Track Title:               My Cousin in Milwaukee
Album Title:               George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, disc 11

Prime Artist:              Ella Fitzgerald
Arranger:                  Nelson Riddle
Lyrics by:                 Ira Gershwin     (b. Israel Gershvin)
Music by:                  George Gershwin     (b. Jacob Gershvin)

Producer:                  Norman Granz
Orchestra:                 Nelson Riddle
From the Show:             Pardon My English  1932 (S)

Lyrics:
Once I visited my cousin, in Milwaukee, USA
She got boyfriends by the dozen, when she sang in a lowdown way
She was a positive sensation
The songs that she sang would never miss
My cousin was my inspiration
That's how I got like this

I got a cousin in Milwaukee
She's got a voice so squawky
And though she's tall and kind of gawky
Oh, how she gets the men

Her singing isn't operatic
It's got a lot of static
What makes your heart get acrobatic
Nine times out of ten

When she sings hot, you can't be solemn
It sends the shivers up and down your spinal column
When she sings blue, the men shout, "What stuff!"
That baby is hot stuff

So if you like the way I sing songs,
If you think that I'm a wow
You can thank my squawky cousin from Milwaukee
Because she taught me how

(instrumental bridge)

When she sings hot, you can't be solemn
It sends the shivers up and down your spinal column
When she sings blue, the men shout, "What stuff!"
That baby is hot stuff

So if you like the way I sing songs,
If you think that I'm a wow
You can thank my squawky cousin from Milwaukee
Because she taught me how


Transcribed by Todd Peach