They were playing “Let’s Do It” on the Broadway station this morning, and the opening line was “Well, Chinks do it, Japs do it”. WTF?
Original lyrics. It was before the days of PC.
“Chinks do it, Japs do it, up in Lapland even Lapps do it…”
No, it was definitely “Birds do it, bees do it/even educated fleas do it”, but there have been as many versions of this as of the Lord High Executioner’s “little list” song.
“Teenagers squeezed into jeans do it/Probably we’ll live to see machines do it…” 
Well, I have a version by Rudy Vallee that doesn’t get to “Birds do it,” until about 2/3rds of the way through, and it does start out with “Japs do it.” Later versions seem to have dropped the verse or moved it to the end, and put “Birds do it” as the first verse. But it’s clear from the transcribed lyrics that “Japs” was intended: the next three verses involve nationalities.
Of course, things were different then, and I don’t know if “Jap” was pejorative prior to WWII*. The lyrics do not have “Chinks do it,” however; it seems to be “In old Japan, all the Japs do it.”
*The OED seems to confirm this.
A history of the first verse changes.
Even educated nerds do it. :eek:
We try, anyway.
Doesn’t suprise me at all that ditties has been made more PC over the decades. Until the lawsuit against Southwest a few years ago I never knew “Einey Meiney Miney Moe” even mentioned race, let alone dropped the “N Bomb”.
Throw in some of Dr Seuss’ editorial cartoons and it’s no wonder some older folks grew up with unfortunate expressions.
Am I the only one who’s never even heard of it? Am I too young or something?
Maybe so.
there was a home hair color commercial on TV some 25 years ago that used the tune:
Blondes do it;
Reds do it;
Brunettes who wouldn’t be caught dead do it…
Ring any bells?
Who originally wrote this song and when?
No, kaylasdad, but 25 years ago I was only 5 and wasn’t paying much attention to hair…I had just learned English as a matter of fact, within the last year.
Cole Porter, 1928. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_Do_It%2C_Let's_Fall_In_Love
And it wasn’t the only song of his to have lyrics we would consider questionable. This blog cites several egregious examples from The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, including:
This really sounds like something out of The Onion: Our Dumb Century
Another “cleaned up” song is *I get a Kick * The original was “I get no kick from cocaine, flying too high with some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do.” At some point it was changed to “in a plane”
I had a Billy Holiday album with the original lyrics.
BTW, does anyone have a link to a lyrics site for very old music?
When my sister was in 11th grade, the school musical was Anything Goes (she had one of the leads). The girl who played Reno sang this song and they left the “get no kick from cocaine” lyric in. Amazing, isn’t it, when you consider how anal schools are about this sort of thing.
I’m surprised how many people on this thread and the links had never heard this original version of the song. The first time I heard the song was a great old Bing Crosby version that used the original opening. Like one of the links above mentions, the song makes more sense with the original lyrics, in spite of the un-pc* words – each verse is supposed to cover different territory; with the birds and bees opening, you jump from animals to humans, only to go back to animals again later.
*I say un-pc rather than racist, because I doubt it was intended to be racist – at least no more so than the references to any of the other nationalities.
I don’t think it has anything to do with age, unless you’re 80+ and heard it when it was first popular. I’m five years younger than you, but I wouldn’t expect most people our age to know the song. It’s just a matter of interests – it’s a song you’re likely to have encountered if you have any interest in old standards. Great song, though.
That was not the original lyric; you’re mixing up two different verses.
Some get their kicks from cocaine
I’m sure that if I took even one sniff
That would bore me terrifically too
But I get a kick out of you
. . . . .
I get no kick in a plane
Flying too high with some guy in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do
But I get a kick out of you
I still hear it done that way; not sure I’ve ever heard a cleaned up version.