Do It Again

Written: 1922

Music by: George Gershwin

Words by: B. G. Buddy De Sylva

Written for:
The French Doll (show)

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook

Diana Krall

performing

"Do It Again"

with Diana Krall vocal and piano,
John Clayton, bass; Paulinho Da Costa, percussion; Jeff Hamilton, drums; John Pisano, acoustic guitar,
and members of the Paris Symphony Orchestra
with arrangement by John Clayton and Johnny Mandel,
at the Paris Olympia, December 2, 2001.
The performance is preceded by rehearsal footage.

The concert is available on the DVD
Diana Krall Live in Paris

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More Performances of "Do It Again"
in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credit)

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"Do It Again"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

"Do it Again" was written by George Gershwin and Buddy De Sylva in either late 1921 or early 1922. According to Gershwin biographer Edward Jablonski, De Sylva, who was already an established lyricist, and Gershwin were together in the office of music publisher Max Dreyfus when De Sylva suggested that they should just sit down and "write a hit." Despite thinking De Sylva wasn't serious, Gershwin found a piano and began noodling a melody with "a slow, sensuous" quality. De Sylva apparently taken by the tune said, "Oh, do it Again," perhaps imploring George to play the passage again or perhaps to create a starting point for the lyric. In either case, his utterance led to the remainder of the lyric which very nicely "coalesced" with the Gershwin's "sensual melody."

Gershwin, who was almost as famous for playing his songs at fashionable New York City parties as he was for writing them, soon after the creation of "Do it Again" found himself playing and singing it at a party given by one of the most prominent party-givers of both New York and Paris, Jules Glaenzer. The party was also attended by French/Italian musical theater chanteuse (and then wife of producer E. Ray Goetz) Irene Bordoni. Jablonski reports that when Bordoni heard Gershwin performing "Do it Again," she rushed over to the piano exclaiming "I must have that damn song! It's for me."* In no time her husband had it interpolatedinto his steamy production of "The French Doll" (which had opened on Broadway on February 20, 1922, with Bordoni as the title character) and Gershwin had his first success of the year (Jablonski, Gershwin, pp. 48-49, hard-bound Ed.).

Irene Bordoni performs another saucy
Gershwin/De Sylva (plus Arthur Francis (pseud. for Ira Gershwin)
number, "I Won't Say I Will (but I won't say I won't),"
which they wrote in 1923 especially for her
in the show Little Miss Bluebeard.

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Gershwin's virtual obsession with playing at parties was apparently good for business, because just as Bordoni heard "Do it Again" played by the composer at a social gathering, so Al Jolson heard "Swanee" similarly performed. His prompt confiscation of this Gershwin song catapulted it into the biggest seller ever in the Gershwin catalog. Paul Whiteman's Victor recording of "Do it Again," though not the hit that Swanee was, reached number one on the charts in June of 1922 and since has become an American standard song.

"Do it Again" recorded by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, March 1922.

George Gershwin turned 24 on September 26, of 1922, and by the time that year was over, he had achieved success on several levels of writing popular music: as a composer of individual songs interpolated into Broadway revues, as was the case with "Do it Again" in The French Doll; as the creator of an entire score for a Broadway show (the bedroom farce, La, La, Lucille, 1919); as the writer of entire scores for Broadway revues; and as the writer of the music of an enormous smash hit, "Swanee." By the time the year was over Gershwin had not only been fully initiated into the world of writing music for Broadway but had proven his versatility in that world.

The first revues for which George Gershwin wrote entire scores were George White's Scandals, a series of stage shows that successfully competed with Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies for almost two decades, finally concluding its run in 1936. George wrote the scores for the 1920-1924 editions, and much of his song production during that period was for these productions. For the 1922 version, Gershwin wrote the music for two works that are still remembered today: One, "Stairway to Paradise," was only his second collaboration with his brother Ira who at the time was writing under the pseudonym Arthur Francis, a name created from the first names of the two younger Gershwin siblings, Francis and Arthur. On "Stairway to Paradise," Ira joined up with Buddy De Sylva and George to write the song that was used as the finale of the first act of the 1922 edition of the Scandals, and has since gone on to become a standard. Aside from that song only two other Gershwin Scandals numbers are remembered now: "Somebody Loves Me," from the 1924 edition, and the one-act "Negro opera," "Blue Monday," (a precursor of Porgy and Bess) that was cut from the 1922 show after opening night because White thought it too depressing for the generally "light-hearted" Scandals. (Kimball and Simon, The Gershwins, p. xxix).

Besides "Swanee" the only other song from this early period that has lasted is "Do it Again," which was introduced in The French Doll by Irene Bordoni. Her energetically seductive rendition of the song certainly helped it on its way to success, and it has since become, along with "Stairway to Paradise" one of two songs from the early Twenties thought to contain elements of Gershwin's mature style.

