Exactly Like You

By Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields
1930

The Busby Berkely Broadway production International Revue produced this standard, as well as "On the Sunny Side of the Street". Harry Richman and Gertrude Lawrence (pictured) introduced the light and infectious number, buoyed by Fields excellent-as-always lyric. The song might have slipped into obscurity were it not for a jazzy version recorded six years later by the Benny Goodman Trio, with Lionel Hampton on vocal.

Lyrics:

I know why I've waited,
Know why I've been blue.
I pray each night for someone
Exactly like you.

Why should we spend some money
On a show or two?
No one plays those love scenes
Exactly like you

You make me feel so grand,
I wanna give the world to you.
You make me understand
Every foolish little dream I'm dreaming,
Every scheme I'm scheming.

I know why my mother
Taught me to be true.
She meant me for someone
Exactly like you.

Recorded By:

Diana Krall
Nina Simone
Louis Armstrong
Tony Bennett & k.d. lang
Ruth Etting