The Valentine's Day Song Fest

Making a big change of pace from "Still," we continue along with our fest, here are two wonderful, but little-known songs from the 1962 musical, Little Me.  The satiric show is based on a novel by Dennis Patrick, who wrote Auntie Mame.  It tells the memoir of Belle Poitrine (which for those of you who don't speak French means, "Beautiful Breasts," so much for subtlety...)mus, looking back at her life of many husbands and lovers, all of whom were played by Sid Caesar.  The show didn't have a very long run, 257 performances, though more than half a year.  But it has a very enjoyable score written by Cy Coleman and the wonderful lyricist Carolyn Leigh who sadly died early, but among her credits were many of the songs from Peter Pan.  And the book was written by Neil Simon.

The first of Belle's loves was as a young girl with the wealthy snob Noble Eggleson, from the right side of the tracks, which was a problem since she was quite poor and decidedly from the wrong side.  Nonetheless, he shows his magnanimity in deigning to accept her, in this duet, "I Love You," performed by Caesar and Virginia Martin.

The second number from "Little Me," is one of the few in the show that isn't big and overtly comic.  Indeed the very opposite.  And it actually isn't comic at all, expect for its intentional deep sweetness, which is sort of amusing in its ingenuous timid charm.  And it is charming and sweet and small, sung by Sid Caesar as a painfully naive doughboy soldier during World War I.  The song might be known to some, since it had a little bit of popularity outside the show in its day.  

Here is the really lovely, incredibly sweet, "Real Live Girl."