Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man
Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man is a song written by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics) and published in 1927.
background
Hammerstein and Kern wrote Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man for the musical Show Boat , which premiered on December 27, 1927 at New York's Ziegfeld Theater. The song was presented by Helen Morgan , Tess Gardella , Norma Terris , Allan Campbell and Jules Bledsoe . “The sheet music of the song begins with a curious performance instruction, [with] Tempo di Blues . In fact, the verse consists of two sections in a twelve-measure blues scheme and is crammed with blue notes . ”The lyrics and titles are in dialect that used colloquial expressions of the time such as It must be sumpin ' or De chimbly's smokin' . The chorus begins with the words Fish got to swim and birds got to fly .
First recordings and later cover versions
The musicians who covered the song from the end of 1927 included the Green Brothers Novelty Band (with Harry Reser and Arthur Fields ), Don Voorhees , Bessie Brown , Big Tess Gardella, Paul Whiteman , Bud Freeman , in England Melville Gideon , Bert Firman , Fred Elizalde , Jack Harris and The Rhythmic Eight, in Berlin Ben Berlin . Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man has also been performed by Nat Shilkret ( His Master's Voice B5472), The Revelers (HMV B2735). The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 155 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz , u. a. by Billie Holiday (1937), Kenny Dorham , Ella Fitzgerald , Lena Horne , Louis Armstrong , Dick Hyman , Margaret Whiting, and Charlie Barnet . Can't Help Lovin 'Dat Man was also featured in the three film versions of the musical from 1930, 1936 and 1951, as well as in Helen Morgan Story (1957).