Monday, October 05, 2015

Hear Frank Sinatra’s Unique Presentation of Cole Porter’s “I've Got You Under My Skin”

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Just as in the case of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields’ “The Way You Look Tonight,” so too with Cole Porter’s “I've Got You Under My Skin,” Sinatra made a great song even better. Not that Porter appreciated Sinatra’s ministrations. Porter apparently thought that his songs were already perfect, and that Sinatra was harming them! Sinatra would make slight improvisations in the lyrics, but his ad-libbing was, in Porter’s case, superior to the original.
 

I've Got You Under My Skin
Words & Music by Cole Porter

I've got you under my skin,
I've got you deep in the heart of me,
So deep in my heart,
That you're really a part of me,
I've got you under my skin.

I'd tried so not to give in,
I said to myself,
This affair never will go so well,
But why should I try to resist,
When Baby, I know so well,
I've got you under my skin.

I'd sacrifice anything come what might,
For the sake of having you near,
In spite of a warning voice,
That comes in the night and repeats,
Repeats in my ear.

Don't you know little fool,
You never can win,
Use your mentality,
Wake up to reality.

But each time that I do,
Just the thought of you,
Makes me stop before I begin,
‘Cause I've got you under my skin.

I would sacrifice anything,
Come what might,
For the sake of having you near,
In spite of the warning voice,
That comes in the night,
And repeats, how it yells in my ear.

Don't you know, little fool,
You never can win,
Why not use your mentality?
Step up, wake up to reality.

But each time I do just the thought of you,
Makes me stop just before I begin,
‘Cause I've got you under my skin,
Yes, I've got you under my skin.

And I like you, under my skin.
 


 

Uploaded on April 7, 2009, by Sinatra is the best.
 

[Previously, in this series:

“Frank Sinatra: My Shining Hour (Video, from Trilogy: Past Present Future)”;

“Hear Frank Sinatra Sing Arlen & Mercer’s Come Rain or Shine”;

“Hear Frank Sinatra Sing the Quintessential Version of Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer’s ‘One for My Baby (and One More, for the Road)’”;

“Hear Frank Sinatra Sing the Classic Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer Torch Song, ‘Blues in the Night’”;

“Frank Sinatra: Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s Stormy Weather (Video)”;

“Frank Sinatra Live! Medley of The Gal That Got Away and It Never Entered My Mind, Performed in 1980 at Carnegie Hall (Great Quality Video of a Grand Performance!)”;

“Frank Sinatra: Here's That Rainy Day (Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke)”;

“Frank Sinatra’s Revelatory, 1962 Performance of Kern and Fields’ The Way You Look Tonight”;

“Paul Robeson?! Hear Frank Sinatra Give the Definitive Interpretation of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Ol’ Man River (1963)”;

“The Greatest Song Ever Written? Hear Frank Sinatra Sing Rodgers & Hammerstein's Soliloquy”;

“Hear Frank Sinatra Sing the Real ‘New York, New York,’ by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green, from On the Town (1944/1949)”;

“The Swingingest Record You’ll Ever Hear! Fly Me to the Moon, by Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, and Quincy Jones”;
“Frank Sinatra: Autumn in New York, with the Billy May Orchestra (Video)”;

“Hear Frank Sinatra Make Rodgers & Hart Swing! ‘The Lady is a Tramp’; Live at Madison Square Garden/1974”;

“Hear Frank Sinatra and a Bunch of Little Kids Sing the 1960 Academy Award-Winning Song, ‘High Hopes’”;
“If Frank Sinatra were Still Alive, and were Interviewed by Larry King”;

“When Sinatra Ruled: Hear Him Sing ANOTHER Oscar-Winning Song, ‘All the Way,’ from The Joker is Wild (1957)”; and

“Hear Frank Sinatra Sing Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn’s ‘Love and Marriage.’]

2 comments:

Mark Caplan said...

Your post about Sinatra's improving on the original "I've Got You Under My Skin" got me wondering what the original sounded like. YouTube has it, a clip from Born to Dance, with (according to Wikipedia) Eleanor Powell on screen lip-syncing to Virginia Bruce's voice. Frankly, I never knew how great this song was, having heard only upbeat arrangements with Sinatra and others that gloss over and almost trivialize the emotional depth of the lyrics.

"I've Got You Under My Skin," from Born to Dance (1936)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap9BZo18Tss

Mark Caplan said...

Correction: It's not only Virginia Bruce's voice but she is the singer on-screen too, not Eleanor Powell. Listen to how beautifully Bruce sings the wonderful and important low note in the phrase "So deep in my heart, you're really a part of me." Sinatra doesn't even attempt it, and he adds a superfluous "that" to the phrase -- "that you're really a part of me."

I'd love to hear how Sinatra sang it on his radio show in 1946. I don't think that version was recorded. The YouTube clip that says it's Sinatra's 1946 version is actually the 1956 Nelson Riddle arrangement.