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When I Take My Sugar to Tea

Written: 1931

Words and Music by: Sammy Fain,
Irving Kahal
and Pierre Norman

Written for: Independent Publication
or for Monkey Business (movie, 1931)

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Rebecca Kilgore
and
The Reynolds Brothers

performing

"When I Take My Sugar to Tea"

with Ralf Reynolds, leader, washboard; John Reynolds, guitar; Katie Cavera, bass; Marc Caparone, cornet; guest Jeff Barnhart, piano; Dan Barrett, trombone; Bryan Shaw, cornet; and Rebecca Kilgore, vocal.
(March 5, 2011 at Dixieland Monterey.)

More Performances of
"When I Take My Sugar to Tea"
in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet
(Video credit)

 

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"When I Take My Sugar to Tea"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

About the Origins of the Song

 

Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection
The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup)


Copyrights for "I Take My Sugar to Tea" are in the names of the three songwriters (see above.), their family members and the Famous Music Corp., publisher of the sheet music, and are all dated January 20, 1931. The movie Monkey Business was released by Paramount Pictures, about 8 months later on September 19, 1931. Whether Fain, Kahal and Norman, who all worked for Paramount Studios in Hollywood at the time, wrote the song specifically for Monkey Business or not is not yet clear to us.

Two songs written by the team of Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman that later becamestandards were written for and performed in two Paramount movies for whom the songwriting team worked in the early Thirties: "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" was introduced in the 1930 film The Big Pond by Maurice Chevalier as well as parodied by the Marx Brothers in their 1931 movie Monkey Business; "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" was also (more or less) introduced in Monkey Business by Chico Marx (sans vocal) as part of a piano medley with "Pizzicato Polka," a variation on a piece from the classical repertoire.



Chico Marx plays a medley of Leo Delibe's "Pizzicato Polka" and
"When I Take My Sugar to Tea" in the movie Monkey Business (1931).

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Critics Corner

book cover: "The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia" by Thomas Hischak
Thomas Hischak, The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia, Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2002

Thomas Hischak notes in his Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia that "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" was a "dapper number" the theme of which is the singer's desire to avoid having his rather low-class buddies meet his high-class girl. In order to avoid the embarrassment of such an encounter instead of taking her to the local gin mill, he takes her out to tea. Visit the Cafe Songbook Lyrics Lounge, this page below, for more on this theme.

This situation, Hischak points out, is the reverse of that in another of Irving Kahal's lyrics, "Weddin' Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine" which "takes the point-of-view of the discarded old friends" (Hischak, p. 393 paperbound Ed.)




Philip Furia and Laurie Patterson, The Songs of Hollywood, Oxford UP, 2010.


It was often in the "business plan" of movie and record producers to increase publicity for their respective products from the success of a related product, e.g. the recording of a song from their movie. This was generally the reason for releasing a song before its movie came out. The movie Monkey Business may likely have been aided at the box office by the early success of "When I take My Sugar to Tea" but the mere snippet of the song included in the movie was not likely to have helped the song.

To understand why a song like "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," that would go on to be performed more or less ad infinitum by jazz and pop players right through the present day, was given such short shrift in the movie Monkey Business requires a comment on the business side of making movie musicals rather than on the "musical value" side.

According to Philip Furia and Laurie Patterson in their book The Songs of Hollywood, The Marx Brothers, at their new studio, Paramount, had had most of their songs cut from their first Paramount movie Animal Crackers because the studio saw them as superfluous and expensive, cutting them despite the brothers' protests that their Broadway and vaudeville successes had depended on the unique combination of comedy and music in their routines. As a result, only "You Brought A New Kind of Love to Me" and another Fain/Kahal/Norman Song, "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" survived in the final cut of Monkey Business, the latter played, but not sung (and only as part of a medley), by Chico at the piano. (p. 112, hardcover Ed.).

