Thursday, July 12, 2007

We're Staying Home Tonight

I wrote about this song before, but here's Eddie Cantor from Thank Your Lucky Stars singing a really brilliant pastiche song by Arthur Schwartz (music) and Frank Loesser (lyrics). Brilliant because it sounds very much like the kind of song Cantor sang in his '20s and '30s prime, both in the melody and its cutely suggestive lyrics, and yet it's updated to the '40s both melodically (Schwartz's melody is trickier than, say, "If You Knew Susie" or "Makin' Whoopee") and lyrically (Loesser's references are all to the '40s homefront situation). And of course it's a great example of Cantor's willingness to portray himself as a complete asshole, something that's now common but was unusual then.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I always get a kick when the writers sneak something by the censors in these old clips -- "When my baby squeezes me, it's like two extra lumps", indeed!

Tsk, tsk, Mr. Loesser...