Along with Irene Bordoni's introduction of "Do it Again," another important early performance of the song came when another French singer, Eva Gauthier" sang it (accompanied by Gershwin himself), as part of her controversial recital of songs "ancient and modern" at Aeolian Hall in New York City on Nov. 1, 1923. Gauthier disconcerted her classically oriented audience by singing songs by Gershwin, Kern, and Berlin in the company of works by "serious" composers such as Bellini, Bartók, Hindemith, Schoenberg, etc. . As her listeners became more and more enthralled by her renditions of the American popular music they demanded an encore. Ms. Gauthier obliged them with "Do it Again," and when they wanted yet more, as Deems Taylor, a supportive critic in attendance, put it, "she had to do it again."

Howard Pollack

George Gershwin: His Life and Work
Berkeley: Univ. of California Press
2006

George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel were acquainted at least from the time Gershwin approached the Frenchman about studying with him while Ravel was in New York in March of 1928. Later during the same visit, he and Gershwin together attended concerts as well as jazz events in Harlem. Ravel, who was known as an early fan of jazz among classical composers, admired both Gershwin's compositions, which he called "intriguing" as well as his playing of them, the facility of which left the composer of "Bolero" "dumbfounded."

According to Gershwin biographer and commentator Howard Pollack, Ravel's susceptibility to Gershwin may have predated the 1928 visit to New York. Pollack sites David Schiff who suggests that the fox-trot from Ravel's opera L'Enfant et les sortilèges was "modeled" after Gershwin's "Do it Again" (Pollack, p. 119).

Pollack also traces the performances of "Do it Again," especially with regard to the almost impossible to ignore sexual innuendo of title, melody and lyric. He begins with Marilyn Monroe singing it for the troops (Marines at Camp Pendleton in California as well as in Korea in 1952), which "nearly caused a riot." No wonder when Monroe included "little moans of longing and pleasure as she invited someone to 'come and get it, you won't regret it'."

Marilyn Monroe performs "Do it Again"
for the troops in Korea, 1952,
from the Marilyn Monroe Video Archives

Marilyn's recording in 1953 led pretty much directly to her getting the part of Lorelei Lee in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the role that was largely responsible for her initial attainment of star status. Judy Garland in her 1961 Carnegie Hall concert similarly emphasized the explicit sexual elements of the song. Pollock states Gershwin and De Sylva "clearly had more ironic intentions in mind, but the lyric, with its string of 'no's and 'oh's,' and the melody with its sensuous curves, could easily be made to suggest sexual intercourse" (Pollock, p. 264).

Philip Furia confirms the intention of erotic double-entendre by pointing out that "Do it Again" when sung by Irene Bordoni, the "French Doll" who introduced the song on Broadway, "brought to the lyric not only insouciance but sensuousness" to the degree that the "three little words" of the title "radiated such erotic force that the song was banned from the radio (Furia, Poets of Tin Pan Alley, p. 160, paper-bound Ed.). Also, Furia makes the connection (here and in another place) between the Gershwin/De Sylva use of the phrase "do it" with its double double-entendre generated erotic overtones and Cole Porter's similar intention in his 1928 song "Let's Do It." On the other hand, Furia notes, when Ira Gershwin wrote "Do, do, do / What you've done, done, done / Before baby," he was not going for the erotic; in fact, he "adamantly insisted that his 'do' was purely about kissing and did not smack of 'musical comedy "Smart Smut." It had 'face not body value'"(Philip Furia, Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist, New York: Oxford UP, 1996, p. 57, hard-bound Ed.).

Ed's. question: Was Ira protesting too much? about songs like his brother's "Do it Again."

The versefor "Do it Again" doesn't make it entirely clear that, as many have pointed out, the antecedent of the "it" in the title phrase is a kiss. It's at least possible that what happened to the singer to give her that new thrill was happening while her lover's two lips were pressed to hers, not just the kiss itself. This view might stretch the grammar a bit, but it does take into account all the innuendos that permeate the verse and the refrain.

Tell me, tell me,
What did you do to me?
I just got a thrill
That was new to me.
When your two lips
Were pressed to mine.

And even the direct reference to a "kiss" in the refrain, the one that her lips ache to give him, doesn't make the case for the meeting of their lips being all that was going on. She implores him to kiss her saying, "You know if you do, / You / Won't regret it, / Come and get it." It doesn't take that much to wonder what could possibly make him regret it unless the kiss was all there was to get. De Sylva provides and easy literal interpretation of the lyric for those who might otherwise wish to censor the song, but also gives the listener every opportunity to go in another direction as well, especially when the singer says, "I may cry, 'Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh'." One might ask, did she cry like that while she was being kissed. So much for the literal.

Currently Cafe Songbook does not offer a version of the complete lyrics for "Do it Again.
"The complete and authoritative lyrics for "Do it Again"
can be found in:

Reading Lyrics, Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.

Click here to read Cafe Songbook lyrics policy.