Fortunately for "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," the song's value was more keenly realized as a result of a number of successful early recordings by big bands such as those of Glen Gray, Burt Lown and Joe Mooney, and most prominently by The Boswell Sisters who recorded it accompanied by The Dorsey Bothers and their orchestra in March,1931, even before the release of Monkey Business on September 19, of that year. The Boswell's record rose to number six on the charts also before the movie came out. (Listen to the Boswell's hit recording in The Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet, this page.)

   
   
   
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Lyrics Lounge


"When I Take My Sugar to Tea" sheet music cover
"When I Take My Sugar
To Tea
"
words and music by
Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Pierre Norman original sheet music published 1931 by Famous Music Corp.,
New York City

Click here to read the lyrics for "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" as sung, without the verse, by Frank Sinatra on the album Ring-a-Ding Ding!.

Although Sinatra, like so many singers, omits the verse, you can listen to "When My Sugar Takes Me to Tea" with its verse by any of the following singers featured in the Cafe Songbook Record Video/Cabinet (this page): The Boswell Sisters; Marcus Goldhaber; and Rebecca Kilgore. And here is a transcription of the verse as sung by Goldhaber:

I'm just a little Jackie Horner
Since I met my sugar cain.
The gang of mine has been revealin'
that they're feelin' sore.
I left the lamplight on the corner,
For the moon in lover's lane.
I'm doin' things
I've never did before:

The set up presented in the verse is of a fellow who used to hang out with the guys on the corner but has now turned right proper like little Jack Horner, who having stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum, famously says, "What a good boy am I." The plum the singer has found is, of course, his sweetheart, his "sugar cane," and he is feeling very "good" having found her.

The refrain reveals that all the boys on the corner are jealous of him because he keeps his sugar cane for himself, never takes her "where the gang goes," but rather on Sundays takes her to tea at the Ritz where he and she "forget about their cares." He takes her there because she's "a high-hat baby"; and despite the fact that he's a "rowdy-dowdy," when they're at the Ritz, he's as "Ritzy" as he can be -- apparently ritzy enough to be "rubbing elbows with those millionaires." The singer leaves us with the impression he is not going back to the corner no matter how 'rowdy-dowdy" he has been.

Singers often take liberties both big and small with the published lyric of a song. When Marcus Goldhaber takes what appears to be a very small liberty -- in an otherwise very satisfying rendition of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," -- by changing Irving Kahal's "high-hat baby" to "high-class lady," the liberty he takes is not so small and not so good either -- because it leads to less clarity rather than the probably hoped for more. Kahal's image of "a high-hat baby" not only captures her classy origins, it allows us see her in a more sharply etched image delineated by his argot, the language of his origins on the corner. He may be trying to be as "ritzy" as he can be, but his street talk reveals that his transformation is not complete and perhaps never will be. The poets of Tin Pan Alley, as Philip Furia calls the lyricists of The Great American Songbook, knew what they were doing. Kahal knew how to invest a single, simple phrase with a wealth of complexity. Usually better not to fiddle with their stuff.

Click here to read Cafe Songbook lyrics policy.

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Credits

("When I Take My Sugar to Tea)

 

Credits for Videomakers of custom custom videos used on this page:

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The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"When I Take My Sugar
to Tea"

(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)

Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)

1931
The Boswell Sisters
albums: various

Amazon iTunes

Notes: The Boswell Sisters (Martha, Connie and Helvetia, aka Vet) accompanied by The Dorsey Brothers and a segment of their orchestra for Brunswick Records (Brunswick 6083, recorded "When I Take My Sugar to Tea, March 19, 1931. The sisters were at their height from 1930-1936. They went on to a career of great success, admired by fans as well as fellow performers like Ella Fitzgerald and The Andrews Sisters. Their version of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea includes the verse, and the lead is sung by Connie who does not change the lyric to accommodate a female singer keeping the original gender for the pronouns.
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1931
King Oliver and The Chocolate Dandies
album: Shake it and Brake It

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Dixieland recordings of "When I Take MY Sugar to Tea" from the earliest days of the song through the present have been made throughout the history of the song. The progenitor of these is most likely this 1931 King Oliver (with the Chocolate Dandies) recording -- made at Oliver's final recording session.

