“Miss Otis Regrets” is a song about a society woman who is scheduled to be lynched after she murders her unfaithful lover. It was written by Yale graduate and musical genius, Cole Porter, in 1934.
Porter (1891 – 1964), was one of the great American composers. He who wrote a number of standards known for their witty, urbane lyrics that appeared on Broadway: “Kiss Me Kate” and “Why Can’t You Behave” among them.
“Miss Otis Regrets” is a murder ballad which involves a reversal of roles: a white woman from aristocratic society is lynched after she shoots and kills her lover. Lynching was at the time very widely reported and discussed in the United States, but by far the majority of cases – perhaps thousands against Black men, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, were being carried out against working class male African Americans. The song reverses the gender, class and racial roles to produce an anti-lynching narrative.
Some background about “Miss Otis Regrets…”from Wikipedia: The song began during a party at the New York apartment of Porter’s classmate from Yale, Leonard Hanna. Hearing a cowboy’s lament on the radio, Porter sat down at the piano and improvised a parody of the song. He retained the referential song’s minor-keyed blues melody and added his wry take on lyrical subject matter common in country music: the regret of abandonment after being deceitfully coerced into sexual submission. Instead of a country girl, however, Miss Otis is a polite society lady.
Friend and Yale classmate Monty Woolley – and later Hollywood star – jumped in to help Porter “sell it”, pretending to be a butler who explains why Madam can’t keep a lunch appointment. In the previous 24 hours, Miss Otis was jilted and abandoned, located and killed her seducer, was arrested, jailed, and, about to be hanged by a mob, made a final, polite apology for being unable to keep her lunch appointment.
This performance was so well received that the song evolved, “work-shopped” with each subsequent cocktail party, many of which were at the Waldorf-Astoria suite of Elsa Maxwell, to whom Porter dedicated the song. The “smart set” that attended these parties, known to use wit or wisecracks to punctuate anecdotes and gossip, began using references to “Miss Otis” as a punchline for not showing up at events.
Here is the lyric of “Miss Otis Regrets…”
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
Madam
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
She is sorry to be delayed
But last evening down in Lover’s Lane she strays
Madam
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch todayWhen she woke up and found that her dream of love was gone
Madam
She ran to the man who had led her so far astray
And from under her velvet gown
She drew a gun and shot her love down
Madam
Miss Otis regrets, she’s unable to lunch todayWhen the mob came and got her and dragged her from the jail
Madam
They strung her upon the old willow across the way
And the moment before she died
She lifted up her lovely head and cried
Madam
Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch todayMiss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today
Ethel Waters recorded a popular version of the song in New York City in 1934, released before the London debut of Hi Diddle Diddle. This was the only Porter song that Waters ever recorded. Marlene Dietrich and Bette Midler did versions.
But my favorite by far is by Ella Fitzgerald in 1956. My opinion: Ella had the best female voice of the 20th century. Listen to Ella sing “Miss Otis Regrets” https://www.youtube.com ›
Michael D. Langan is the NBC-2.com Culture Critic.
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