I feel a sudden urge to sing
The kind of ditty that invokes the Spring
So, control your desire to curse while I crucify the verse
This verse I've started seems to me
The "Tin Pan-tithesis" of melody
So to spare you all the pain,
I'll skip the darn thing and sing the refrain
The night is young, the skies are clear
And if you want to go walkin', dear
It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely
I understand the reason why
You're sentimental, 'cause so am I
It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely
You can tell at a glance
What a swell night this is for romance
You can hear, dear Mother Nature murmuring low
"Let yourself go"
So please be sweet, my chickadee
And when I kiss ya, just say to me
"It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delectable, it's delirious,
It's dilemma, it's de limit, it's deluxe, it's de-lovely"
Sometimes there are conflicting
stories surrounding Porter songs.
"Night and Day" was written while Cole was on vacaction in Morocco,
after hearing a muezzin calling the faithful to worship. Or maybe he
wrote it at the Ritz Carlton and finished the lyrics on the beach at
Newport. Cole told both stories, so take your pick. Another double
story concerns "De-Lovely." One story concerns the moment when Cole,
his wife Linda, and Mony Woolley caught their first look at Rio de
Janeiro. Porter said, "It's delightful!" Linda responded, "It's
delicious!" and Wolley chimed in "It's de-lovely!". Or perhaps Porter
wrote the show while cruising the South Seas with author Moss Hart,
working on the show Jubilee. Either way, "It's De-Lovely" was
rejected for the film Born
to Dance, so Porter took it
to
Broadway, where it became a hit song by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope in
the 1936 show Red, Hot and
Blue!