad "Goodnight My Someone", which immediately precedes "Seventy-Six Trombones" in the musical, has the same tune but is played in 3/4 time at a slower tempo.
At the end of the musical, lines from "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Goodnight My Someone" are sung in alternation with each other.
[3] In Willson's hometown of Mason City, Iowa, the song is honored (along with the whole plot of The Music Man) in a building called "Music Man Square", which is located next to Willson's boyhood home.