Song lyrics to It’s De-lovely, Written by Cole Porter, Performed by Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O’Connor in Anything Goes
It’s De-Lovely is one of Cole Porter’s hit songs, originally appearing in his 1936 musical, Red Hot and Blue. It was introduced by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope. The song was later used in the musical Anything Goes, first appearing in the 1956 film version (when it was sung by Donald O’Connor and Mitzi Gaynor); in the 1962 revival where it was sung by Hal Linden and Barbara Lang, and in the 2004 biographical film De-Lovely, where it was performed by Robbie Williams.
The night is young, the skies are clear
So if you want to go walking, dear,
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.
I understand the reason why
You’re sentimental, ’cause so am I,
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.
You can tell at a glance
What a swell night this is for romance,
You can hear dear Mother Nature
Murmuring low,
“Let yourself go!”
So please be sweet, my chickadee,
And when I kiss you, just say to me,
“It’s delightful, it’s delicious,
It’s delectable, it’s delirious,
It’s dilemma, it’s delimit, it’s deluxe,
It’s de-lovely”.
I feel a sudden urge to sing
The kind of ditty that invokes the spring.
I’ll control my desire to curse
While you crucify the verse.
This verse I started seems to me
The Tin-Pantithesis of a melody,
So spare us all the pain,
Just skip the darn thing and sing the refrain…
Mi, mi, mi, mi,
Re, re, re, re,
Do, sol, mi, do, la, si.
The night is young, the skies are clear
So if you want to go walking, dear,
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.
I understand the reason why
You’re sentimental, ’cause so am I,
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.
You can tell at a glance
What a swell night this is for romance,
You can hear dear Mother Nature
Murmuring low,
“Let yourself go!”
So please be sweet, my chickadee,
And when I kiss you, just say to me,
“It’s delightful, it’s delicious,
It’s… It’s de-lovely”.
Updated December 18, 2021