Getting to Know You (song)

"Getting to Know You" is a show tune from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. It was first sung by Gertrude Lawrence in the original Broadway production and later by Marni Nixon who dubbed for Deborah Kerr in the 1956 film adaptation.

In this show, Anna sings the song as she strikes up a warm and affectionate relationship with the children and the wives of the King of Siam. This special song has also been on these following movies "It's Always Fair Weather", The King and I, Sleeping Beauty, The Wizard of Oz , The Wiz and the movie Getting to Know You!

This song is one of the few cases during the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership when Rodgers re-used a melody he had written for an earlier show and then discarded. In this case the melody was a tune he wrote for South Pacific, called Suddenly Lucky, which he originally intended for the character of Nellie to sing but replaced it with the song (I'm in Love with) a Wonderful Guy. Mary Martin, the star of South Pacific, who had proposed that Rodgers should cast Yul Brynner as the King, reminded Rodgers of this tune, and so Hammerstein wrote new lyrics to it.

Popular versions on record include Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby and Nancy Wilson. Leon Redbone sang the song in ads for the Chevrolet Geo.

In Popular Culture

• The song was featured in the film "The Addams Family" (1991).
• Jack Benny and Gizelle McKenzie performed this as a violin duet on "The Jack Benny Program".

References

• In Hammerstein's Words, 'Something Wonderful' - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98538331