If I Were a Rich Man (song)

"If I Were a Rich Man" is a popular song from the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof. It was written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock. The song is performed by Tevye, the main character in the musical, and reflects his dreams of glory.

The title is inspired by a 1902 monologue by Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish, Ven ikh bin a Rothschild (If I were a Rothschild), a reference to the wealth of the Rothschild family, although the content is quite different. The lyric is based in part on passages from Sholem Aleichem’s 1899 short story "The Bubble Bursts." Both stories appeared in English in the 1949 collection of stories Tevye's Daughters.

The Oxford Companion to the American Musical wrote that the song has "cantor-like chanting", and is "the most revealing of the many character numbers". The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey explained that the song contained the most number of Jewish "commonplaces" than any other number in the score; it added the song does twofold: it "offers such a strong dose of idiom early in the show [which] is good for the overall unity", and the "important dramatic function" of introducing the central character of Tevye through song. History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe argues the song is based on a poem entitled "If I were Rothschild", in reference to a famous and wealthy Jewish entrepreneur. Leading Your Family to Water notes that given a wealthy existence, interestingly Tevye says he would use the time not spent working to "learn more about his faith". The Grammar Devotional likens the phrase "if I were a rich man" to the Cowardly Lion's "if I were king of the forest" in The Wizard of Oz in the context of imagining a scenario. The song is inspired by a Hasidic folk song.

The song is broken into four verses, with a bridge between the third and fourth and a chorus sung at the beginning of the song, and after the second and fourth verses.

Musically, it is written in a Jewish klezmer style.

Through the first two verses, Tevye dreams of the material comforts that wealth would bring him. Sung boisterously and comedically, Tevye first considers the enormous house he would buy and the needless luxuries he would fill it with, including a third staircase "leading nowhere, just for show," then the poultry he would buy to fill his yard.

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