"My Favorite Things" is a show tune composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, written in 1959 for their final musical collaboration, The Sound of Music. The song is a lilting waltz built on a distinctive alternation between minor and major keys, lending it a shifting emotional quality that moves from introspective to uplifting. The melody has a playful, list-like character, cataloging simple joys through vivid imagery before resolving into a reassuring refrain. In the original Broadway production, it served as an early Act I duet between Maria and the Mother Abbess; the 1965 film adaptation reassigned it to Maria and the children during a thunderstorm scene. Hammerstein developed the lyrics over several days, working from initial drafts titled "Good Things" before settling on the final concept, while Rodgers crafted a melody that transformed the familiar imagery into something with folk-like charm. The composition took on an entirely new life in jazz when John Coltrane recorded it in 1960, transforming the waltz into an extended modal vehicle for soprano saxophone improvisation. Coltrane's interpretation became one of his signature pieces and effectively established the tune as a jazz standard, far removed from its Broadway origins. The song has since been recorded extensively across genres and remains one of the most recognizable compositions in the American popular songbook.