"Jazz Hour's Shake It & Break It contains 22 old-fashioned jazz records that were cut for Brunswick, Victor and Vocalion during the last 15 months of King Oliver's recording career. Beginning with a pair of tunes from the session of November 6, 1929 which featured James P. Johnson at the piano, this collection samples most of Joe Oliver's late period recordings, right through to his very last session, a Vocalion date with the Chocolate Dandies on April 15, 1931. By late 1929, King Oliver's chops had deteriorated to the point where trumpet solos were performed by others, most notably Oliver's nephew Dave Nelson, Bubber Miley and Henry 'Red" Allen.' The scat vocals featured in "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" is most likely by trumpeter Wand Pinkett. (quotation above from arwulf arwulf at CDUniverse.com.)
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1947
Nat King Cole Trio
album: The Chronological Nat King Cole
1947


same track as on album referenced above
(remastered)

Amazon iTunes

Notes: The remastered track for "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" is available on several albums including the The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio and The Chronological Nat 'King' Cole 1947 on the Classics label. The following notes are relevant to the 1947 sessions during which "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" was originally recorded in Los Angeles during the period 07/03/1947-08/13/1947 with Nat King Cole on piano and vocal and Oscar Moore on guitar:

"Nine volumes into the Classics Nat King Cole chronology, it is the summer of 1947 and the King Cole Trio is in the process of mutating into pop singer Nat King Cole "at the piano with rhythm accompaniment." Capitol was a growing enterprise, business was brisk and the 23 tracks on this compilation [1947 volume] were recorded during a relatively short span of time -- between July 3 and August 13. Irving Berlin had composed 'What'll I Do' in 1924; soon after Cole revived it with this recording, Frank Sinatra came out with a cover version on Columbia. Cole's warm and personable rendering of Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer's 'Too Marvelous for Words' is as magical and intimate as those recorded for producer Norman Granz by Billie Holiday and Lester Young. A wordless "Rhumba Azul" is an excellent example of the King Cole Trio's cool approach to early modern jazz. The final eight tracks are also entirely instrumental. This is a special treat for those who love the way this man handled the piano. Eventually he would practically abandon the instrument in order to focus entirely upon the art of crooning." ~ arwulf arwulf at CDUniverse.com.
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1956
The Dave Pell Octet
albums: Jazz Goes Dancing
and
Young and Healthy

Amazon iTunes


same track as on albums referenced above

Notes:
"Shortly after it was formed in 1953, the Dave Pell Octet won best new combo of the year in polls conducted by America s Daily News and Mirror newspapers. Six of its eight members were included in Down Beat magazine s 1953 poll of the top musicians in the country. Pell and his group flipped fans every- where they appeared, specializing in Proms and School Dances, and becoming the first name jazz group ever to play for dancing at one of the top Sunset Strip clubs, The Crescendo, and also the Hollywood Palladium. Its jazz was described variously as tasty, sophisticated, subtle, warm, bright, clean, friendly, inventive, happy, and a complete show and concert rolled into one. One successful Octet approach was to have the crowd gather around the bandstand to watch it play a fast jive number featuring the band s excellent soloists. An essential contributing factor in the Octet s success was that Pell hired the West Coast's finest arrangers to write the beguilingly melodic and always attractive, danceable band charts; people of the calibre of Marty Paich, Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Jack Montrose, Med Flory, John T. Williams. And it was this canny combination of quality and accessibility that really made the Octet s name and gave the music its enduring flavour. In Dave's own words: 'Here's hoping you enjoy our combined dance-and-jazz Campus Hop'!"
(from CDUniverse.com).
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1961
Frank Sinatra
album: Ring-a-Ding Ding!

