Wouldn't It Be Loverly

"Wouldn't It Be Loverly"
Julie Andrews as Eliza in "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" segment, 1957
Song
Published	1956
Genre	Showtune
Composer(s)	Frederick Loewe
Lyricist(s)	Alan Jay Lerner
Songs from the film My Fair Lady
Act I "Overture" "Busker Sequence" "Why Can't the English?" "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" "With a Little Bit of Luck" "I'm an Ordinary Man" "With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)" "Just You Wait" "The Servants' Chorus (Poor Professor Higgins)" "The Rain in Spain" "I Could Have Danced All Night" "Ascot Gavotte" "On the Street Where You Live" "Eliza's Entrance/Embassy Waltz" Act II "You Did It" "Just You Wait (Reprise)" "On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)" "Show Me" "The Flower Market/Wouldn't It Be Loverly? (Reprise)" "Get Me to the Church on Time" "A Hymn to Him" "Without You" "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" "I Could Have Danced All Night (Reprise) / Finale"

"Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a popular song by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, written for the 1956 Broadway play My Fair Lady.^[1]

The song is sung by flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her street friends. It expresses Eliza's wish for a better life.

In addition to pronouncing "lovely" as "loverly", the song lyrics highlight other facets of the Cockney accent that Professor Henry Higgins wants to refine away as part of his social experiment.

In the stage version it was sung by Julie Andrews.^[1] In the 1964 film version, Marni Nixon dubbed the song for Audrey Hepburn.^[2] Both Andrews' and Nixon's versions are available on the original cast and soundtrack albums, respectively, and Hepburn's original version is available in the specials for the DVD of the film.

Andy Williams released a version of the song on his 1964 album, The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the song was used in television advertisements for Commonwealth Bank of Australia home mortgages ^[3]

Covers and parodies

On the children's show Sesame Street episode 3119, Oscar the Grouch meets a British Grouch named Prunella (a Grouch performed by Louise Gold), who expresses desire to go the "perfect Grouch place", which doesn't exist, but she has imagined it several times. During the course of this fantasy, she sings "Wouldn't It Be Yucky", which parodies "Wouldn't It Be Loverly".^[4]

References

1 2 League, The Broadway. "My Fair Lady – Broadway Musical – Original - IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
↑ "My Fair Lady". 25 December 1964 – via IMDb.
↑ Commonwealth Bank -Wouldn't it Be Lovely Underwater on YouTube
↑ Sesame Maniac (22 July 2015). "Sesame Street - Prunella The Grouch" – via YouTube.

External links

My Fair Lady "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" on The Ed Sullivan Show on YouTube, Julie Andrews on The Ed Sullivan Show on March 19, 1961
"Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" from "My Fair Lady" on YouTube, 2001 London revival
Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

My Fair Lady by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner (Lerner and Loewe)
Characters	Eliza Doolittle
Source	Pygmalion (1912 play) by George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion (1938 film) by George Bernard Shaw adapted by W. P. Lipscomb and Cecil Lewis
Films	My Fair Lady (1964 film) The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) Galatea (1977) Man Pasand (1980)
Albums	My Fair Lady (1956 Broadway cast recording) My Fair Lady (1956 Shelly Manne album) My Fair Lady (1958 Oscar Peterson Trio album) Nat King Cole Sings My Fair Lady (1963 album) My Fair Lady Loves Jazz (1964 Billy Taylor album) The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits (1964 Andy Williams album)
Musical numbers	"Wouldn't It Be Loverly? " "With a Little Bit of Luck" "The Rain in Spain" "I Could Have Danced All Night" "On the Street Where You Live" "Get Me to the Church on Time" "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"
Television	"My Fair Laddy" "One If by Clam, Two If by Sea" Selfie
Related	The Street Where I Live

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