Lyrics to "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me"--underlying message, cultural context

Cafe Society
1

The subject song was a Duke Ellington tune written in the 1940s by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Bob Russell. It’s been recorded by many, ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to Boz Scaggs to Phil Collins.

I don’t think quoting the entire lyrics is allowed here (still under copyright). But of course if you’re interested they’re not hard to find. The gist of it is that the singer is talking to his girlfriend (reverse the genders if you like) saying not to listen to the gossip of others about him. Yes, he’s been seen with someone else, but that doesn’t mean he’s “been untrue.” Do nothing till you hear from him.

The literal meaning is clear. But I am wondering what story they are trying to tell here.

  1. This is an earnest plea to ignore the talk about him seeing someone else because he is committed to his girlfriend. Somehow this would be acceptable in the context of the culture of the times.

  2. He is a player and is gaslighting this girl. It’s ironic in that the song is about what a piece of shit he is.

2

“Do nothing til you hear from me”… Well, she’s hearing from him now. Whatever it is he’s going to say to explain it, he should be explaining now. “I’ll explain… later” sounds to me like he needs some time to come up with an explanation.

3

Aside: here’s a couple of people who may need to send a link to the song to their respective spouses:

4

I hate it when that happens!

5

IMO its deliberately ambiguous, and is meant to be interpreted both ways, like on one level its an ernest plea from the singer to his girl in the hope she’d reject any false rumors about him, on another its a clearly false desperate attempt to get out of being caught cheating (akin to “It wasn’t me”).

I have no evidence to back that up. It’s possible that at the time no one would consider the latter interpretation, but i am skeptical human nature being what it is.

6

It’s the innocent misunderstanding trope found in a hundred rom-coms. The narrators of songs back in the day were assumed by default to be sincere.

7

But if the song is sincetely describing him as a shithead, then what conclusions do we draw?

Or was he portrayed as a typical man of his era, where what we now call “shithead”, they called “normal”?

8

I tend to see it that way—the Ellington song presented ‘cheating’ as being…not that bad. Certainly the lyrics contain no hint of shame.

(And, yes, I am making the assumption that the protagonist of the song DID cheat.)

9

It seems fairly straightforward to me: the singer “may” have kissed and hugged someone else in a romantic way (references to “some kiss” and “other arms”) while away from his real love, but it didn’t go any further than that, and it didn’t mean anything to him. “The words in my heart reveal how I feel about you.”

The only question is whether he is telling the truth. If he is writing this in a letter (“though we’re apart”), I can see why he would want his love to suspend judgment until he could talk to her in person. In the meantime, he is decrying gossip and the harm it can do.

10

This is exactly what I’m getting at.

11

But he admits that the rumor is true:

True, I’ve been seen with someone new
But does that mean that I’m untrue?

12

“Can’t call it Cheatin’. She reminds me of you”

13

Being seen with someone new can just mean being seen together in public, without anything happening in more private surroundings. So the singer is saying that, while superficial evidence may point to something bad, the evidence is not very strong and is, in fact, misleading. Whether one believes that this is the truth is going to depend very much on what one knows of their character, something about which we are completely ignorant.

14

It was his… Sister! Yeah, that’s the ticket!