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Unlike many of Sinatra's Reprise and latter-day Capitol releases, there's no real thematic link connecting the songs on this album. Ring-a-Ding Ding! is more a case of Sinatra stepping into the studio with arranger Johnny Mandel* (former trombonist for both Jimmy Dorsey and Count Basie) and a batch of great songs and doing what he does better than anyone else in the world. While the jaunty title tune provided the media with one of many famous Sinatra catch phrases, it's the cool assurance he displays on "A Foggy Day," 'You'd Be So Easy To Love' and others that makes this album an example of the singer in his prime."
*As Will Friedwald, in his book Sinatra! The Song Is You A Singer's Art points out, for the arrangement of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," (as well as for "Easy to Love") Mandel did the "intros, codas and instrumental portions while Dick Reynolds . . . wrote the actual backgrounds behind the vocal" (Friedwald p. 375, hardcover Ed.). Mandel explains in another place that he is "a slow worker" and writing/arranging the music for an entire album required more time than he had to do it right and that is why he needed some help with some of the songs on Ring-a-Ding Ding!.

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1967
Joe Williams
with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra
album: One More for My Baby

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Originally the above track was for the 1967 Joe Williams LP Something Old and Something. New. It is found here on the 1998 compilation CD One More for More Baby.
"After leaving RCA Victor Records in 1966, Joe Williams began performing with the recently formed Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, which had some of the rhythmic impetus he had enjoyed with Count Basie. Contracted to Solid State Records, they cut two albums, a blues collection called Presenting Joe Williams And The Jazz Orchestra (1967) and a ballad set, Something Old, New And Blue ([1967] /1968). This budget-priced compilation selects a mere four tracks from the former and 11 of the 12 tracks from the latter (the missing one is "Everybody Loves My Baby"). While a more complete collection might have been hoped for, the music is still impressive, as Williams re-lives the kind of sound he achieved with Basie and the Jones-Lewis organization proves itself an effective neo-swing unit. ~ William Ruhlmann at CDUniverse.com.
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1980
Harry Allen, Jr.-Keith Ingham Quintet
album: Are You Having Any Fun?: A Celebration of Sammy Fain

Amazon iTunes

Notes: album personnel: Harry Allen (tenor saxophone); John Pizzarelli (guitar); Keith Ingham (piano); Oliver Jackson (drums).
Arranger: Keith Ingham.
". . . Harry Allen, Jr. and British pianist Keith Ingham hold forth on no less than 17 Fain strains. John Pizzarelli is the superb guitarist, harmonizing with Ingham as if turning the key in a series of small treasure chests. Rounding out the rhythm section, drummer Oliver Jackson proves his affinity for both pianists and saxophonists while bassist Dennis Irwin counts his chord changes like tour revenue. The songs are given compact performances, 'Something I Dreamed Last Night' suggesting that only a subject related to sleep would inspire this combo to head toward the five-minute mark on a recorded track. Ingham's career began in Hong Kong, where Tin Pan Alley standards such as the deceptively amorous 'Secret Love' and the darkly gentle 'Tender Is the Night' were no doubt standard fodder in piano lounges. The saxophonist, son of big-band drummer Harry Allen, Sr., plays the melodies of this program as if familiar with the words, all of them, even the ludicrous "A High Hat, a Piccolo and a Cane" -- perhaps following the advice of one of the great instrumentalists, tenor saxophonist Lester Young." ~ Eugene Chadbourne at CDUniverse.com.
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1991
Leon Redbone
album: Sugar

Amazon iTunes

Notes: Leon Redbone entered the 1990s with the baker's dozen of selections on Sugar (1991), one of his best overall efforts to date. His unique and unmistakable interpretations of obscure jazz and early popular melodies are augmented by the occasional and equally singular original composition. The tunes are carefully crafted in such a way that they ably augment Redbone's distinct vocals, which vacillate between a gravel-voiced mumble and full-bodied bellow. In keeping with the musical persona he'd established for himself, the arrangements are often a synthesis of the refined jazz stylings of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, with essential nuggets of traditional American folk, blues and pop. . . . the title track "Sugar," and a standout cover of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," . . . are a rousing mixture of freewheeling ragtime and the playfulness of Django Reinhardt's days in the aforementioned Quintet of the Hot Club of France." from Lindsay Planer at CD Universe.com.
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1994
Judy Carmichael
album: Judy

