From the Kitchens of Kander & Ebb

I've posted a couple of famous songs by Kander & Ebb recently, but this might be my favorite of their lesser known songs.  I might be familiar to some, since it's so fun I suspect that singers perform it in their act, but for most people it's unknown.

Actually, I'm surprised that it's not better known and became a product jingle, since that's actually what it is, at heart.  My guess is that Kander & Ebb never wanted to license it for that.

The song is an ode to the singer's favorite woman, "Sara Lee."  It's quite joyful with clever lyrics.  It was originally written for the performer Kaye Ballard, probably in the late-50s or early-'60s would be my guess.  They wrote Cabaret in 1967, so it likely came before that, and she was in the Broadway musical, Carnival!, in 1961.

The song did finally make it onstage off-Broadway, when it was included in the Kander & Ebb revue, And the World Goes 'Round (which was a song from their movie score, New York, New York, the song which began this Kander & Ebb thread, to bring things full circle...)

Once you hear the songt, as I said, it will be clear that this would be pitch-perfect for a TV ad.  Either it was used once, and completely zipped by my attention, or the songwriters just wanted to keep it a song.

Here's their muse, Ms. Minnelli, singing it, with gusto.