Oh, You Beautiful Doll

"Oh, You Beautiful Doll"
Cover of "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", 1911.
Music by	Nat D. Ayer Irving Berlin (in the 1928 musical, The Swing Party Of 1928)
Lyrics by	Seymour Brown
Published	1911, 1928 (in play)
Language	English
Form	Ragtime

"Oh, You Beautiful Doll" is a ragtime love song published in 1911 with words by Seymour Brown and music by Nat D. Ayer. The song was one of the first with a twelve-bar opening. It is well-known by its chorus:

Oh! you beautiful doll,

You great big beautiful doll!

Let me put my arms about you,

I could never live without you;

Oh! you beautiful doll,

You great big beautiful doll!

If you ever leave me how my heart will ache,

I want to hug you but I fear you'd break

Oh, oh, oh, oh,

Oh, you beautiful doll!

Recorded by many artists, it has also been featured in several major movies—The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), For Me and My Gal (1942), Broadway Rhythm (1944), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), and The Taming Of The Shrew (1969) as well as some Looney Tunes cartoons such as Hair-Raising Hare. The Kidsongs Kids and Ruby Biggle sang this song with a baby elephant named Belle in their 1995 video and DVD: "Baby Animal Songs".

References

Bibliography

• Ayer, Nat D.; Brown, Seymour. "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" (sheet music). New York: Jerome H. Remick & Co. (1911).

External links

• Recording by Billy Murray and the American Quartet