I MIGHT FALL BACK ON YOU (READY)

(Jerome Kern (m) / Oscar Hammerstein II (l)1927)

Sung by Marge and Gower Champion 
in the 1951 musical film ‘Showboat’

Also sung by:
Kathryn Grayson


Little girl, you are safe with me
I can protect what's mine
I am a sturdy maple tree
And you're my clinging vine.


Woods are just full of maple trees
Cedar and oak and pine
Let me look them over please
And then I'll let you know
If you have a show.

After I have looked around
The world for a mate
Then perhaps, I might fall back on you.

When I am convinced
That there is no better fate
Then I might decide that you will do.


I am just an average lad
Though no gift to womanhood
Some girls say I'm not so bad.


Others say you're not so good.
But if you are patient dear
And willing to wait
There's a chance I might fall back on you.

NOTES:

Several adaptations of Edna Ferber's 1926 novel 
have been made, most notably Showboat 1927, 1936, 1951, 
and several stage productions, one for TV in 1989. 
In fact a number of her works were also adapted for screen, 
Cimarron 1931 and Giant 1956. One of her novels won a Pulitzer 
Prize (So Big 1929) and an Academy Award Best Picture 
(Cimarron 1931).

 In the 1951 musical, the husband/wife sing and dance 
 team of Marge and Gower Champion were seen by MGM 
 as a more present-day answer to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Director: George Cukor
Leads: Kathryn Grayson / Howard Keel / Ava Garner / Marge & Gower Champion

One point of interest is that while the story is set in 
the 1880s, the paddlewheel which was expressly built for 
this film, did not resemble the ships of the day. It had 
smokestacks and was powered whereas the ships of the 1880s 
had no power and were pushed along by small boats.


(Contributed by David Story - February 2014)