I Get a Kick Out of You  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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"I Get a Kick Out of You" is a song by Cole Porter, originally featured in Anything Goes (1934).

Originally sung by Ethel Merman, it has been covered by performers including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Marlene Dietrich, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Django Reinhardt and Dolly Parton.

Alterations to the song

In the first movie version of Anything Goes (1936), alternate lyrics in the second verse were provided to replace a reference to the drug cocaine, which were not allowed due to the Hayes Code.

The original verse goes as follows:

Some get a kick from cocaine

I'm sure that if

I took even one sniff

That would bore me terrifically, too

Yet, I get a kick out of you

Porter changed the first line to:

Some like the perfume in Spain

One alternative version changes the verse to:

Some like the bop-type refrain

I'm sure that if

I heard even one riff

It would bore me terrifically, too

Yet, I get a kick out of you

It should be noted that Sinatra recorded both versions: the first in 1953 and the second in 1962. On a recording live in Paris in 1962, Sinatra sings the original version, but with the first line as Some like the perfume from Spain. Other Porter-approved substitutes include "whiff of Guerlain." All three of the above alternatives are mentioned in the liner notes to Joan Morris and William Bolcom's CD, "Night and Day," but on the recording, Morris sings the original second verse. According to those same liner notes, there was an earlier alteration, made in response to the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Trivia

In the film, Blazing Saddles, Bart (Cleavon Little) and his fellow workers are urged to sing a "Nigger work song." They then comence on a rendition of "I Get a Kick out of You" instead, using the "cocaine" lyric. However, Sherrif Lyle then interrupts and suggests the "Camptown Ladies" is a better work song.

In the TV series Frasier, Ronee Lawrence (Wendie Malick) sings her altered version of the song, in "The Babysitter" episode from the 11th season:

I think you're cute, Marty Crane

I think that if your poor hip wasn't stiff

You could dance just terrifically too

And I get a kick out of you

In the Australian film, Children of the Revolution, a somewhat unorthodox and much abridged rendition of the song is given by F. Murray Abraham in the role of Joseph Stalin, backed by Paul Livingston and Dennis Watkins as Lavrentiy Beria and Nikita Khrushchev respectively.<ref>Children of the Revolution (1996) - Soundtracks</ref>

In the television series, Cleopatra 2525, Cleopatra (Jennifer Sky) sings the song at a karaoke bar using the "perfume from Spain" line during the episode, "Noir Or Never."

In the television series Sesame Street a parody of the song "I Get A Kick Out Of U" was sung by 'Miss Ethel Mermaid' (actually performeed by Louise Gold).

In the film The Secret of My Succe$s, the character Vera Prescott (Margaret Whitton) sings the first few lines of the song to her nephew / love pursuit Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox).

The off-Broadway show Forbidden Broadway has a version of the song in which Patti Lupone, who starred as Reno in the 1987 revival of Anything Goes, swoons over herself:

Some snort cocaine when they're low,

I need no sniff, 'cause I think what's the diff,

I'm already terrific to see,

And I get a kick out of me.