An arrangement of the evergreen top hit song from 1964 ''King of the Road'', set for classical Brass Quintet.

"King of the Road" is a song written by country singer Roger Miller, who first recorded it in November 1964. The lyrics tell of the day-to-day life of a hobo who, despite being poor (a "man of means by no means"), revels in his freedom, describing himself humorously and cynically as the "king of the road". It was Miller's fifth single for Smash Records.


The popular crossover record hit No. 1 on the US Country chart, No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the Easy Listening surveys. It was also No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart, and in Norway. Miller recalled that the song was inspired when he was driving and saw a sign on the side of a barn that read, "Trailers for sale or rent".[6] This would become the opening line of the song.

The song has been covered by many other artists, including George Jones, Dean Martin, Val Doonican, Jack Jones, James Booker, The Fabulous Echoes, Boney M., R.E.M., Johnny Paycheck, Glen Campbell, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Boxcar Willie, Randy Travis, Rangers, James Kilbane, John Stevens, the Statler Brothers, Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson, Giant Sand, Peligro, The Proclaimers, Ray Conniff Singers, The Reverend Horton Heat, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Jim White. James "The King" Brown (an Elvis impersonator) performed the song for a 2001 Audi commercial on German TV.[7] Of R.E.M.'s version, a shambolic, drunken, offhand rendering, guitarist Peter Buck would later comment, "If there was any justice in the world, Roger Miller should be able to sue for what we did to this song."

"King of the Road" was performed live by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton during Miller's posthumous induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame at the 1995 CMA Awards ceremony.

The song is featured in Wim Wenders' 1976 film Im Lauf der Zeit (In the Course of Time; English title Kings of the Road). It is also played at the beginning of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Brokeback Mountain, Into the Wild (2007), Traveller (1997), and Swingers (1996). Miller performs it in the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show. The recording by The Proclaimers is included in the film The Crossing (1990). Near the end of their official music video, the pair are shown reading a newspaper whose headline is "Roger Miller, King of Plugs".

Miller's recording appears in an episode of the Super Dave TV show, where Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein) sings along while sitting at a piano mounted on top of his tour bus. The bus eventually goes into a low tunnel, slamming into the piano and Osborne and pushing them off the bus and onto the ground.

A send-up version by English entertainer Billy Howard was a British chart hit in 1976.

A German take by the band Wise Guys exists, the parody referring to speeding on the Autobahn.

It?s the Christmas holiday season, and brass quintets throughout Christendom get ready to serenade congregations in churches, shoppers in malls, and party goers at festive receptions. Here is Volume II, with 18 more of the best known carols for the Christmas season. The quintet include two trumpets, French horn, trombone, and tuba. ?Parts are available for trumpets in both C and B-flat, and a Baritone Horn (TC) is included as a substitute for Trombone. Volume II contains the following carols: 23. Jingle Bells 24. Jolly Old Saint Nicholas 25. Joy to the World 26. Lo, How a Rose E?er Blooming 27. Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child (The Coventry Carol) 28. O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste, Fideles) 29. O Come, Little Children 30. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 31. O, Little Town of Bethlehem (American) 32. O, Little Town of Bethlehem (British) 33. O Sactissima 34. O Tannenbaum 35. Silent Night 36. Up on the House Top 37. A Virgin Unspotted 38. We Three Kings of Orient Are 39. We Wish You a Merry Christmas 40. What Child Is This?

JohannChristoph Pachelbel was a German baroque composer and organist. He was anacclaimed composer and organist during his lifetime, and was also regarded asan outstanding teacher. Today Pachelbel is considered to be one of the mostimportant organ composers of the middle Baroque: he made significantcontributions to the development of chorale prelude and fugue and brought theSouthern German organ tradition to its peak. During hislifetime, Pachelbel was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than twohundred organ pieces, both liturgical and secular, and used most of the genresthat existed at the time. His other keyboard music includes harpsichord suitesand sets of variations. Pachelbel also composed numerous vocal works: arias,Magnificat settings, motets, sacred concertos, and chamber music. As acomposer, Pachelbel apparently was most interested in variation forms andassociated techniques. Variation techniques are in many of his organ worksespecially heard in the piece presented here, his Canon for which can be hearda full set of techniques. It is the only canon he wrote, yet is one of the mostpopular ones performed today. This quintetarrangement makes a great piece to play for church services, graduations andwedding processionals. It?s stately chordal progressions, chordal tonalitiesand variations have been especially popular with audiences around the world.

"What a Wonderful World" is a song written by Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released in 1967 as a single, which topped the pop charts in the United Kingdom. Thiele and Weiss were both prominent in the music world (Thiele as a producer and Weiss as a composer/performer). Armstrong's recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity and it has been used in many movies. This arrangement for brass quintet (Bb Trumpet 1-2, F Horn, Trombone, Tuba) is suitable for repertoire, classroom and recital.