Thy Vacant Brow

What’s the first line of “My Funny Valentine?” It starts with the title, right? My … funny valentine … sweet, comic valentine …

Wrong.

The song was written for Babes In Arms by the songwriting team of Rodgers & Hart. In the 1939 Busby Berkeley film of the same name, 17-year old Judy Garland sings the song to her co-star, Mickey Rooney, starting with this first stanza:

Behold the way our fine feathered friend,
His virtue doth parade
Thou knowest not, my dim-witted friend
The picture thou hast made
Thy vacant brow, and thy tousled hair
Conceal thy good intent
Thou noble upright truthful sincere,
And slightly dopey gent

Slightly dopey gent. Yeah, that seems right for young Master Rooney. But more importantly, even with all of those unwieldy thys and thous, the first stanza gives the song a little more context. As sweet as the melody can be, the lyrics have a backhanded quality. Is your figure less than Greek? Is your mouth a little weak?

But ever since Chet Baker tackled the song in 1954 (and owned it, frankly), the first stanza has been tossed aside. Why? Well, without the last line of the first stanza, the song could be directed at any object of affection, regardless of gender.

Elvis Costello – “My Funny Valentine”

A B-side recorded in 1979, around the same time as Armed Forces. This might be one of the shortest, sparest renditions I’ve ever heard. In less than a minute and a half, Elvis sings his peace and leaves it at that.

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February 12, 2007 – 11:57 am | By Thomas | Posted in Listening, MP3 | Comments (4)
  • Janice

    A lot of songs from that period seem to have that “intro” to the song, before it gets to the meat of it. It’s a convention that fell out of fashion. I remember singing quite a few of them back when I was actually taking voice lessons – and being surprised at how many of them I hadn’t heard before.

  • http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejudygarlandexperience/ Daniel

    Speaking of Judy Garland, There is a popular and exciting new group on Yahoo called THE JUDY GARLAND EXPERIENCE.The group features amazing audio files, photo’s, lively discussions, and more!
    This weekend they are having a contest where you can win unreleased concert recordings by Frank Sinatra (in Jerusalem, 1975), Barbra Streisand (in San Francisco, 1963), Judy Garland (in Chicago, 1958), Johnnie Ray (in New York, 1989), Frances Faye (in San Francisco, 1980), and others. You can hear sample tracks from all the rare CD’s at the site until tomorrow evening. Just go to

    http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejudygarlandexperience/

  • http://www.thejudyroom.com Scott B

    Unfortunately, Garland never sang “My Funny Valentine” in “Babes in Arms”. The song may have been in the original stage show, but it – along with several others – were cut when the show became the basis for the 1939 screen version. This version launched the highly successful “let’s put on a show” series that Garland and Rooney would be famous for.

    Barbra Streisand recorded the original opening verse of “My Funny Valentine” for her 1967 album “Simply Streisand”.

  • http://dramawench.livejournal.com Alyssa

    I agree with Janice – it’s only when you delve into those songs that you discover the interesting intros. “Someone to Watch Over Me” also has a great intro that no one ever does.

    Elvis continually surprises me with the material he tries and makes his own.