2:52
single, 1949
Written by Frank Thurman Hedges and Louis Palmer
This charming jazz vocal number is all about carpe diem: spend your cash, die broke and happy, you can't take it with you. Backed by the lush strings of the Teddy Stewart Orchestra, Washington swings as she delivers the funny lyrics with crisp phrasing and winking amusement. "Now what's the good of earning / With no time for spending / You know you're simply headed / For a horizontal ending." It's packed with playful fatalism, but Washington's delivery makes it sparkle as she delivers lines like the one about how her man won't make a great lover "Wrapped in brown / with a hardwood cover." The big punchline, though, is at the end, when with a great crescendo of strings, Washington belts out, "So daddy won't you hear my plea / Do me a favor and please / Make out your will to me." If he won't take her advice, Dinah plans to take his money!
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