You Can't Get a Man with a Gun

Last updated

"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun"
Song by Ethel Merman
from the album Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
Released1946
Genre
Length3:13
Songwriter(s) Irving Berlin

"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun , written by Irving Berlin. It was originally performed by Ethel Merman. [1]

Contents

Background

In the song, Annie Oakley sings about how a girl with talent as a sharpshooter nevertheless finds that her abilities do not help her attract men. She introduces herself with: "I'm quick on the trigger/with targets not much bigger/than a pinpoint I'm number one." The song is humorous in that she imagines different scenarios in which shooting a man will not make him fall in love with you, e.g. "A man may be hot/but he's not/when he's shot/oh, you can't get a man with a gun!" and "But you can't shoot a lover,/and use him for a cover/oh, you can't get a man with a gun!"

Recordings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel Merman</span> American actress, singer (1908–1984)

Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and her leading roles in musical theater, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." She performed on Broadway in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly!

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzi Quatro</span> American rock musician (born 1950)

Susan Kay Quatro is an American singer, bass guitarist, songwriter and actress. In the 1970s, she scored a string of singles that found success in Europe and Australia, with both "Can the Can" (1973) and "Devil Gate Drive" (1974) reaching No. 1 in several countries.

<i>Annie Get Your Gun</i> (musical) 1946 musical by Irving Berlin

Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).

A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast. A cast recording featuring the first cast to perform a musical in a particular venue is known, for example, as an "original Broadway cast recording" (OBCR) or an "original London cast recording" (OLCR).

Norman Newell was an English record producer and lyricist, who was mainly active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the co-writer of many notable songs. As an A&R manager for EMI, he worked with musicians such as Shirley Bassey, Dalida, Claude François, Vera Lynn, Russ Conway, Bette Midler, Judy Garland, Petula Clark, Jake Thackray, Malcolm Roberts, Bobby Crush and Peter and Gordon.

"There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal. The song, a slightly tongue-in-cheek salute to the glamour and excitement of a life in show business, is sung in the musical by members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in an attempt to persuade Annie Oakley to join the production. It is reprised three times in the musical.

"Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)" is a show tune composed by Irving Berlin for the 1946 Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun. The song is a duet, with one male singer and one female singer attempting to outdo each other in increasingly complex tasks.

"You're Just in Love" is a popular song by Irving Berlin. It was published in 1950 and was first performed by Ethel Merman and Russell Nype in Call Me Madam, a musical comedy that made its debut at the Imperial Theatre in New York City on October 12 that year. The show ran for 644 performances. Ethel Merman also later starred in the 1953 film version, with Donald O'Connor.

Annie Get Your Gun may refer to:

"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin. The song was introduced by Ethel Merman in the original production of the musical. Other singers to have recorded the song include Betty Hutton, Judy Garland, Bernadette Peters, Suzi Quatro, The DeMarco Sisters, and Dinah Shore.

"The Girl That I Marry" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin.

"They Say It's Wonderful" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1946), where it was introduced by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. A film version in 1950 again featured the song when it was performed by Howard Keel and Betty Hutton.

"I Got the Sun in the Mornin' " is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin and originally performed by Ethel Merman. Hit recordings in 1946 were by Les Brown and by Artie Shaw.

"I'm an Indian Too" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, by Irving Berlin. It was originally performed by Ethel Merman. It is sung by the main character Annie after Sitting Bull adopts her into the Sioux tribe.

"I Got Lost in His Arms" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin. It was performed by Ethel Merman in the original production of the musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Panayi</span> British musician

Andy Panayi is a British jazz musician, skilled in performance, composition and arranging. He plays all the flutes and all the saxophones and leads a selection of jazz and classical groups. He also writes commissioned works and self commissioned work for his own arranging, composing & transcribing business ALP Music.

<i>Annie Get Your Gun</i> (film) 1950 film by Busby Berkeley, George Sidney, Charles Walters

Annie Get Your Gun is a 1950 American musical Technicolor comedy film loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name, was directed by George Sidney. Despite several production and casting problems, the film won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and received three other nominations. Star Betty Hutton was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

"Johnny One Note" is a 1937 show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, where it was introduced by Wynn Murray. Judy Garland sang it in the Rodgers & Hart biopic Words and Music (1948).

<i>Main Attraction</i> (album) 1982 studio album by Suzi Quatro

Main Attraction is the eighth studio album by American rock musician Suzi Quatro, released in November 1982, her first and only release by Polydor Records. The album was recorded over a period of four months at The Studio Toppersfield, in Essex, England with the sessions starting in late 1981, and ending in early 1982. The album is notably Quatro's only studio album not to contain any cover versions of songs by other artists, and she had a hand in composing each track, with the exception of the sixth track "Two Miles Out of Georgia", which was solely written by Chris Andrews. The album was her last recording of original material for four years, until she released Annie Get Your Gun – 1986 London Cast, and it was her last studio album of the 1980s and her last studio album for eight years, until she released Oh, Suzi Q., in 1990.

<i>Annie Get Your Gun – 1986 London Cast</i> 1986 cast recording by Suzi Quatro

Annie Get Your Gun – 1986 London Cast is an album from the first London revival of Irving Berlin's musical Annie Get Your Gun, starring American rock musician Suzi Quatro as Annie Oakley and Eric Flynn as Frank Butler. The revival was a David Gilmore Chichester Festival Theatre production. It toured in the UK and then moved to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End.

References

  1. Magee, J. (2012). Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater. Broadway Legacies. Oxford University Press. p. 436. ISBN   978-0-19-991163-9 . Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  2. "www.discogs.com". discogs.com. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  3. "The Judy Room". The Judy Room. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  4. "Discogs.com". Discogs. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  5. "Discogs.com". Discogs. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  6. "allmusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  7. "Mary Martin, John Raitt - Annie Get Your Gun". Discogs . 1957.
  8. "allmusic.com". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  9. Ruhlmann, William. "Annie Get Your Gun (Original London Cast Recording) – Original London Cast, AllMusic, Overview". Ann Arbor, USA: AllMusic. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  10. "Suzi Quatro Timeline". thecoverzone.com. Bristol, USA: Suzi Quatro Rocks – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Mission. Retrieved 11 May 2012.