Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love
"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" is a
Bordoni's husband and Paris producer Ray Goetz convinced Porter to give Broadway another try with this show.[2] The song was later used in the English production of Wake Up and Dream (1929)[3] and was used as the title theme music in the 1933 Hollywood movie Grand Slam starring Loretta Young and Paul Lukas. In 1960 it was also included in the film version of Cole Porter's Can-Can.[4]
The original lyrics and music of the song entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.[5]
History
The first of Porter's "list songs", it features a string of suggestive and droll comparisons and examples, preposterous pairings and double entendres, dropping famous names and events, drawing from highbrow and popular culture. Porter was a strong admirer of the Savoy operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, many of whose stage works featured similar comic list songs.[6]
The first refrain covers
With "Let's do 'it'" a euphemism for sexual intercourse in English, author Sheldon Patinkin wrote that it was "the first hit song to proclaim openly that sex is fun."[1] The author of Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American Theater History drew a line from Porter's use of barely veiled double entendres such as "Moths in your rugs do it, What's the use of moth-balls?" to his "pleasure" in barely masking his homosexuality from the public.[7]
The song has regularly lent itself over the years to the addition of contemporary or topical stanzas. For example, in 1955 the lines "Even Liberace, we assume, does it," "Ernest Hemingway could just do it" and many more were added by Noël Coward in his Las Vegas cabaret performance of the song, in which he replaced most of Porter's lyrics with his own.[8][9]
Legacy
The song has been revived many times since 1928, although usually with only a limited portion of the original lyrics.[10] A punk rock version performed by Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg was used as the theme song in the 1995 movie Tank Girl, and later in a more classical version in a musical revue number within the film. In the revue, the song is at first performed by stage actress Ann Magnuson, but is taken over by star Lori Petty after she places duct tape over Magnuson's mouth. It was originally recorded with Joan Jett and Greg Graffin, but Atlantic Records did not want them using Graffin so they deleted his voice and recorded Westerberg's. Joan Jett and Greg Graffin's version of "Let's Do It" was eventually released in 2000 on the compilation CD Laguna Tunes (Blackheart Records).
The White Stripes' song "Forever for Her (Is Over for Me)", from their 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan, borrows lyrics and themes from the song. Brazilian singers Chico Buarque and Elza Soares recorded a Portuguese adaptation by Carlos Rennó, "Façamos - Vamos Amar", on Buarque's 2002 album Duetos. Scottish singer Shirley Manson of Garbage incorporated lyrics from the song into Garbage's performance of their song "Vow" at Bizarre festival in 1996.[11]
The song is featured prominently in Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris. Actor Yves Heck played Cole Porter in the movie.
Racial stereotypes in original 1928 lyric
In Porter's publication from 1928, the opening lines for the chorus carried three derogatory racial references:
The original was:[10]
Chinks do it, Japs do it,
up in Lapland little Laps do it...
The original line can be heard in several early recordings of the song, such as a recording made by the
CBS came up with less offensive lyrics, which NBC adopted, and changed the opening to the refrain: "Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it." when they realized that the line was offensive.[14]
Notable recordings
- Dorsey Brothers & their Orchestra (vocal, Bing Crosby) (January 26, 1929)[15]
- Lee Morse (1928)
- Rudy Vallée and His Connecticut Yankees (billed as Frank Mater; 1928)
- Mary Martin with Ray Sinatra & His Orchestra - (1941)
- label as catalog number B 10778. The song was also released on the LP That Bad Eartha (1953)
- Dinah Washington - In the Land of Hi-Fi (1956)
- Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis Again (1957), Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (1957)
- The Kirby Stone Four- Baubles, Bangles, And Beads (1958)
- Frank Sinatra & Shirley MacLaine, Can-Can Soundtrack, 1960
- Della Reese - Della Della Cha-Cha-Cha (1960)
- MAD magazine parodied the song using comic-strip characters as the finale to "The MAD 'Comic' Opera" from MAD #56, written by Frank Jacobs: "We've heard that Blondie and Dag do it/Frequently a Yokum and a Scragg do it/Let's do it, let's fall in love...."
- Al Hirt - The Greatest Horn in the World (1961)[17]
- Nancy Sinatra - Sugar (1967)
- Hildegard Knef - Träume heißen Du ("Sei mal verliebt" — German version, 1968)
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (1956), The Stockholm Concert, 1966 (1966), Montreux '75(1975)
- Thank You for Everything(1998), rec. 1976
- John Inman - I'm Free (1977)
- Kim Basinger - The Marrying Man (1991)
- Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg of The Replacements recorded a punk version for the soundtrack of Tank Girl
- Susannah McCorkle - Easy to Love – The Songs of Cole Porter (1996)
- Lee Wiley - Hot House Rose (1996), Sings Porter and Gershwin (2004)
- Dee Dee Bridgewater - Dear Ella (1997)
- Come Shine - Come Shine (2001)
- Chico Buarque and Elza Soares – "Façamos - Vamos Amar" (Brazilian version, 2002)
- Alanis Morissette: The Collection (2005) (originally released on the soundtrack of De-Lovely)
- Diana Ross - Blue (recorded in 1973, unreleased until 2006)
- Barbara Schöneberger - Sei mal verliebt - Jetzt singt sie auch noch! (2007)
- Skins)
- Yves Heck - Heck played the physical role while Conal Fowkes provided the voice as Cole Porter in the 2011 Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris.
- Wonder Pets — In the episode "Save the Puppy", the Wonder Pets sing a parody of the song about how everyone needs to urinate, using the lyrics "Dogs do it, frogs do it, even funny winking hogs do it...".
- The Sesame Street song "Let's Lay an Egg" is a parody of the song, using the lyrics "Snails do it, slugs do it. Even tiny Twiddlebugs do it!"
- Anne Juergens. Ringwald's rendition is upbeat, containing such lines as "Falling in love is such a easy thing to do. Birds can do it, we can do it. Let's stop talking, let's get to it. Let's fall in love."
- A duet version was recorded by Scottish singers Todd Gordon and Eddi Reader accompanied by The Royal Air Force Squadronaires big band (2012), produced by Ken Barnes
- Pablo Bubar - Boom Town (2013)
- Bunny Berigan
- Lady Gaga recorded a version of the song for her 2021 collaborative album with Tony Bennett, Love for Sale.[18]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8101-1994-9. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2946-2. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80097-9. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-312-36226-3. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ^ "Public Domain Day 2024 | Duke University School of Law". web.law.duke.edu.
- ISBN 978-0-393-33876-8. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-472-06749-7. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
- ^ "LyricsPlayground Website – LET'S DO IT (Las Vegas Version - 1955) Noel Coward". Retrieved 2016-01-24.
- ISBN 9780434310906. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ^ ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
- YouTube
- ^ Bing Crosby (1928). Bing Crosby, Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love w/Dorsey Brothers And Their Orchestra (YouTube). Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
- ^ Billie Holiday (1941). Billie Holiday, Let's Do It (YouTube). Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
- ISBN 1-877864-97-8.
- ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
- ^ "RCA Victor Records in the 20-5500 to 20-5999 series". 78discography.com. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
- ^ Al Hirt, The Greatest Horn in the World Retrieved April 6, 2013.
- ^ Wilman, Chris (August 3, 2021). "Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga Reveal 'Love for Sale,' Cole Porter Tribute Album Said to Be Bennett's Last". Variety. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
