South Pacific - Part 1 of 13

Buddy Holly is the Guy I Love

Today marks the beginning of a somewhat ambitious project.  A few months ago, as part of my "Not the Same Old Song" series, I did a version of the song There is Nothing Like a Dame from the musical South Pacific.  My friend Jerry (check out his blog Vintage Muscle Men) told me that he always thought someone should do a gay version of South Pacific.  I took it as a challenge.

For the next 13 days, I'm presenting my gay versions of songs from South Pacific.  The great music by Richard Rogers is unchanged, but I've altered the lyrics (with apologies to the spirit of Oscar Hammerstein II).  In some cases I've stuck very closely to Hammerstein's original words; in others I've put in references that you'll get if you know the original words, and in others I've made some substitutions that are quite a bit more naughty.

Because I don't have singers at my disposal to record my new lyrics, I have substituted wordless voices that I generated on my synthesizer, along with subtitles that you can follow along.  For some songs, I have used video clips from the classic 1958 movie South Pacific for the visuals.  For others (the more naughty ones), I have included some X-rated video clips.  You'll see.

I'm following the 1958 movie, not the 1949 Broadway musical, because the movie is the version that most people are familiar with.

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We begin the way the movie begins.  The setting is a military base on an island in the South Pacific in World War II.  Handsome Lieutenant Joe Cable is flying in for a special mission against the Japanese.  The pilot points out some local sights, ending with "That's where the Seabees play."   In the movie, this dissolves into the Seabees singing the first song, Bloody Mary is the Girl I Love.  In my version, it's Buddy Holly is the Guy I Love.  The visuals of the Seabees dancing are from the movie.

The original lyrics are:

        Bloody Mary is the girl I love

        Bloody Mary is the girl I love

        Bloody Mary is the girl I love

        Now ain't that too damn bad!

        Her skin is tender as a baseball glove

        Her skin is tender as a baseball glove

        Her skin is tender as a baseball glove

        Now ain't that too damn bad!

        Bloody Mary's chewing betel nuts

        She is always chewing betel nuts

        Bloody Mary's chewing betel nuts

        And she don't use Pepsodent!

As you'll see, I changed the words, but I tried to make them echo the original as much as possible.  For example, it was a short step from "betel nuts" to "big ol' nuts."  And, although the original lyrics were sarcastic, I think the chorus "Now ain't that too damn bad!" is the perfect introduction to this gay version of South Pacific: I love a guy.  Now ain't that too damn bad!

Notes: 

1. Yes, I know Buddy Holly was after World War II, so the reference is anachronistic, but I liked the name as an echo of the original words.

2. For those who didn't get my reference to goober peas: they're peanuts.  Goober Peas was a popular Southern Civil War song, but it still would have been known during World War II.  The first published version of the song credited the composer as P. Nut.