You know, the song with this verse:
You say ee-ther, I say eye-ther
You say nee-ther, I say ny-ther,
Ee-ther, eye-ther, nee-ther, ny-ther,
Let’s call the whole thing off!
You say po-tay-to, I say po-tah-to,
You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to,
Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, to-may-to, to-mah-to,
Let’s call the whole thing off…
Where did this song come from? Was it a show tune? 
“Let’s Call The Whole thing Off”: words by Ira Gershwin, music by George Gershwin. Introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film “Shall We Dance?”
For me, the definitive version will always be Ella Fitzgerald dueting with Louis Armstrong.
http://us.imdb.com/Soundtracks?0029546
Jomo Mojo beat me to it! It’s from Shall We Dance? (1937), which Gershwin scored.
Extra bit: Rogers & Astaire performed to this song on roller skates in the movie.
Ohhhhhhhhh Yea! 
There’s a great compilation CD, Best of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, that has this song along with the all-time greatest Ella and Louis duet ever, “Stars Fell on Alabama.”
Ella’s version is great, but Billie Holiday’s version on Verve from 1956/57 is terrific as well.
One of my favorite skits:
[Paraphrasing from long-ago memory]
One of the Secret Policeman shows (Amnesty International fundraisers - wish I could remember which tape) had a great skit with a guy singing this song for an audition:
You say po-tay-to and I say…po-tay-to (?!)
You say to-may to and I say…to-may-to…
Po-tay-to
Po-tay-to
To-may-to
To-may-to
Let’s call the whole thing off…
with an increasingly confused look on his face as he goes through the entire song.
Finally, completely exasperated he says to the auditioner: “I’m sorry, I can’t see anything wrong with this relationship.”
This song constituted George Gershwin’s only Oscar nomination. He lost to the unforgettable “Sweet Leilani” from Waikiki Wedding. :rolleyes:
This set the gold standard to which all “so-&-so got robbed” arguments must be compared and found wanting.
Upon reflection, my post has one small problem–wrong song. Although “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” is from Shall We Dance (my favorite of all the F&G films, btw), the losing Oscar-nominee was actually “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”. George still got robbed.
Other songs written for the film: “Shall We Dance”, “They All Laughed”, “I’ve Got Beginner’s Luck”, and “Slap That Bass” (Fred really cooks in his solo dance number to this down in the boiler room of the steamship where about half of the film takes place)
From What were you in a Previous Life? by Adam Green which btw is the funniest collection of cartoons ever.
You say erotic
and I say erratic
you have a headach
and I have a haddock
Erratic! Erotic!
A Headache! A Haddock!
Let’s call the whole thing off!
Let’s tie you up with cloth?
I’m going to call the cops!
Let’s beat you with a sloth?