"You Do Something to Me" was the first number in Cole Porter's first fully integrated-book musical Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929). In the original production, the song was performed by Genevieve Tobin and William Gaxton, performing the roles of Looloo Carroll and Peter Forbes, respectively.
Background There are two verses and two choruses. The song has been described as "a tender prequel" to "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," Porter's first popular song.
Recorded versions The song has been recorded by artists including: The Clicquot Club Eskimos directed by Harry Reser (1929) Lena Horne on It's Love (1955) Perry Como on So Smooth (1955) Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1955 for his radio show. It was subsequently included in The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56) (Mosaic Records MD7-245, 2009). Frank Sinatra on Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!!! (1961) Ella Fitzgerald, on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (1956) and Ella à Nice (recorded 1971, released 1982) Sinéad O'Connor on Red Hot + Blue (1990) Bryan Ferry on As Time Goes By (1999) Doris Day Johnny Mathis Marlene Dietrich
Popular culture The phrase "the voodoo that you do so well" is quoted by Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) in the 1974 film Blazing Saddles as he exhorts his gang to attack a frontier town. Bette Midler's version of the song plays over the final credits of the 1991 film Scenes from a Mall, which starred her and Woody Allen. The "voodoo" phrase is also quoted in the 1993 Salt-N-Pepa song "Shoop"."We don't even need the additional evidence of rock and country artists doing albums of standards that include Porter songs, or the recent rap hit "Shoop" which quotes the phrase "the voodoo that you do so well" from Porter's 1929 'You Do Something To Me.'" A 2011 Paul Krugman editorial in The New York Times was headlined "Do Do that Voodoo". It was about trickle-down economics.Paul Krugman, "Do Do That Voodoo", New York Times, May 17, 2011.
References
External links Fifty Million Frenchmen at Internet Broadway Database