Groucho Marx’ sly signature song from the movie At The Circus

Lydia The Tattooed Lady from At the Circus

One of my favorite Groucho Marx songs is Lydia the Tattooed Lady. Written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. While some of the references to current events at the time are dated, the sly humor is unrelenting. The song stood the test of time and ended up on the Muppet Show. In pre-YouTube days I hunted for a copy of the movie with no success.

The Muppet Show version is pure burlesque true to the Marx Brothers heritage. The bump and grind drummer is a nice touch.

Yip Harburg’s clever rhymes like “Lydia” and “encyclopedia” were inspired by W.S.Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan. He cleverly uses it the to pull off numerous double entendres in the lyrics.

The same humorous type of rhyme was buried in Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen – “what’s it to you”, “never show it to me, do you”, “before I knew you.” The correct pronunciation of “knew you” and “to you” is twisted like “Lydia” changes “encyclopedia”. Cohen’s sly mix of the carnal and holy is “to ya” rhyming with “hallelujah”. Once the audience mistook the song for a hymn, Cohen dropped that wry humor from subsequent reverent and overblown performances.

Harold Arlen is more of the most prolific American popular songwriters. Along with Lydia the Tattooed Lady, a bit of vaudevillian humor, he composed the music for the Judy Garland hit musicalOver the Rainbow, and songs like It’s Only a Paper Moon, That Old Black Magic and I’ve Got the World on a String.

In one of his last TV appearances in 1969 at age 79, Groucho showed he could make the moves and get us grinning one more time. He sings and dances the song for Dick Cavett including a few pirouettes.

For another older version, try Orrin Tucker on a 78 record.