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Although she could certainly re-create the recordings of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller if she wanted to, when talented pianist Judy Carmichael plays stride it is not as a precious museum piece but rather as a natural part of her musical vocabulary. On this excellent release, she is teamed successfully with electric guitarist Chris Flory, whose solos greatly recall Charlie Christian. Carmichael is in particularly wonderful form on the slower pieces (such as "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?" and "Lazy River"), but she also includes several stomps for variety, making this an easily recommended CD." Scott Yanow at CDUniverse.com.
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2008
Marcus Goldhaber
album: Take Me Anywhere

Amazon iTunes

Notes: In 2006, Marcus Goldhaber made a strong impression with his recording debut, The Moment After. The cool-toned but highly expressive singer displayed a real affinity for vintage standards, tunes taught to him as a child by his mother who was a professional pianist. He has always remembered those times, even while he became involved in theater, musical shows and acting. After five years of steady work as an actor, he realized that singing was his main passion, and that has become the focus of his professional life. Take Me Anywhere not only features Marcus' singing but his debut as a songwriter. While writing his first lyrics, he often remembered an old trick of Irving Berlin's; simply think of another way to say "I love you." Seven songs, including several that have the potential to become standards, were co-written by Marcus and pianist Jon Davis. With Davis, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Marcello Pellitteri forming a very supportive rhythm section and contributing melodic solos, Marcus Goldhaber is free to express himself, both through his words and his singing. The music on Take Me Anywhere forms a unified suite that traces the stages of a love affair. "No Moon At All" has ironic lyrics and serves as a fine introduction for the quartet. "I Get Along Without You Very Well" features unusual words that say the complete opposite of what they really mean. Read the full commentary by Scott Yanow at CDUniverse.com.
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2008
Shauna Antoniuc Trio
album: In the Moonlight

Amazon iTunes

Notes: This is the Shauna Antoniuc Trio's 2nd CD, Jazz vocals accompanied by acoustic guitar and saxophone. The Trio's first CD, from 2002 is The Dreams On Me.
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2015
Konrad Paszkudzki · Martin Pizzarelli · Bucky Pizzarelli · Ricardo Baldacci
album: Brothers in Swing

Amazon iTunes

Notes: "Brothers in Swing is the second album of the singer/guitarist Ricardo Baldacci and the first Brazilian release featuring jazz guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli. This cooperative project also features the talents of bassist Martin Pizzarelli and pianist Konrad Paszkudzki.

"Baldacci is a long time admirer of the Pizzarelli family and one of the few representatives of Swing Jazz in Brazil. He was invited by Lenny White to play in a jazz festival in Manhattan when he first met Bucky. In this trip Baldacci also met sound engineer Bill Moss and asked him about the possibility to record an album with his idols. Bill said it was feasible.

"Baldacci wrote to Bill, in early January 2015, mentioning the talk they had 10 months before. Bill took two weeks, answered 'yes' and booked the sessions. So Ricardo Baldacci made a brief selection of songs, wrote down some arrangements and flew to NYC, 15 days later.

"Brothers in Swing was recorded in two sessions at Samurai Hotel Studios, Queens, NYC, filled with spontaneity and camaraderie. The album has the precious swinging tempos as its trademark. It showcases Baldacci's admiration to the music made by the Pizzarelli's who contributes with respect and joy to the Brazilian artist.
Baldacci, once again chose to keep the sound of the drumless trio (guitar/vocal, bass, piano) in most of the tracks, that are alternated with guitar/vocal and piano/vocal duos as well as solo guitar performances.

"The CD has 17 tracks, with Standards, two original compositions by Baldacci and one track co-written with Konrad and Martin. There is a great variety in stylistic approach featuring swinging numbers, ballads and even novelty songs. The track list includes tunes like In a Mellow Tone (Duke Ellington), Embraceable You (Gershwin), Route 66 (Bobby Troup) and the almost unknown Call the Police (Nat King Cole).
"Brothers in Swing is a joyful tribute to the classical Swing Jazz sound and is filled with outstanding moving performances. All in all, a great CD for lovers of the Great American Songbook." --from ricardobaldacci Online
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