Billie Holiday - Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (Brunswick Records 1937) video free download

"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, is one of the most famous songs from their classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, adapted from Edna Ferber's novel.

The song, written in a blues tempo, is sung in the show by several characters, but is most closely associated with the character Julie, the biracial leading lady of the showboat "Cotton Blossom". It is Julie, who is first heard singing the song -- to Magnolia, the daughter of Cap'n Andy Hawks and his wife Parthenia (Parthy), owners of the show boat. In the musical's plot, the number is supposed to be a song familiar to African-Americans for years, and this provides one of the most dramatic moments in the show. When Queenie, the black cook, comments that it is strange that light-skinned Julie knows the song because only black people sing it, Julie becomes visibly uncomfortable. Later, we learn that this is because Julie is "passing" as white -- she and her white husband are guilty of miscegenation under the state's law.

Immediately after Julie sings the song through once, Queenie chimes in with her own lyrics to it, and she is joined by her husband Joe, the black stevedore on the boat. This is followed by Julie, Queenie, Magnolia, Joe, and the black chorus all performing a song-and-dance to the number.

The lyrics are under copyright, but limited portions can be repeated for critical analysis (see educational source for entire song). The words of the song emphasize an intense love, regardless of his money or accomplishment, as a force of nature likened to fish born to swim, or birds driven to fly.

Billie's accompanied by Buck Clayton (tp), Prince Robinson (cl), Vido Musso (ts), Teddy Wilson (p), Allan Reuss (g) Walter Page (b), and Cozy Cole as SWING ROO (ds). Recorded in New York, November 1, 1937. (Brunswick Records)

Fish got to swim and birds got to fly

I've got to love one man till I die

Can't help lovin' that man of mine

Tell me he's lazy tell me he's slow

Tell me I'm crazy maybe I know

Can't help lovin' that man of mine

When he goes away

That's a rainy day

And when he comes back that day is fine

The sun will shine

He can come home as late as can be

Home without him ain't no home to me

Can't help lovin't dat man of mine