I Get a Kick Out of You

By Cole Porter
1934

Five years ago today, I kicked off the Standard of the Day blog with Cole Porter's "Cheek to Cheek". And today, I celebrate that anniversary with another Porter song, which became a signature tune for the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra. Of course, 20 years before Frank famously recorded it for his Swing Easy album, it was introduced in the Broadway musical Anything Goes, by Ethel Merman. The song is quintessential Porter, with a soaring melody that is matched perfectly by its wry, yet poignant lyric. It's original lyrical reference to cocaine was controversial for the time, and later substituted with other lyrics (even by Merman and Sinatra themselves). Yet Porter's sophistication is so irresistible that such substitution is silly and unnecessary. This is one of the very best from possibly the best of the giants of American popular song, and thus fitting that it would become so identified with Sinatra, perhaps the greatest interpreter of popular song. And of course, it perfectly sums up what Standard of the Day is all about.

Thanks for continually supporting this labor of love, and I hope to continue to bring great music to you for many more years! I sure do get a kick out of it...

Lyrics:

My story is much to sad to be told,
But practically everything leaves me totally cold.
The only exception I know is the case
When we're out on a quiet spree,
Fighting vainly the old ennui,
And I suddenly turn and see
Your fabulous face...

I get no kick from champagne.
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you?

Some they may go for cocaine.
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
It would bore me terrifically too.
Yet I get a kick out of you.

I get a kick everytime I see you standing there before me.
I get a kick, though it's clear to see
You obviously don't adore me.

I get no kick in a plane.
Flying too high with some guy in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do.
But I get a kick out of you!

Recorded By:

Tony Bennett
Charlie Parker
Artie Shaw
Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson
Dinah Washington