You're Just in Luck
The other day, I posted a story about Perle Mesta, on whose life the Broadway musical Call Me Madam was very loosely inspired. I included a trailer of the movie and off-handedly mentioned the show's one hit song, "You're Just in Love." It's a wonderful counterpoint number, one of the most famous of that type from Broadway. I saw a revival of the musical a few years back at the Reprise! series in Los Angeles, and when they did this song it got such a big audience reaction that they had to do two full reprises. (No pun intended.) Anyway, I thoiught it was worth posting the actual song itself here -- along with a story.
But first, here's the song from the film version of the Broadway show by Irving Berlin. The movie starred Ethel Merman recreating her Broadway role, with Donald O'Connor as a young aide in the ambassador's office whose fallen in love with a woman in the country of Lichtenburg where they're stationed.
The story is that when they released the Broadway cast album, Ethel Merman was under contract with another record company that wouldn't release her for the show recording. So, instead, Dinah Shore was brought in to do the role with the rest of the cast, including Russell Nype who played the young aide. Merman's own company, however, released their own recording with her in the starring role -- but no one else from the Broadway show. And so Dick Haymes filled in on the hit song.
So, there's no recording on film or record of Ethel Merman and Russell Nype singing their big song from the show. But -- that doesn't mean they didn't sing it elsewhere. And you're in luck! Here's an audio recording of the two recreating their big number on a special.
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