Getting to Know You (song)

"Getting to Know You"
Song

"Getting to Know You" is a show tune from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. It was first sung by Gertrude Lawrence in the original Broadway production and later by Marni Nixon who dubbed for Deborah Kerr in the 1956 film adaptation. In this show, Anna sings the song as she strikes up a warm and affectionate relationship with the children and the wives of the King of Siam.

This song is one of the few cases during the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership when Rodgers re-used a melody he had written for an earlier show and then discarded. In this case the melody was a tune he wrote for South Pacific, called "Suddenly Lucky", which he originally intended for the character of Nellie to sing but replaced it with the song "(I'm in Love with) a Wonderful Guy". Mary Martin, the star of South Pacific, who had proposed that Rodgers should cast Yul Brynner as the King, reminded Rodgers of this tune, and so Hammerstein wrote new lyrics to it. James Taylor covered the song off of the children's music compilation called For Our Children.

Popular versions on record include James Taylor, Dinah Shore, Sharon, Lois & Bram, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Nancy Wilson. Leon Redbone sang the song in ads for the Chevrolet Geo. A version by NRBQ is included on their album Brass Tacks.

In popular culture

• In the play A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney (1958), Peter sings this song drunk when he first sees Jo pregnant.
• The song was featured in the film The Addams Family (1991).
• Jack Benny and Gisele MacKenzie performed this as a violin duet on The Jack Benny Program.
• The song was sung by the patrons of Gary's Olde Towne Tavern to the Cheers gang in the episode "Bar Wars VII" (1993).
• Gertrude Lawrence's recording of the song was featured on the sitcom The King of Queens in the episode "Arthur, Spooner" (2002).
• The song is currently being used in advertisements for kitchen chain Magnet.
• Doug and Wendy sang this song in College Road Trip (2008). Scooter also sang this song at the end of the movie.
• The song was used as a signal to start a weekly task for Week 1 on the 3rd Season of Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up
• The song was sung by legendary children's entertainers, Sharon, Lois & Bram and can be found on their Friends Forever album and television series, Skinnamarink TV.
• The song features in the first episode of Spaced.
• The song was nervously recited by a guest at the dinner party in Season 2 Episode 4 of "The IT Crowd".
• The song was featured in a recent Honda commercial that has the Asimo Robot in a "leaning child" role going all across Canada.
• The song is featured in the season 2 premiere of the show, Glee.
• Much of the song's lyrics were sequenced together by Pogo, who, in 2007, used various sounds from the song to create the electronic piece called "Anna."
• Ray Wise sings the song in an episode of Twin Peaks.
• In the novel "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace, the song features during a bonding montage, within one of the character J. O. Incandenza's films "Blood Sister".

References

• In Hammerstein's Words, 'Something Wonderful' - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98538331