Originally introduced in 1927 in an ill-fated Broadway show which closed in two weeks, the song re-appeared in Lew Leslie’s “Blackbirds of 1928”. With music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields (the same wonderful songwriting duo that brought us “I’m in the Mood for Love” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street”) this upbeat, cheerful ditty was a favorite of depression-weary Americans, and it has been featured in over nine movies and more than 450 recordings.
LYRICS
I can't give you anything but love, Baby,
That's the only thing I've plenty of, Baby,
Dream awhile, scheme awhile, we're sure to find
Happiness and I guess
all those things you've always pined for.
Gee, I'd like to see you looking swell, Baby.
Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, Baby.
Till that lucky day, you know darned well, Baby
I can't give you anything but love.
The lyrics to this Thirties-era classic are pure poetry, but the lyricist was actually a BBC executive, Eric Maschwitz, writing under the pseudonym, Holt Maxwell. With music by Jack Strachey and Harry Link, it was written for a BBC musical program, but it found its way across the Atlantic, and the recording by Billie Holliday established it as one of the great standards of American popular music.
LYRICS
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces,
An airline ticket to romantic places,
And still my heart has wings,
these foolish things remind me of you.
A tinkling piano in the next apartment,
Those stumbling words that told you
what my heart meant,
A fairground's painted swings,
these foolish things remind me of you.
You came, you saw, you conquered me.
When you did that to me,
I knew somehow this had to be.
The winds of March
that make my heart a dancer,
A telephone that rings but who's to answer?
Oh, how the ghost of you clings,
these foolish things remind me of you.
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”
(Dorothy Fields/Jimmy McHugh)
1928
“These Foolish Things”
(Holt Marvell/Jack Strachey/Harry Link)
1935