Eartha Kitt's big number from the revue New Faces of 1952, and the next-to-last number in the 1954 movie version.
While most of the young performers in the 1952 edition of New Faces went on to have successful careers -- Paul Lynde, Robert Clary, Alice Ghostley, Carol Lawrence -- Kitt was the only one who became a breakout star, and the movie emphasized this by letting her do some songs that she didn't sing in the stage show (like her big hit "C'est Si Bon"). Unfortunately, to make room for her extra songs, the movie dropped one of the best songs from the show, "Guess Who I Saw Today?" originally sung by June Carroll (who also wrote the lyrics for "Monotonous" to Arthur Siegel's music).
Note: the original lyrics of this song had "Harry S. Truman plays bop for me"; this was changed to "Toscanini" in the movie because Truman was no longer President.
this version drops my favorite line from the song -- "and one more thing, Ike likes me" -- and replaces it with the opening bars of the Dragnet theme followed by "they wrote it for me." "Ike likes me" is a better line, but like the one about Truman, it dates the song.
ReplyDeleteBoth lines date the song I think, "Ike likes me" plays off his campaign slogan "I like Ike."
ReplyDeleteBoth original lines are superior. I love the image of Truman playing bop since he liked to relax by playing Rachmaninoff.