Miss Otis Regrets
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Miss Otis Regrets is a song by Cole Porter from 1934. It was first performed on stage by Douglas Byng in Hi Diddle Diddle, which opened October 3, 1934 at the Savoy Theatre, London.[1] Although the song was written for Ada "Bricktop" Smith.[2]
"Miss Otis Regrets" is a song in the blues style, and Porter's wry take on some common lyrical subject matter of the genre, telling the tale of a woman who comes to a bad end after an encounter with a man. But Porter's peculiar twist is that Miss Otis is a polite society lady, and the story of her last evening is told by her servant after Miss Otis has met her demise. In a few compact lines, the servant reveals how, after being seduced and then abandoned, Miss Otis hunted down and shot her seducer, was arrested, taken from the jail by a mob, and hanged. The servant conveys Miss Otis's final, polite, apologetic words to her friends: "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today."
The song has been recorded by Nat King Cole, Linda Ronstadt, Ella Fitzgerald, The Pogues the Mills Brothers, Bette Midler, John Barrowman and others. The title of the Cheers episode "Mr. Otis Regrets" is also, presumably, a reference to the song.[3]
