Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love

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"Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" (1928) is the first, possibly the best, of Cole Porter's famous "list songs." It was contributed to the pot-pourri "Paris," a hit song in a show that was also a hit, a suggestive and droll string of inventive comparisons and examples, preposterous pairings and double-entendres, dropping famous names and events, drawing unexpectedly from highbrow and popular culture.

The song has been covered many times since, although usually excerpting only a limited portion of the original lyrics. In the 1950s, Noel Coward wrote his own lyrics for the song for his cabaret performances in Las Vegas and New York.

A hard rock version performed by Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg was used as the theme song in the 1995 movie Tank Girl; the song is also performed by star Lori Petty in a musical revue number within the film. It was also performed by singer Alanis Morissette (herself a writer of "list songs") in the movie De-Lovely.

The 1933 film Let's Do It has songs by Harold Arlen instead.

The White Stripes' song, "Forever For Her (Is Over For Me)" from their 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan borrows lyrics and themes from this song:

"So let's do it, just get on a plane and just do it // Like the birds and the bees and get to it"

Perhaps one reason that the lyrics are so often customized is because the original version contains lines like these: (from the 1935 version by Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson)

And that's why
Chinks do it, Japs do it,
Up in Lapland, Laps do it,
Let's do it
Let's fall in love.

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