Barbra Streisand, and a further list of singers, a triumph of
detachability within the show and in the song’s long after-
math.^5
Refrain
One reason Ella Fitzgerald could be just as convincing singing
“Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” over the radio as Julie and Mag-
nolia are singing it in Show Boatis that all of these singers re-
peat the same phrase at the end of each A section of music:
“can’t help lovin’ dat man” (the phrase with the blue note).
They must really mean it, they sing it so often. Ella does not
need a dramatic reason to sing about how she “can’t help lovin’
dat man.” “People will say we’re in love,” “I could have danced
all night,” “The guy’s only doing it for some gal”—the refrains
of popular songs are all around us, and there is no reason for
them to be there, no otherreason. The song gives reason
enough. There is something internal to the repetitions in a
song that justify the song’s projection, regardless of context.
What is this?
Words in a song pretend to refer to something outside the
song—the dying of a lovely flame, the special face one looks
for in a romance, the best meat pies in London—but the rep-
etition of the words several times brings the lyric around to
itself as another point of reference. It refers to itself as well as
to the other things. “I’m always true to you, darlin’, in my
fashion, / Yes, I’m always true to you, darlin’, in my way.”
This is heard twelve times when Bianca sings it in Kiss Me,
Kate(once in French), and for some reason it is a pleasure to
hear so often. Its view of love is sassy and cute, but there
is another reason for the pleasure. Refrain seeks to become
its own signifier through repetition, and this approach to
transparency—where the words and tune being heard refer to
THE DRAMA OF NUMBERS 109
(^5) See the analyses of this song in Forte, The American Popular Ballad of the
Golden Era, 1924– 1950 , pp. 55–59, and Knapp, The American Musical and the
Formation of National Identity, pp. 191–92.