Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off is a song written in 1937 by George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (text) for the film musical Tanz mit mir . In the film, directed by Mark Sandrich , the song is first sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers , then danced by them on roller skates. The text, written by Ira Gershwin, deals with various dialects in English-speaking countries in a humorous way and is still widely known today:
You say either and I say either, You say neither and I say neither
Either, either Neither, neither, Let's call the whole thing off.
You like potato and I like potahto, You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto, Let's call the whole thing off
In the same year Astaire recorded the song again with Johnny Green's orchestra. Over the decades Let's Call The Whole Thing Off has been covered by the likes of Billie Holiday , Sam Cooke , Ella Fitzgerald , Louis Armstrong and Brian Wilson . The discographer Tom Lord lists 84 cover versions (as of 2017) of the title in the jazz category, including a. by Red Nichols / Cliff Weston (1937), Buddy DeFranco , Mel Tormé , Sarah Vaughan , George Shearing , Oscar Peterson , Earl Hines , Ben Sidran , Ray Charles , Roland Hanna , Clark Terry , John Dankworth , George Melly / Digby Fairweather , Marty Grosz , Uri Caine and most recently in 2015 by Seamus Blake / Chris Cheek . The song was also reused for numerous films and television series, for example it is sung by Harry Connick junior in the film Harry and Sally . In an episode of The Simpsons the song is interpreted by Homer and Marge Simpson.
The American Film Institute voted Let's Call The Whole Thing Off 34th of the 100 best American film songs in 2004 .
Web links
- Let's Call the Whole Thing Off on Allmusic
- Let's Call the Whole Thing Off on the Great American Songbook
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tom Lord: Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 31, 2017)