Whenever I stumble across anything of interest, rather than bookmark it, I have a habit of simply leaving the screen open. This is why I always wind up with literally hundreds of tabs crowning multiple browser windows. This morning, I thought I’d distill a few of these to provide a touch of pre-Covid fantasy about taking your “sugar” to Sunday tea at the Ritz.
The song, “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” was written by Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal & Pierre Norman. Though it was destined to become a popular standard, it was actually introduced in knockabout fashion by Chico Marx in “Monkey Business” (1931), as part of a piano medley that also features the pizzicato from Delibes’ ballet “Sylvia.”
This is from a 20-minute montage of Chico performances from all the Marx Brothers movies, which you are welcome to view in its entirety, but I’ve cued the link to start at the relevant clip.
Here’s the actual song, with vocals by Nat King Cole.
Interestingly, “Monkey Business” is also the film in which the Marxes, who play stowaways, attempt to slip off a boat by using a passport allegedly stolen from Maurice Chevalier. (Chevalier does not appear in the film.) Each brother, in turn, does his Chevalier impression for an increasingly exasperated customs official. Naturally, this involves multiple, ludicrous renditions of “You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me.” Chevalier introduced the song the year before in the film “The Big Pond.” “You Brought a New Kind of Love” was also composed by the team of Fain, Kahal & Norman.
The Marxist take on Chevalier:
Chevalier sings it:
Though it’s my practice always to start the day with tea, by now I’m well on to my java jive. With a debonair doff of a dapper boater, I wish you all a sweet, caffeinated Sunday.
