Take Two
Where we take two different jazz interpretations of a song
Too Darn Hot
It's too darn hot
It's too darn hot
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight
Refill the cup with my baby tonight
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight
Refill the cup with my baby tonight
But I ain't up to my baby tonight
'Cause it's too darn hot
Cole Porter wrote the song Too Darn Hot for the musical show Kiss Me Kate in 1948 and a film version was made in 1953 by MGM.. The story line was based on the Shakespeare play The Taming Of The Shrew. The song is staged as a production number where the song represents the company of the show taking a break offstage during the intermission of their play - there is a video here.
The original lyrics are interesting in that they are 'of their time' in referring to The Kinsey Report, although they were changed for the film to "According to the latest report".​
According to the Kinsey report
Every average man you know
Much prefers to play his favorite sport
When the temperature is low
But when the thermometer goes way up
And the weather is sizzling hot
Mister Adam for his madam is not
‘Cause it’s too too too too darn hot
Alfred Kinsey was a Zoologist at Indiana University and he published two reports, one on Sexual Behaviour In The Human Male (1948) and another on Sexual Behaviour In The Human Female (1953). The research was based on data, analysis and conclusions collected from approximately 5,300 men over a fifteen-year period and then personal interviews with approximately 6,000 women.
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The books were contraversial. This was the end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s and sex was not as openly discussed publically as it would become in the 1960s. The reports "challenged conventional beliefs about sexuality and discussed subjects that had previously been taboo". It was interesting that Cole Porter saw fit to include the reference into his lyrics.
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Our first jazz take on the song is a big band version by the Ljublijana Academy of Music from Slovenia:
Our second take comes from last year (2024) when singer Caity Gyorgy called in to pianist Emmet Cohen's place. Caity is a Canadian singer from Calgary, Alberta, her parents having come from Hungary in the 1930s. She received the Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album Of The Year in 2022 (Now Pronouncing: Caity Gyorgy) and her latest album, Hello! How Are You?, is available to sample and buy here. Caity and Emmet clearly have a ball with the number:
It's too darn hot
It's too darn hot
I’d like to fool with my baby tonight
Break every rule with my baby tonight
I’d like to fool with my baby tonight
Break every rule with my baby tonight
But pillow, you’ll be my baby tonight
‘Cause it’s too darn hot
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2025.11