"Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a popular song by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, written for the 1956 Broadway play ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play '' Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons ...

''. The song is sung by

Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...

flower girl

Eliza Doolittle Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play '' Pygmalion'' (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, ''My Fair Lady''. Eliza (from Lisson Grove, London) is a Cockney flower woman, who comes to Prof ...

and her street friends. It expresses Eliza's wish for a better life. In addition to pronouncing "lovely" as "loverly", the song lyrics highlight other facets of the Cockney accent that Professor Henry Higgins wants to refine away as part of his

social experiment A social experiment is a type of psychological or sociological research for testing people's reactions to certain situations or events. The experiment depends on a particular social approach where the main source of information is the point of v ...

. In the stage version it was sung by Julie Andrews. In the 1964 film version,

Marni Nixon Margaret Nixon McEathron (February 22, 1930 – July 24, 2016), known professionally as Marni Nixon, was an American soprano and ghost singer for featured actresses in musical films. She is now recognized as the singing voice of leading a ...

dubbed the song for Audrey Hepburn. Both Andrews' and Nixon's versions are available on the original cast and soundtrack albums, respectively, and Hepburn's original version is available in the specials for the DVD of the film. Andy Williams released a version of the song on his 1964 album, '' The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits''. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the song was used in television advertisements for

Commonwealth Bank of Australia The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busine ...

home

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

Covers and parodies

*On the children's show ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...

'' episode 3119, Oscar the Grouch meets a British Grouch named Prunella (a Grouch performed by

Louise Gold Louise Gold (born 1956) is an English puppeteer, actress and singer whose career has spanned more than four decades. She is best known for her work as a puppeteer on television and for roles in musical theatre in the West End. Gold was raised ...

), who expresses desire to go to the "perfect Grouch place", which doesn't exist, but she has imagined it several times. During the course of this fantasy, she sings "Wouldn't It Be Yucky", which parodies "Wouldn't It Be Loverly". *Peter Sellers included a comic version on his best selling album Songs for Swinging Sellers released in 1959.

References

External links

* , '' Julie Andrews on

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...

on March 19, 1961'' * , '' 2001 London revival'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wouldn't It Be Loverly 1956 songs Songs with music by Frederick Loewe Songs with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner Andy Williams songs Songs from My Fair Lady