October 28, 2009

"Tonight, you belong to me."

I got this song stuck in my head the other day after I ran across a clip of the old Patience and Prudence recording via Digital Oddio. Digging up the whole thing in YouTube, I saw this charming Fiona Apple version. The song was written back in 1926, I learned on Wikipedia. There, I was reminded of a scene from "The Jerk" that I had forgotten, in which Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters sing the song together and then try, very hard, to kiss — and fail.

29 comments:

traditionalguy said...

What ever happened to Bernadette Peters? She was a favorite actress of mine in the 1980s.

LordSomber said...

The new phonebooks are here...

Freeman Hunt said...

Love "The Jerk."

Incidentally, also the first movie my husband and I watched together. Watched it at my house on our first date, a date that, to this day, has never ended.

blake said...

I recorded that (on to a beta tape!) and learned how to play that song on the ukelele.

MadisonMan said...

The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!

That's the only line I remember.

bagoh20 said...

"I was born a poor black child."

Freeman Hunt said...

"He hates these cans! Stay away from the cans!"

Ann Althouse said...

Can anyone remember what his idea is? What happens next? Saw this movie so long ago....

wv "trourshr" = pants that are hard to put on when drunk.

Triangle Man said...

His idea is the "Optigrab", which allow one to remove and replace one's eyeglasses with one hand.

Triangle Man said...

That song has been stuck in my head lately. There is an ad on TV that uses it along with shadow bunnies kissing. No idea what the product is.

Another song from The Jerk (thanks Google): I'm picking out a Thermos for you. Not an ordinary Thermos for you. But the extra best Thermos that you can buy, with vinyl and stripes and a cup built right in.

Njall said...

1. The Lord loves a working man.
2. Don't trust Whitey.
3. See a doctor and get rid of it.

Three bits of advice given SM when he left home in the movie, by his Mom, Dad, and older brother, respectively.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Bernadette Peters has been favored with the blessing of perennial youth.

Dito Freeman - The Yerk is a favorite.

At one point if felt like they were having such a wonderful time filming they just kept going.

wv - reent - wv makes it unanimous.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I think the idea is for a device preventing glasses from falling or sliding down the nose.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

rigth.. triangle man is right.

David said...

"wv "trourshr" = pants that are hard to put on when drunk."

When a man is drunk, all pants are trourshrs.

Unknown said...

traditionalguy said...

What ever happened to Bernadette Peters? She was a favorite actress of mine in the 1980s.

She goes back to the late 60s, starting a a musical called Dames At Sea. Saw her in one of the Law & Orders as a tough DA. She didn't wear it well.

Lem said...

Bernadette Peters has been favored with the blessing of perennial youth.

Not in that episode. She had a magnificent alabaster complexion, but she was either made up miserably or the last few years have not been kind.

Chip Ahoy said...

))) O.T. ALERT (((

Wouldst thou liketh to beholdeth thyneselves of a picture taken this day of giant snow flakes?

Freeman Hunt said...

I used to watch "The Jerk" a lot when I was a young kid.

I remember asking my mother what "shinola" was.

Chip Ahoy said...

Capital S. Did your mum tell you it was shoepolish?

Freeman Hunt said...

She fully explained the referenced idiom. Heh.

bagoh20 said...

"Can anyone remember what his idea is? What happens next? Saw this movie so long ago....

wv "trourshr" = pants that are hard to put on when drunk.
"


The eyeglass handle was his idea, but in that scene he is happy because he has a "special purpose" which she is looking for. His mom always called his penis his "special purpose". He assumes that is what she means. So it is in his "trourshr".

bagoh20 said...

In the tub he sings :"I'm picking out a thermos for you, a very special thermos for you".

jr565 said...

Triangle Man wrote:
His idea is the "Optigrab", which allow one to remove and replace one's eyeglasses with one hand.


Classid rags to riches back to rags back to riches story. He comes up with the optigrab becomes fabulously wealthy, but then it turns out the optigrab causes people to become cross eyed, so he loses it all and becomes a bum on the street. But his family has been saving the money he sent to them from his profits and are now wealthy themselves (though they still live on the same shack from the beginning of the movie) and they ends up rescuing him and take him back to the family house where he and Bernadette spend out the rest of their days. Or something to that effect. It's actually a pretty sweet movie.

Adrian said...

Another good steve martin duet, from the man with two brains:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EARnV7vU4tg
and the adorable version from Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w82px9UBntQ

Maxine Weiss said...

"I got this song ..."

You don't "got". You have.



www.twitter.com/tweetmaxine

Triangle Man said...

You don't "got". You have.

How embarassing for you Maxine!

bluemoonpaul said...

A great version of the this song by Bird and a Bee:
http://bit.ly/1jYaTl

Ern said...

Very nice song. I'd never heard it before, although I'm somewhat familiar with music from the 1920s.

Thank you!

Toto said...

"They have the best pizza in a cup here ..."

Love that movie.