You Can't Get a Man with a Gun

"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, by Irving Berlin. It was originally performed by Ethel Merman.

In the song, Annie Oakley sings about how a girl with talent as a sharpshooter nevertheless finds that her abilities do not help her attract men. She introduces herself with: "I'm quick on the trigger/with targets not much bigger/than a pinpoint I'm number one." The song is humorous in that she imagines different scenarios in which shooting a man will not make him fall in love with you, e.g. "A man may be hot/but he's not/when he's shot/oh, you can't get a man with a gun!" and "But you can't shoot a lover,/and use him for a cover/oh, you can't get a man with a gun!".

Recordings

• Judy Garland.
• Betty Hutton.
• Ethel Merman.
• Bernadette Peters.
• Suzi Quatro - starred as Annie Oakley in the 1986 West End (London) production of Annie Get Your Gun. She sings the song in the album Annie Get Your Gun - 1986 London Cast (1986), and the associated single "I Got Lost in His Arms" (1986).