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Credits

The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"Do It Again"

1922
Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
album: Paul Whiteman #2 CDN020B

Notes: The "Do it Again" track was recorded on March 28, 1922, Victor recording, 18882-B, instrumental only. This recording reached number one on the charts June 3rd, remaining in that position for two weeks and on the charts for nine weeks. A Whiteman version of "Do it Again" was used as background music in the TV Series Boardwalk Empire.
Video: View and listen in center column, just below.
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video before starting another.)

1950
June Christy
album: Day Drams

(no music video currently available)

Notes: June Christy's recording of "Do it Again," originally recorded in 1950 shows up on her compilation albums Day Dreams (1995, above) and Cool Christy (2002).
Video:
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1953
Marilyn Monroe
album: The Very Best of
Marilyn Monroe

Notes: Gershwin biographer Howard Pollack writes "Monroe's 1953 release of ["Do it Again"] helped secure her the role of Lorelei Lee in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which in turn catapulted her to stardom."
Video: Above video is album track. View live performance (not from album) center column below.
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1957
Sarah Vaughan
album: Sarah Vaughan
Sings George Gershwin

Notes: Recorded in New York, March 20, 1957, with Hal Mooney and his studio orchestra and Jimmy Jones on piano. Sarah recorded "Do it Again" twice: in 1957, on the album noted just above, on which she includes the verse; and one other time, live in 1982 (See below). On the 1957 album Sarah sings two very early Gershwin/De Sylva songs with saucy themes: "Do it Again" and "I Won't Say I Will (and I won't say I won't)" both introduced by Irene Bordoni on Broadway in 1922 and 1923 respectively..
Video:
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1958
Beverly Kenney
album: Beverly Kenney Sings
for Playboys

Notes: Accompaniment on album: Ellis Larkins on piano and celeste, Joe Benjamin on bass.
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1961
Judy Garland
album: Judy at Carnegie Hall

Notes: The version on the album shown above is live at Carnegie Hall, 1961. Click here to view tracks of Judy Garland singing "Do it Again" on various albums.
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1982
Sarah Vaughan
album: Gershwin Live!

Notes: Sarah recorded "Do it Again" twice: in 1957, shown above; and one other time, live in 1982, at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas with arrangement by Marty Paich. Sarah includes the verse in both performances. The concert performance can be found on the album, Gershwin Live!, shown above, which won a Grammy.
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1992
Shirley Horn
album: Loads of Love

Notes: On the album Shirley Horn is on piano and vocal, Charles Ables on Bass and Steve Williams on drums. Joel Siegel in his liner notes for Horn's I Love You, Paris writes how the singer, at this her debut Paris concert, which took place at the 2000 seat Theatre du Chatalet, took "the sultry 'Do it Again' . . . at the leisurely tempo vetoed by Mercury Records producers thirty years earlier as 'too suggestive.'" After the concert, Horn remarked, "I've never seen so many young people come out to hear my music, much younger than the audiences at home. . . . I was very moved by their support and wanted to give them the best performance I could."
Video: same track as on album above
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1998
Michael Feinstein
album: Michael and George

(music-video currently unavailable)

1999 (studio) /2001 (live)
Diana Krall
album: When I Look in Your Eyes

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Notes: Krall's 2001 live performance in Paris of "Do it Again" can be heard (and seen) on the Cafe Songbook Main Stage above. This album includes her studio recording of the song. When I Look in Your Eyes was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year, the first time in 25 years that a jazz album was nominated for this award. It won two awards: Best Jazz Vocal and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 42nd Grammy Awards. Billboard ranked the album at #9 on the magazine's Top Jazz Albums of the Decade.
Personnel on the album includes: Diana Krall - piano, vocals; Chuck Berghofer - bass; Alan Broadbent - piano; Larry Bunker - vibraphone; Pete Christlieb - saxophone; John Clayton - bass; Jeff Hamilton - drums; Eddie Karam - conductor;; Russell Malone - guitar; Johnny Mandel - conductor; Lewis Nash - drums; Ben Wolfe - bass.
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2006
Rufus Wainwright
album: Rufus Does Judy
At Carnegie Hall

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Notes: A 2007 two CD set. "On June 14, 2006, Rufus Wainwright took to the stage to recreate the Greatest Show of All Time in honor of the Greatest Show of All Time: Judy Garland's legendary 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall. He recreated the entire show song-for-song in the very same venue it was recorded at. Garland fanatics feared a fiasco, but the show was a triumph. His sophisticated act of homage to his hero was both a loving tribute and an arch commentary on the original, featuring classics like 'Over The Rainbow', 'Come Rain Or Come Shine' and 'Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart'. Backed by a 36-piece orchestra and arranged by Broadway's famed Stephen Oremus (Wicked, Avenue Q), Rufus's vocal talent soars over those classic melodies" -- Amazon Editorial Revue -- Listen to Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall in 1961 above.
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2009
Kate Ceberano (vocal) Mark Isham (trumpet)
album: Bittersweet

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