Red Garters
1953


Listen

Highlights
  • Written as the title song for the 1954 Paramount Pictures film Red Garters, starring Rosemary Clooney, Guy Mitchell, Jack Carson, Pat Crowley, Gene Barry, Cass Daley and Joanne Gilbert.
  • Reb Randall rides into town seeking his brother’s murder in this raucous spoof of the western film genre filmed in the stylized fashion of a Broadway musical.
  • The soundtrack on Columbia Records was released as a ten-inch LP combining soundtrack recordings with studio re-creations conducted by Percy Faith and Mitch Miller.
  • The film was originally released in 3-D which, combined with the stylized sets and somewhat stagey acting gave it the effect of a Broadway musical filmed in the theater.
  • The stylized sets were inspired by an article in Life Magazine about the western Yellow Sky. The article showed the cast of Yellow Sky on sets which were clearly only false fronts, as are the sets in this film.
  • Red Garters was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

WRITTEN BY RAY EVANS & JAY LIVINGSTON
COPYRIGHT 1953


Recording History
Cast from Red Garters
Rosemary Clooney and The Paramount Pictures Orchestra, Rosemary Clooney: Tenderly, Sony Music Special Products, A 22542 conducted by Joseph J. Lilley
Lyrics
Spoken:
Hiya, Pete! Hiya Jim! Howdy, Joel! Howdy, Slim!
We know what you’ve been missin’ while you’ve been on the trail;
We’re mighty glad you’re back in town and keepin’ out of jail.
Put the red-eye down and drop your gun!
We’re gonna have a little fun, and it’s comin’ to ya.

Hey, all you roarin’ cowboys, you got a treat tonight;
Red garters on a dancing girl; what a purty sight!
Come on you busy drinkers, and blow away the foam;
Red garters on a dancing girl you’ll never see at home!

I’m feelin’ friendly, and full o’ spice;
But don’t grab the package
Or touch the merchandise!
Hey, all you men from Leadville, and you from Laramie,

Red garters on a dancing girl;
Got ‘em from Paree;
Red garters on a dancing girl!
Are what you came to see!

Started off in Yonkers
Dressed from head to toe;
Then I dropped my bustle off
South of Buffalo!

Took off a dozen petticoats
In Altoona, Penn.
It got so hot in Illinois,
Dropped another ten!

In Kansas let my hair down,
Same in I-o-way;
Fin’lly got in fightin shape
In Cal-i-for-ni-ay!

And here I wear the minimum,
Garters, hooray!
And to see the maximum
They come from miles away!

Hey, you tobacco drummers,
Who sez this town is tame?
Red garters on a dancing girl;
Are you glad you came!

I’ve never been to Broadway;
I just don’t fit the part;
Red garters on a dancing girl,
Now that’s what I call art!

Don’t tell the sheriff,
I’m breakin’ laws;
‘Cause you’ll find the sheriff
Leading the applause!

I know your eyes’ll bug out, your chest is gonna heave;
I’m gonna toss my garters out, snap ‘em on your sleeve!
Red garters on a dancing girl.
That’s the main event of entertainment.
Red garters on me!

RED GARTERS As sung by Rosemary Clooney in the Paramount Picture Red Garters, Famous Music Corporation, 1954. Words and Music by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans (Special Picture Release)