<P> "Ya Got Trouble" is a song by Meredith Willson from the 1957 Broadway musical The Music Man, and its 1962 filmed version . It is one of the most popular and recognizable songs in the musical, and Robert Preston's performance in the film is admired . Willson considered eliminating a long piece of dialogue from his draft of The Music Man about the serious trouble facing River City parents . Willson realized it sounded like a lyric and transformed it into "Ya Got Trouble". </P> <P> A smooth - talking, yet corrupt, traveling salesman takes up the occupation of a musical - instrument dealer and tries to convince the citizens of River City, Iowa, to fund his idea for a boys' marching band by playing on their fears of youth corruption, represented by a new pocket pool table in the local billiard hall . The song is his slippery slope argument of what could happen should the citizens fail to recognize the danger and not follow his suggestion for a more wholesome activity . The song contains many types of invalid argumentation ("trouble starts with t, which rhymes with p, which stands for pool"). </P> <P> The song is sometimes listed as "(Ya Got) Trouble". The original Broadway cast album lists the song title as "Trouble", both on the record jacket and label . "You Got Trouble" is a common misspelling of the song title . </P> <P> A fully arranged cover of the song appears on the 1967 eponymous debut album of the sunshine pop band Spanky and Our Gang . </P>

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