Typed Letter Signed about "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"

An interesting typed letter signed from the great composer and lyricist to Albert "Doc" Sirmay, head of the music publisher Chappell and a close collaborator with Porter, advising Sirmay that he does not want the lyrics of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" changed "for political reasons." Dated August 20, 1960. Porter goes on to mention the Cole Porter Hour on TV as well as the musical Silk Stockings, but concludes: "it upset me when Mr. Elliot Norton [in the Boston Review] called my score 'the lamest of the Cole Porter musical comedies.'" 1 p.

Text, in full: "Dear Doctor: Please tell Jule Styne's office that I really don't want to have any of my lyrics in MY HEART BELONGS TO DADDY changed for political reasons. I missed the Wednesday Cole Porter hour on TV as we didn't get that program. I subscribed a large sum of money for THE SOUND OF LIFE dinner. Thank you a lot for sending me the nice notice on Genevieve playing in SILK STOCKINGS but it upset me when Mr. Elliot Norton called my score 'the lamest of the Cole Porter musical comedies.' Love - Cole."

Originally written for the 1938 musical Leave It to Me! and performed by Mary Martin, the rather saucy song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" was adapted for Marilyn Monroe in the 1960 film Let's Make Love, with a changed introduction and additional verse. The most provocative line of the original song, "If I invite / a boy, some night / to dine on my fine finnan haddie," although sometimes misunderstood as "food and haddie," was not changed. Let's Make Love would be Monroe's last appearance in a musical film.

Composer, arranger and editor Albert "Doc" Sirmay was the music director of the leading music publishing firm Chappell. According to Mark Eden Horowitz, Sirmay can be considered a collaborator with Porter: he "worked closely with [Chappell's] roster of composer, including Kern, Gershwin, and especially Porter. Many of the published piano-vocal scores of standards of the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s owe their elegance, clarity, and playability to Sirmay. He could convert a lead sheet to a richly accompanied song; he could wed melodies to accompaniment figures to make the totality of a song playable on the piano; he was a master of chord voicings. Many of the Porter music manuscripts in both the Library and Yale collections are in Sirmay's clear and flowing hand." ("Cole Porter's Papers," in A Cole Porter Companion, p. 310.) (14462)

---

TLS

Song

Film

Theater

• Sold